Millennium Falcon Build Journal No. 21: Issues 73-76

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 Trader Sam  |  November 20, 2016

The Arrival

Issue 73

Issue 74

Issue 75

Issue 77

It seems that the closer I get to the end of the build, more milestones keep popping up. Not only am I beginning another major part of the Millennium Falcon, but I am now 75% of the way through the build. Woo-hoo!

Issue 73 Parts

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Issue 74 Parts

Issue 75 Parts

Issue 76 Parts

Along with the shipment comes another fold-out blueprint for the mandibles and side panels.

Model Blueprint No. 2

Skipping Ahead: Upper Hull Greeblies

Greeblies 01

At this point in the build, I have accumulated several sprues with greeblies that attach to the upper hull. These get attached near the end of the build. Other than being easily damaged, I see no reason why I couldn’t put them on right now. I keep my model on a dedicated storage shelf (see Build Journal No. 9), and I treat it with care.

Greeblies 02

Greeblies 03

Greeblies 04

Most of the greeblies are pipes, and I used reference photos to find where they go. It wasn’t too hard since the parts are grouped together on the sprues depending on the areas of the model to which they are glued.

Greeblies 05

Greeblies 07

Greeblies 08

The rest of the greeblies fitted onto the starboard hall, the upper turret cover (note the turret guard which the bottom turret does not have), and the cockpit access tube.

Cockpit Access Tube

Before attaching the greeblies to the access tube, I had to assemble the two tube pieces by screwing them together. The parts were still loose, so I also glued them together.

With the access tube assembled, I dry-fitted it back onto the hull (it was awesome to finally see the cockpit attached to the upper hull). I glued on the greeblies where the end of the access tube meets the hull. I still wanted to be able to remove the access tube for future painting, so I made sure that the greeblies were either glued to the access tube or the hull. Then, I added the details to the rest of the access tube. It was a little fiddly, but I got it done.

Greeblies 06

In the last Build Journal, I mentioned that I did not screw down the turret cover because it would make removing the cutaway plating difficult. This left me with the dilemma of how to secure the turret cover while keeping it loose. Well, the upper hull greeblies seem to have solved that problem for me.

Upper Turret Cover

Two of the pipes (near the engine cover) extend all the way up the the turret cover (I didn’t glue them to the turret cover). Well, low and behold, the two pipes hold the back end of the turret cover down, allowing the front end to open. Problem solved . . . for the time being.

Mandible Assembly

Magnetize/Demagnetize Tool

While I was looking at magnets for an unrelated project, I found a handy-dandy tool for magnetizing screwdrivers. Magnetic screwdrivers are awesome at grabbing the little screws and holding onto them. I already had magnets but nothing strong enough to create a strong magnetic field. This little gem works like a charm, and it can demagnetize tools! What a great little find.

The assembly of the two halves of the starboard mandible was pretty straight-forward. It’s just a few metal frames topped with a few hull plates. There’s nothing challenging here.

Mandibles 01

Mandibles 02

Mandibles 03

Mandibles 04

Painting

The only bit of painting required were of the machine recesses for the mandible halves using the same process that I used on the upper hull recesses. Studying my reference photos of the actual filming model, I noted that the bottom recesses are much darker than the upper ones.

Recesses 01

Recesses 02

Recesses 03

Recesses 04

With the recesses painted, I screwed them to the mandible halves. I also looked at upcoming issues to glue the remaining sprue parts to the mandible.

Recesses 05

Mandibles 05

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