May the 4th be with you!

New updates will be on the way this year!  Sorry I've been away for so long!

Lower Access Pits

Part one in what will be a short saga of access pits!  The lower access pits are part of my model that wasn't part of the original Falcon as it appeared in 1977.  Before they added the forward landing gear boxes for The Empire Strikes Back the lower access pits occupied a more central location on the lower saucer as seen in this image:

This original design was reflected in the full sized set pictured below, but if you look carefully behind the hoses you'll see a metal support.  

The weight of the mandibles (as well as the cockpit in the case of this set) required more support than the single forward landing gear could provide so when constructing the set for The Empire Strikes back, two additional forward landing gear boxes were added to the design and ultimately the 5 foot filming miniature.

This change in design changed the look of the lower access pits which were moved outward and thinned out a bit.

Here are some renders of my lower access pits:

And here is the part ID map:

I had a hard time finding clear reference for the port side lower access pits so a lot of the parts in there were eyeballed to the best of my ability.  As I uncover more about these parts I will continue to update.  Also you'll notice some of the McLaren parts are mirrored from one side to the other.  This was a tactic I used to fill space in areas I was unsure about or had poor reference for.

As always here's an image of our progress so far:

Thank you for reading!  I also want to mention that with the help of Lee Malone of Rogue Studio Productions I will be updating some part ID maps.  Tonight I've updated the Dish Greebles.

Next time: Upper access pits

Jaws Part III: Upper Jaw

The Falcon's upper jaw is one of the more detailed parts of the miniature, with many kitbashed model parts as well as a lot of brass tubing bent into an array of pipes.  In my opinion it's one of the more memorable and iconic parts of the ship.  Here are some renders of my Falcon's upper jaw:

 

 

The beauty  renders above contain a mistake on the upper jaw that I corrected for the part map below.  If you can spot it, let me know in the comments below!  I don't have a prize to offer but you would get extra credit toward your final grade!

As you can see, there were a lot of kits used in this area.  Most of the larger pieces are from various tanks but there is a good amount of parts from the Ferrari 312B kit sprinkled throughout.  I think my favorite pieces to model were the two missile tubes from the M36 Jackson kit.

Here's a render of our progress:

Thanks for reading! 

Next time: Forward Lower Access Pits!

Jaws Part II: Lower Jaw

With the inside of the jaws finished let's move on to the lower jaw greebles, the Millennium Falcon's goatee if you will.  Here's a render of the Falcon's lower jaw:

The lower jaw has a big landing gear box in the middle of it which splits the greebles into two groups one toward the front and another toward the back.

I had to take some artistic license with my build because my landing gear box layout favors the set blueprint from The Empire Strikes Back so there is actually a missing greeble on my model that I wasn't able to fit.  It's a part from the Tamiya 1:35 Kampfwagen Ausf. F/G.  A couple of other greebles in this area also come from that kit.  You can see it in this image:

Here is the part map for the lower jaw:

And as always here's a render of our progress so far:

The front is starting to take shape down here!  Thanks for reading!  I'll be covering the upper jaw very soon!

Jaws Part I: Inner Jaws

I wasn't quite ready to talk about the saucer trenches so I'm going to start talking about the Falcon's jaws, which are the rectangular boxes on the top and bottom of the ship right in between the mandibles.  When you think about it, the Falcon is much more insect-like than bird-like.  Here's a render of the inside of the Falcon's jaws:

When modelers at ILM were kitbashing the Millennium Falcon and other ships for Star Wars, there were certain times where they made molds of assemblies of parts so they could reuse them in various places.  The inner jaws contain the first example of one of these "plate" assemblies.  As you can see in the following two renders, the upper and lower inner jaws are essentially the same.

This plate assembly is known as the 8Rad plate because the large rectangular part in the center is from the Tamiya 1:35 Schwerer Panzerspähwagen (8Rad) Sdkfz232 model kit.

This part in particular was used on many models in Star Wars, and if you've been paying attention, it's actually been used 3 times on my Falcon so far (though extensively trimmed down).  It can also be found in the trenches of the 3 foot Star Destroyer...

And here it is on the Nebulon B Medical Frigate.

Here's a render of my 8Rad plate:

And here is the kit part breakdown for the inner jaws:

The back wall of the inner jaws is the tank body of a Tamiya 1:35 Sheridan which looks like this:

As you can see the dimensions are a bit different and that's because the model makers cut out quite a bit from the middle of the tank body.  Another cut down Sheridan body is used on the bottom of the Falcon, but we'll get to that later!

Here's a render of our progress so far:

Thanks for reading!  Next time we'll be looking at the surface greebles of the jaw boxes.

P.S.  I've found some updated part IDs so I have updated the docking ring and dish part maps.

Rogue Studio Productions

Last year at Star Wars Celebration I met a model maker named Lee Malone of Rogue Studio Productions who built his own studio scale model of the 5 foot Millennium Falcon.  Here's a Star Wars show Live video from the event showcasing his Falcon

I really can't say enough about how awesome both Lee and his Falcon are.  He couldn't be a nicer guy, and by the same token his Falcon also couldn't be nicer!  He sent me this video today that I felt I had to share especially since we're in the thick of talking about greebles and kitbashing!  It offers a closer look at his model and some of the model kits that went into the kitbashing of the Millennium Falcon.  Enjoy!

Apparently this is only part of a longer video that will come out soon and you better believe I'll be updating this post when it does arrive.  In the meantime be sure to check out Rogue Studio's facebook page for WIP photos of the build.  I've learned a lot in the past couple of years about the Falcon but I proudly kneel before Lee who is a true master!

Mandibles Part IV: Lower Mandibles

It's been a long time, but I'm back!  I've spent the last several months recording lectures for an online  hard surface modeling course, but that's irrelevant to our beloved Falcon!  Finally we are at the end of our Mandible Greeble Saga!  Here are some renders of the lower mandibles:

And here is the kit part breakdown for the lower mandibles:

The bottom definitely isn't as detailed as the top, but some pretty interesting parts were used.  The one piece I was surprised I couldn't find an ID for was the tank deck in the front starboard access pit.  I need to do a bit more digging there.

Finally a render of our progress thus far:

The mandibles are now complete!  Thanks for reading as always!

Next time:  Jaws!