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.