Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks! That and the engine glow were what I really wanted to focus on.

I am a manager at my job and regularly put it 50 - 60 hours. So most of my work comes on a day off, and I spend a lot of time just enjoying a drink and staring at my models, deciding what I want to do next. My favorite part of building is being able to just relaxe and only work on something I want to work on.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Agreed. This is the coolest model I've ever seen

Thanks!

Thanks!

@@robbuildsstuff.9332 What led lighting did you use? All custom built, right?

Have you started working on your Falcon kit yet? 5 bucks says yours will probably be better then mine, all the resources are out there to accomplish anything you want.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Was worth it! Looks great upstairs in my media room. (Which seems to be turning into a model showroom.....) The first model I ever built was when I was sick as a kid and my dad got me a tank. Don't remember which one it was (30 years ago). But I enjoyed it, I might get into another one if I can find the right inspiration. I follow Laser Creation World, and he makes me a bit jealous with all of his extra tools. kzfaq.info/love/8PPpb-2kFmb5zgqL7EmAmw, should check his work out!

Thanks! I really enjoyed it, and as a first model ever, I hope you do too! This is a tough one as a first model, but only because of the size and amount of parts. Don't be afraid to mess up, just enjoy it, and if you have to fix something, that is a new thing to learn. When you get done, send me a pic I would love to see it!

Thanks!

Thanks!

@@robbuildsstuff.9332 Can you sell it? :P

@@ianmayer2951 Wouldn't want to, this is the first Falcon I ever built, it will stay with me. If I ever build a second, then I may have to reevaluate.

Thanks!

Thanks! If you get onto shapeways, the author of those parts was 308bits. He has a lot of great stuff. It is pricey though, so I invested into 3d printing so I can save money in the long run by printing my own.

@@robbuildsstuff.9332 Did 308bits sell you the 3D files so that you could print them? Thanks.

@@toddcouch1579 No, I purchased them off of Shapeways.com

Thanks!

Thanks!

Bet you could if you tried! Thanks!

Yeah, none of my models are 100%...or even close to it. I recently finished a studio scale y-wing I might make a video on, but it was based off of a y-wing in a book. I like taking a bit of my own license, some of it is wrong memories from when I was a kid watching the movies, or things I just felt right for the scale or 'look' I was going for to display the model. One of the problems with building any model, is you either have to be very specific which one it is, ie: 5 foot tesb, 3 foot tesb/anh, star trek pilot 1, star trek pilot 2, etc. When I was a kid, I didn't care about the differences so much as the feel. I don't make the models for shows or to sell or anything, I make them for me, and they sit around my house, and that is what I enjoy. I have invested in a lot of star wars reference books, so maybe I will try a very accurate one at some point. But for me, when something goes from fun to tedious I tend to lose interest.

Thanks!

Thanks!

That was only the 12th model I have built. So you can do it, all you have to do is try. There are a lot of great people out there with tutorials and vids and willing to answer questions. Thanks!

Thanks! There are a few things I would do differently now...but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I think it is a great kit, and honestly, the extra money I put into the 3d parts was a lot...plan on easily doubling the cost of this kit unless you print yourself. And also the motors I would not add back in...or..I would spend a lot more money for quieter motors. Also, I would need to find a better way to balance them. I did a rubber seat for each motor all the way around. To dampen the sound. But they can become unbalanced and hit the inside of the grates. Either way, between the sound and the balance issues I would need a better solution. I just leave them off now...and it was a lot fo work and expense. Even on, they are hard to see, really wasn't worth it.

Thanks! I appreciate that. Now keeping the dust off.....

lol Thanks!

Yeah I almost got the deagostini kit instead, but for me it came down to, was I after just size, or was I after something I could do more my own thing with? I have seen a ton of great deagostini builds, and they have a lot of options, but I felt the bandai kit was more my style.

@@robbuildsstuff.9332 Yeah, I have the DeAgo and its great but harder to make a display for it. (I put mine in a table)

I tried to add the right amounts of yellowing and rustiness. There is a lot of variation between the different studio props, but I just tried to age it up in all the crevices.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks! Yeah, the parts for the cockpit I got from 308 Bits on Shapeways. They are pricey, but the are also amazingly well done. The holes are actually built into the 3d print, so no drilling. And yes, each one is a fiber strand. I did make one larger hole in the ceiling so I could mount a light above to further illuminate the cockpit. I also just masked off the bars of light on the sides so a few SMD's on the inside of the wall would glow through. Same for the little map on the back wall, and then I used a part of the decal from the kit to cover it to give the right effect.

@@robbuildsstuff.9332 Thanks a lot - may try some of those tips.

Thanks!

I did actually, but I stuffed a lot of electronics in there. I am teaching myself how to do this stuff as I go, and I ended up making 4 circuit boards on the inside. One was arduino, then 3 additional power boards, red lights and motors take a lot more juice then the arduino had available so I had to use gates and make my own power boards. I am sure there is an easier way, but I am schooling myself off of how to vids and trial and error, so there wasn't a lot of room left on the interior. At least not without cutting out even more of the interior then I already had. But trust me, I looked a lot at some of the mods for the deagostini falcon and thought hard about it. Maybe on the next one I build. Right now I am building a 48"? blockade runner. So I am learning to minimize electronics.

I dont have the code anymore (It was on an old laptop then I have since upgraded.) I am not sure I can pull it off of the board now...something I will have to look into. But as a starting point, I downloaded the tutorials from arduino and just basically rewrote one that I liked to fit my purpose. the light colors were easy to readdress, the timing of the pulsing is what took the longest, but it wasn't hard. Find a pattern you like, then just play with the timing lines. I bet you will probably find an effect you like even better.

Thanks, Fiber optics are great for giving a natural variance in brightness, and an arduino board will let you control LED brightness, you can get about any effect you want.

15 bucks an hour

@@leew8812 And, how many hours?

Dunno, I can say I spent probably close to 1.5k on everything. Without my time. But seriously, everything I did I learned on the fly, so I am sure you could do it too. I spent twice as much on 3d printed parts and photo etch then I did on the kit. Now I have my own 3d resin printers, so I look forward to saving some money with my future projects.

Yeah, and with the Bandai kit, you can pick out a ton of them without a problem. Sometimes it was literally LOL funny when I found something I wasn't expecting.

I don't blame you, but sometimes saving up for a special project isn't so bad.

Thats a complicated question. I would start with looking up some reference shots/stills from the movie, and counting out the lights and positions, I am sure there are schematics of it as well. Then it is just a matter of drilling holes for light to mount and setting up power/control for the lights. I know that sounds over simplified, but that is the basic gist. There are a lot of good tutorials on how to use LED lights on youtube, and if that is all the lighting you want to do, you can even make the lights run in a closed circuit without a controller. Just a battery. I am sure you can accomplish this with just a little how to on LED lighting videos.

Thanks! I will take 98% lol. I purposely didn't rewatch the movies or look at reference shots for this build. I wanted to build my favorite ship straight from how I remembered it from when I was a kid. So that is what I did. I am sure there are a lot more inaccuracies, but I am ok with those, when I look at the finished kit, it reminds me of the ship I love.

Sure, although I am not sure exactly which parts you are curious about. For the cockpit: I used one 1/8 led white, with fiber optics .025 for control panels up front, and the painted transparent colors on some of them. (I almost never use colored leds/micro smds) I mounted the light on the bottom of the cockpit. For the side walls, I filled in the holes after painting with fiber optics .025, and ran those to the back wall, I made plate to cover the inside of the back wall and mounted 10 micro smds there to fill ing the back wall and the fibers. Then to the inside of the hull I mounted about 3 micro smds on each side where the bars of light are. One again, painting the switches with different transparents. A few of the fiber strands throughout I ran to a couple of smds and light blocked them and set them on different circuits. Then the same for the hallway, mounted smds behind the wall where the greenish lights are about head level, and then some on the inside of the hull under where the floor grates are. same thing for the gunwells, except I had to drill the holes. lights for the headlamps on the front of the mandibles, and then worklights between the mandibles on the main hull. And then strip lighting for the engines. And then the landing lights. And then the red warning lights. And the landing gear lights. So I ended up with a separate circuit for: 1: Landing gear 2: Engines 3: Headlights 4: Landing lights 5: Landing lights (Yes twice, one was for a flickering one at the back to make it look like it was going to fail.) 6: Cockpit 7: Cockpit (Flashing) 8: Cockpit (Different rate of flashing) 9: Gunwells (A few strands of leds tied to the cockpit flashers) 10: Warning lights 11: exhaust fans Everything on a different circuit and then I used an arduino uno and programed all of my different circuits. I tied a couple circuits together, to turn on and off (All the cockpit and gun wells are tied to one on/off. Both landing lights are tied to one on/off) I had to run a secondary set of boards for power and use transistors as gates for power. I made one power board for the cockpit, one for the engines, and one for the red warning lights. and one board for the engine fans. (They take a lot of juice). Everything else runs off of the power from the uno board. This was my first time doing any of this, at this level, but I found lots of tutorials on line and was able to figure it out. probably spent about 100 bucks plus on parts, but I have enough parts now to make 20 models with lighting like this if I want. Much cheaper to do it yourself, and you can get the exact look you want. Let me know if I can be of any help! Good luck, make sure you let us know when you are done!

@@robbuildsstuff.9332 thanks for the detailed reply. Where did you find the tutorials?

@@bryanbbarnes Just searched in google for what I was looking for...I didn't bookmark them. And the tutorials are saved on a different computer. But dronebotworkshop.com/transistors-mosfets/ that one looks close to what I did for the transistors, and the one for the engines is actually a tutorial on the arduino website for fire effect with strip lighting. I just slowed it way down and played with the colors and flicker setting for the engine effect. (Plus using the physical effect from some plastic cartridges that hold drill bits). But I basically just googled everything. and then played around until I got the effect I wanted. Arduino is a lot of fun, and you will come across lots of ideas as you learn as well. If you really want the cheat, let me know, and I will give you the code I use and specifics on lights etc, that I used. But that would just be a copy of what I did. I am sure with a little work you could do better then I did.

@@robbuildsstuff.9332 thanks very much

@@robbuildsstuff.9332 If you could give me the codes it would be a great place to start and I could go from there and play with the settings. If you find your tutorials on the other computer please post. Who did you buy all your electronics from? online? what kind of motors did you use for the fans?

They're the same 1/72 scale, so if replicas are similar, it should work

I have been trying to find a slave 1 garage kit for a bit, but haven't had much luck. It is on the list though. When I can get one, I will build it.

Haven't yet, not sure anyone would want to wait for me to take my time building something. The right circumstances might allow it though.

Sure, besides what came with the kit, I also purchased the GreenStrawberry photoetch. I almost always use their photoetch, I find the quality of the product very nice. And if you can't find what you need at a local shop, their international shipping is fast and it won't break the bank.

@@robbuildsstuff.9332 I know them well. Very good quality indeed. How would you compare them to Para Grafix?

@@DavidMiller-tl5gn Cant really say, I have quite a bit of para grafix photo etch that I havent used yet for 350 TOS and refit enterprises. When I get around to building those I will have a better opinion. I found the Greenstrawberry stuff when I built my first model, the bandai atat. And I have just always used them since. Another adventure to learn something. I havent been doing this that long. this falcon was only like my 11th model. So I have lots to learn, and to play with.

@@robbuildsstuff.9332 I have Para waiting in my shopping kart on eBay but didn't fire on it. I am thinking of order from GreenStrawberry. Most likely will. Great work on the falcon by the way. If you have the chance, pickup the Star Wars Blue Print book. Original blue prints from 1 - 6. Very good book and helpful on some referencing.

@@DavidMiller-tl5gn I will check it out, I have Star Wars Chronicles, that has a lot of great reference in it as well.

Lol...suck up a lot of juice and even with my extra power boards they dim the lights on the kit. At least they are silent. I don't turn them on...it was a complete waste of time for the kit, but a great learning experience and now I have the knowledge and tools if I ever need to use that stuff for anything else.

No point if you're having to sacrifice 'accuracy' to get them to fit.

Cause I haven't ever seen it done, and I like to try new things. I am glad I did it for the knowledge and experience I gained, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else. But now I have done it and learned. Besides, part of the enjoyment and fun for this stuff is learning and experimenting. Extra knowledge doesn't hurt. And I am the only one who has to look at it everyday. and you don't know they ave motors if I don't turn 'em on. lol

I agree with you, BUT after your done building and painting it would probably end up being one of the prides of your collection

You would be paying AT LEAST $1600 mass-market, painted up replica prop and it likely wouldn't be better than this. It takes time but if you know what you're doing or pre-plan you'll save a lot of money doing things yourself! There's satisfaction in building things with your own hands you don't get by buying them pre-made. There's frustration, too, and a lot of money spent in getting appropriate but the good news is those tools can be reused for many projects so they're an investment for the future, too.

@@AvengerII Yup, everything you said. Nothing for me to regret here.