Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

[Grail]

Hey model junkies!
New project I have started. Just setting up the wip thread. I'll mod this thread and add more wip info and pics Sunday.
Stay tuned.
Cheers.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

[fulcy]

What's that, some sort of spaceship?

[Sticky Fingers]

Looks like some sort of flying hamburger, with an olive stuck on it's side...

[Grail]

OK. My new project.
The Falcon is such an iconic ship. I always knew I would have to do one sooner or later. Fine molds release of the 1/144 convinced me to do a custom version. I haven't thought of a cool ship name yet.

The first part of the build photos got lost in a computer failure. There are a couple more pics as usual,and I explain a little more here. http://animoceans.com/?page_id=1356 For our purposes on this forum, you really didn't miss too much, and I will fill in any blanks I can with pics and explanations. The kit is actually really great in my opinion. It’s very detailed, and it fits together very smoothly with very little cleanup. The plastic is easy to work with. After further inspection I found the detail to be cool, but still missing a few things and all the piping is just plastic ridges.

This will not be an accurate Falcon for originality sake. I will try to keep it in the SW universe as far as custom detail,and I think it will be lit up. I’m going to attempt to be the 1st to mod this kit in a way that,(to my knowledge) has never been done.
Hopefully it will turn out ok.
Hope you guys enjoy it.

The start of this build is removing the ridges and adding new piping in it’s place. Also using pla plate and various plastic to add detail.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

The internals have a light mixed alclad layer mostly for coverage and depth later.(some of the missing photos.)

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

Adding detail to rear mechanics.Cut off the plastic end pipe to replace with stationary pipe on the ship.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

Gunz.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

More Gunz. Those tiny barrel holes were tough.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

Here you can see the stationary piping part that will match with the rear mechanics modded earlier.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

This is how tiny the pla squares for extra surface detail are. My technique to place them is to lightly touch the tip of the knife onto the cut square and then lightly the touch other side to a glue puddle and apply it without extra glue making a mess.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

Since model glue won't stick to itself. I use an old oxidized blade and I put a bunch of glue on it. I use it to rub any excess glue off (*while it is fresh*)and it works great. Only a little polish sand is needed after instead of huge sanding marks.

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

Next up. Rear engine mods and maybe some lighting. Gotta be on point at work this week,so I will try to post when I can.
Cheers guys.

[nkvd]

Holy whole in a doughnut batman, that is some small scale work!!!  But looks great so far. Keep up the good work, looking forward to later posts. Or as Chewy would say, "Blllllrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh eeeerrrrrrgggggghhhhhh aaaaarrrrrrr!" 

[smalldose]

I agree.  That model is so small.  I didn't think it was that size.  Nice work so far.

[FichtenFoo]

Looking good so far. Interested to see what you plan to mod.

[Steel-Mark]

Very interesting :)
Details, Details and more Details! Great Job

[Sticky Fingers]

I hope the added details won't suffer from the mods you have in mind. Anyway, neat detailing you're doing there, have fun with those pla squares! And don't sneeze...

[tmajor]

Nice detail work. Looking forward to watching this progress.

Am I detecting a shift in the direction of this site? Seems to be a lot of Ships and Armour as opposed to Mobile Suits of late :)

[Grail]

Thanks for the comments! Appreciate the feedback. 

"Blllllrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh eeeerrrrrrgggggghhhhhh aaaaarrrrrrr!"

I love how sounds look in words. Nice.

Interested to see what you plan to mod.

Well,I DID think I was about 30% of the way done modding, but NOW... Jeez...    I should use better terminology.

I'm sort of including the detail step in the term mod. I just meant I would detail it and mod it in a way that I think hasn't been done. The actual mod step Is not entirely different from others. I'm just lighting up the engines in an original way if I can. That's the the only real mod I think.

The engines actually look really detailed. If you weren't lighting it up,and just dirtied up the little squares they would look awesome.(Internet pic to simulate the one I lost)

Fine Molds 1/144 SW Milennium Falcon-Custom Mod.

The part is just too small to get any type tool in there to cut it out without wrecking it.. I have cut out and scratch built part of that rear piece so it can be lit up,but still see the external bar/grate pattern etc. I have yet to see this done on the 1/144 in the same way,with the additional details
Some have been lit,but just entirely cut out at the rear. I wish I could show the variations I came up with. I had a couple cool looks in my opinion,but I think those pics are lost. I like what I chose though,and I'll post that as soon as I can slow down from work.
Hope you all enjoy what I did/do with it.

Overall,it is a nice sized little kit. Mainly I'm trying to do this part as a challenging baby step to get me better at scratch building,but yeah,parts are really tiny
Normally I like the kits I do to be waaay bigger,but I have no room right now and a bunch of smaller ones around. 
Off hand I would say the smallest stuff I have worked with. As for not sneezing..
dude,I have totally lost at least double the amount of detail pieces as what is on the kit now,and I haven't even sneezed yet. 
As for the forum direction change. I like to build/paint lot's of different things. I have become pretty addicted thanks to this site.
Mech and Robots will always rule,and I pretty much only post here,so there's much more of that to come from me. 
 "I dig giant robots.We dig giant robots.chicks dig giant robots"
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FQcTeM4r7Zc/S7IBv00-slI/AAAAAAAAADA/UudbJZw0HbA/s1600/MEAGA.bmp
Hope that novel fills everybody in. I need to condense my thoughts 
Cheers guys. Thanks again for the feedback.

[FichtenFoo]

Can't you take a dremmel tool and grind away from behind the part? That way the outward face looks fine, but the holes would be visible as well. Depending on the thickness of the part it shouldn't be too hard.

By mods, I thought you meant you were making an all-new ship design. Semi-bummed now!

[Grail]

I tried a test and the dremmel melts the plastic on even the low setting. (It's very small)I have a good dremmel too. It probably could be done that way,but it just seemed too much risk of wrecking the whole part.

I still think with my detail,new additions,and mod efforts,it's headed in a cool original un-done direction. Can't do much about expectations.
Cheers.

[FichtenFoo]

The trick when dremmeling something like this is to... "bounce" the tool. Don't try to do it all at once. More like a short sliding tap tap tap tap. Like scraping with the tool. That way the plastic doesn't get too hot and the bit gets some spinning cool time. If you're scrapping the part anyway, might as well try right? The bit type is important too. Try a small round bit similar to the "100" here, but the one thats only about 1-2mm wide.

http://www.pierfishing.com/resources/images/shimano_charter_special_rebuild/hispctr1.jpg

[Grail]

Hmm... That makes sense. Thank you for the tip!
Yeah,the gap between those little bars on the rear is only about 1- 2 mm wide so I just couldn't work in there without touching the sides. I ended up cutting by hand. I wish I would have thought about going at it from the back earlier. That seems like it would work best. 
(unfortunately I have already done it a different way)
I have definitely neeeded to figure out some other ways to dremel.
I have this great dremmel but I use it less and less because I can't be precise without melting or just wrecking my kits.
Obviously I need some technique tips  Thanks again for those.
This will be a lesson I learn for the future.  I'll post some pics tomorrow as I am off work for a day on Sun.
Respek 

[FichtenFoo]

If you have a Harbor Freight, pick up a cheap variety case of random rotary bits. I use mine more and more for different things now. I even used a q-tip in it for buffing some chrome on my Vincent build. LOL!

[Grail]

I'm not sure what Harbor Freight is, but I do have the bits you mentioned. Lot's of them. I got them from a sort of "case lot" store before I moved.
I just could never figure out the best applications. This will help 
LOVE the buffing idea. I never thought of that either,and I just realized I have all kinds of bits for that too.
Thanks again.

[Ezechiel]

Very, very cool detailing!

[FichtenFoo]

Again, test the buffing on scrap. Even the buffers will melt plastic if not "bounced".

[Grail]

Roger that.
Thanks Ez and funky monkey!