Millenium Falcon 9

Today has been interesting to say the least.

I stopped by RadioShack this afternoon for a case for the batteries for the falcon. What happened to things being easy? I went in, grabbed my case and a 4-pack of AA's. Neville, the annoyingly incompetant sales clerk talked me into getting 3 more packs of batters. 4-for-10. not bad. Well apprently after i paid and all Neville made a mistake and the batteries i bought were NOT on sale. So of course i'mnot gonna pay for em. I spent the next 10 minutes waiting there while 3 other clerks came over and tried to figure out how to refund all this.

By this time i just wanted to leave and didn't wind up buying anything. And to top it all off, Radioshack doesn't sell wire. Speaker wire, sure. But what about good old electric wire?

So i went home, cooled off and went back a few hours later. After all i needed the battery case to begin wiring things correctly.

And behold the fruits of my labors. I figure that 4 AA's running the few LEDs that I have will be sufficiant enough to power the Falcon. The case for the battery fits perfect in the rear of the ship between the two landing gear bays. The whole thing will run off of one battery pack with an on/off switch.

Not too bad so far I think.

The blue glow from the engines is actually looking pretty damned good. Instead of direct light i'm going to angle the LEDs a little to spread the light and avoid harsh glares which you'll see still show up in pictures.

Right now I only have one blue engine light in. Its a slow process of making sure they're alligned correctly as well as gluing them in. I've contructed little stands to that the lights can be positioned at the right height behind the plastic shield.

Top view. You can see the tape holding on the front of the cockpit while the glue drives. There is a small LED inside the cockpit that will more than likely be overpowered by all the others. As well, there is one in the center under the gun turrets. Currently its not plugged in. But when complete, light will be seen through the small circular windows on top and bottom.

Here you can also see the spill from the blue of the engines. The model isn't completely glued together, so there is going to be tons of spill. Once all the lights are in and up and running i'll be able to seal it shut. The only access point will be the top engin turret which I am not securingits going to be the only way to turn the ship on and off as well as replacing batteries.

And of course some nice darker shots so you can get a look at what the lights will look like glowing in the darkness.

I think this is my favorite one so far. Granted its a bit blurry, but you can see some detail of the ship with the lights fired up.

Alright. Thats all for now. Within the next week or two I hope to have it all up and glowing. After that its just a matter of sealing off any cracks or seams to reduce spill light leaking through.

Enjoy.

Millenium Falcon 8

Engines!

One of the most notable aspects of the Millenium falcon aside from its hamburger shape is the glowing blue strip of light in the rear. That glowing blue of the engines and hyper drive. Now the model comes with 2 strips of clear plastic which are apparently supposed to be painted blue and glue in the rear curve of the ship. 2 things about this. 1, that would look like crap. And 2, that would look like crap. So i sat down trying to figure out how i could simulate that glow in a more realistic way. Some modellers out there have talked about their use of light sheet and such, but i am pretty sure i can do it for cheaper. So first thing i got was a clear/frosted 3-ring binder.

I took one of these inexpensive folders, you know the kind. The ones you use for subjects in school that you don't care too much about. Well i cut out a strip approximately a foot long and an inch and a half high which will be glued into the back of the ship. Eventually this will have blue leds behind it illuminating the engines. A few tests have shown that the frosted plastic helps to diffuse the light from the leds, so it should give a nice even glow.

After making a few more measurements and cuts, the strip for the engines is ready to be glued in place. Its not going to provide any real structural re-inforcement, but the clear plastic pieces that came with the model weren't going to provide much more. You can see how this material picks up the flash from the camera. Its reflecting, but the flash is being diffused just a tad. I'm thinking this is going to work out really well.

Here is the piece being held in place with painters tape. (painters tape has come in handy throughout this whole project) Next will be to build some kind of light box behing the engines to help direct the light, but also the keep blue light from spilling into the rest of the model. In this pic you can see some of the spagetti of wires as well as the lower gun turret with does indeed turn 360 degrees. The upper turret will have the Luke Skywalker character that i painted with orange and white like the X-Wing fighters. Through the glass you'll be able to see him when the interior of the model is lit up.

And here is the back end of the Millenium Falcom with the Engine piece in place. Still drying and clamped down with tape as you can see. As of now the landing gear is going to be set so that you can take it off, but this means the doors to the landing gear will open on their own accord. Something else to address later on.

Lightsabre 1

So I have decided to try my hand at replica making. So while I am elbow deep in wiring the lights for the millenium falcon, I'm here carving away. I have no idea how i should have begun, or what materials i should be using. So of course all of this is my best first attempt.

I started with a piece of styrofoam. Nothing fancy, just something of enough size that i could whittle down to the right shape. After making some markings here and there i started slicing away chunks of foam until i got it down to a somewhat recognizable shape and size. I think in the end its going to end up too thick, but again....first attempt.

like a weird monolith from 2001..

So as you can see its looking much more like that hilt of a generic lightsabre out of the Star Wars galaxy. I decided to model if off of pretty much all sabres. So there is a little of Kenobi's from the original films as well as Luke's. And of course a little of my own invention.

It started out with a little more detail. But as I am going I'm learning that foam is not the best medium to work with. No matter how sharp the knife. Its also horribly light. I'm hoping once the layers of paint and such are added it will give it a little more weight. And of course if i decide to illuminate it in some way. I'm contemplating putting something on the very top where the blade would emminate from.

Here is a better view of the finger grip section on the lower half.

And the other side. The little section that rises on the left side, i'm debating on putting a strip of leds in it. There was something there in the movies, so we'll see.

After i carved it out of the foam and got the best shape i could. As well as creating some of the detail, the next step was to give it some strength. After all its foam. I mean, come on. My trip to pearl paint yielded me modelling paste. Its just really thick elmers glue which is sandable. The only thing with this is that its glue. And as we all know, cause as kids we all glued our hands, its a bit rubbery when dry. So its taking forever to sand and smoothe down. I think its going to be a coat of this and then a coat of something thicker with more weight to it before I even think of priming it.

So this is my lightsabre. I started this several months ago. Why i'm finally posting I don't know. But hope you enjoy. I'll continue to update as the weather gets nicer and I can actually work on it outside.