169 replies to this topic

[Masked Builder]

Sounds like a good project!  I shall be keeping my eyes on this as I'll probably do this myself when I've got the money for it....

[Lego Otaku]

bkfountain, on 06 April 2012 - 07:27 PM, said:

I bricklinked one of these, and just started building it. I spent $916, mostly because I had never used bricklink before. I can see where I could have shaved lots of money off, since shipping killed me with over 30 orders and I also bought around 500 extra pieces. Regardless, it was a fun learning experience, and I got an awesome display set out of it.

For anyone interested, here's the changes I made due to price or rarity of pieces..

31 White Plate 2 x 2 with Pin Type 2 (2476b) - 14 white, 6 light gray, 9 dark bluish gray, 2 yellow
41 Light Bluish Gray Technic, Pin Connector Round (Pin Joiner Round) (75535) swapped with slot version (62462)
1 qty 6 x 14 dark red plate (3456) in red
28 qty (4095) 6.6L bar swapped with 28 qty 6L bar (63965)
60 qty Light Bluish Gray levers (298c05) swapped with light gray (298c03)
21 qty Light Bluish Gray wedge 3x2 right (6564) swapped with 63 plate 3x2 right (43722) x3 for wedge
21 qty Light Bluish Gray wedge 3x2 left (6565) swapped with 63 plate 3x2 left (43723) x3 for wedge
1 Light Bluish Gray Round Dish 10 x 10 Inverted with Spokes Pattern (50990px3) swapped with 1 dish (50990)
2 Light Bluish Gray boat rigging (47996) in black
1 Technic Flex-System Hose (75c08) in black
2 Technic Flex-System Hose (75c12) in dark grey
2 ChromeSilver Plate 1 x 1 Round (4073) in metallic silver
16 yellow Technic Brick 5 x 5 Right Angle with Holes (32555) in black

I tried to only cut corners on internal pieces, but those boat rigging pieces just cost so much. You don't even notice the technic right angle pieces, which I assume Lego only included in yellow for an easier build. Taking three of the 3x2 wedge plates to build one 3x2 brick wedge was a simple way around those being hard to find for a reasonable price. The levers are too small to stand out in light gray, but I also bought 60 of the black levers with light bluish bases so I could swap out that lever piece if it bothered me.

It sucks that I had to get the boat rigging in black, especially since I did end up spending so much money on the set. The black really sticks out, but I'm thinking of putting LED's back there anyways.

That is a great list.  I could use LDD Manager and an LXF of Millenium Falcon to spit out a list (minus a few missing bricks due to illegal placement, I wonder what got lost), edit the list with alternate part number or color, and then print out the list.

If you're going to LED mod the engine part, how about looking for plastic sheet that has ridges or something and use that instead of the boat mast?  The spacing is too uneven on official LEGO version for LED to match the movie version.

[Sam892]

Wow that's a lot of orders haha. I'm ordering parts to build a republic gunship of bricklink and I thought I had a lot of orders. Cool project dude. Just looking at all those boxes makes me envious. Your totally right aswell I'm addicted to ordering parts from bricklink. I would order the parts for a ucs falcon but the room is a issue at the moment and cost which is why I chose to do something smaller  

[jFox]

Finally was able to start building a few days ago, and here is the first few hours worth of progress.  For starters. here we have all 5,176 pieces ready to go.  And yes, I counted. One BrickLink order at a time, hehe.



The build starts by building the frame of the ship out of technic beams and pins, and I must say I was pretty impressed at how sturdy this thing is.  I still am impressed, really.  After each building step, I have no fear of this thing breaking apart if I pick it up to look at one side or another.  A lot of the structure is building up in layers, with identical plates stacked on top of each other.  Very stable.



On the right side here this is what I call the Millennium Falcon's butt.  This piece attaches to the underside of the frame in the rear... just like, well, a butt.  When building it the supporting bricks started to look like walls of a small house. I'll have to remember that if/when I try my hand at some MOC projects.



Gratuitous Butt Shot - Hide the eyes of small children.

As you can see, if those wedges at the center were removed that could be a doorway into a main hall of some sort (minus that big beam crossing the room).  Lots of other rooms for decorating, storing stuff, etc.  Hmm, I feel like there's a "junk in the trunk" joke to be made there...



The rear end (teehee) attached to the frame, about 60 pages (of 300) into the build.  She's starting to look space-worthy...ish.  And I tried to have some fun with the minifigures and my limited photography skills in the next picture.



Leia: You're going to try and fly this thing?  You're braver than I thought.

[Speedboat]

Looks like you're off to a good start. Have fun building and keep on posting progress pictures to make us jealous!  

[LegoDad]

That's where that big dark red plate goes, hidden at the bottom?????    If I wasn't so OCD about having the correct parts, I would definitely have changed the color of that one, that was an expensive plate.  I'm still a few hundred parts away from beginning building, oh, and that pesky instruction book, gotta find one of those for under a couple hundred dollars.

Construction looks good, this will keep me going to get mine ordered and commence building.

[jFox]

LegoDad, on 11 April 2012 - 03:25 PM, said:

That's where that big dark red plate goes, hidden at the bottom?????    If I wasn't so OCD about having the correct parts, I would definitely have changed the color of that one, that was an expensive plate.  I'm still a few hundred parts away from beginning building, oh, and that pesky instruction book, gotta find one of those for under a couple hundred dollars.

Construction looks good, this will keep me going to get mine ordered and commence building.

I agree, that was an expensive piece.  It looks like it will be visible from the bottom, though, so the need for correct colors (yours and mine) will not be in vain I suppose. A few more pictures of progress:



Landing gear all finished and ready to be attached.



With the landing gear attached it makes a huge difference in its appearance.  No longer just a big hulk of LEGO pieces, it's starting to look like a ship.



The rear engine assembly is built into one long piece before angling each section.  At this point the Falcon looks like some sort of Transformers vehicle... hands off, Michael Bay!  I won't let you ruin this!



Last but not least, the engines secured to the ship.  I've seen so many mods of this section with LEDs and whatnot, I think I'll give it a go when it's all finished.

Every step of the way I'm continually impressed with the detail on this thing.  Tiny little pieces added everywhere for more details (or as I recently discovered, the "greebling"), and the overall effect is fantastic.  Whoever designed this thing at LEGO (or the small team, I imagine) did an amazing job.

[LegoDad]

Are the roll pins with the little gap a permissable substitute as far as lego is concerned?  Like did they send both out?  I am having a heck of a time getting those.

[Lobot]

It's starting to look good, keep going!  It will suddenly get really large when you build the front mandibles...    Having seen this I'm tempted to build mine again, although the 20 hour build time is a little off-putting!

[Lorentzen]

Lobot, on 16 April 2012 - 06:12 PM, said:

Having seen this I'm tempted to build mine again, although the 20 hour build time is a little off-putting!

uhh... Isn't building with LEGO a main factor for being a LEGO fan?

[jFox]

LegoDad, on 16 April 2012 - 05:42 PM, said:

Are the roll pins with the little gap a permissable substitute as far as lego is concerned? Like did they send both out? I am having a heck of a time getting those.

The pin connectors that I used (http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=62462) were offered as an alternative to the connectors without the slot (http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=75535). I would guess LEGO doesn't make the original piece anymore in this color; a look at the BrickLink catalog shows it was only used in sets up until 2008 (at least in light bley). Price-wise it was either $1.50 each for the original, or a dime each for the alternative. Which, so far, has done the job just fine. And if you need 41 of them...

Lobot, on 16 April 2012 - 06:12 PM, said:

It's starting to look good, keep going! It will suddenly get really large when you build the front mandibles... Having seen this I'm tempted to build mine again, although the 20 hour build time is a little off-putting!

I can certainly believe that! Every major step seems to add quite a bit of bulk to it. Just reading about its size doesn't quite cover it; it easily blows anything I've built before out of the water. Must press on... almost 1/3 of the way through the instruction manual!

[Lobot]

Lorentzen, on 16 April 2012 - 07:11 PM, said:

uhh... Isn't building with LEGO a main factor for being a LEGO fan?

Sorry, I didn't put that very well!  

I found the only way I could build it was to have all of the parts spread out on the floor, and that resulted in me spending 20+ hours on my knees, which wasn't the most comfortable thing to do (even spread over 5-6 sessions!).  I also pulled something rather painful in my back last year & still have a twinge or two from it....old age I guess, well mid-thirties anyway!  

[Lorentzen]

Lobot, on 16 April 2012 - 07:49 PM, said:

Sorry, I didn't put that very well!  

I found the only way I could build it was to have all of the parts spread out on the floor, and that resulted in me spending 20+ hours on my knees, which wasn't the most comfortable thing to do (even spread over 5-6 sessions!).  I also pulled something rather painful in my back last year & still have a twinge or two from it....old age I guess, well mid-thirties anyway!  

Haha, og dear! :) - Well I must say I haven't got this set, so I can't imagine how many parts would lie on the floor.
You own the set, and are a very lucky guy - back pain or not :D

[BobBongo1895]

Head on guys, it is really worth to build it!

[LegoDad]

LegoDad, on 06 April 2012 - 05:20 PM, said:

jFox, thanks again for all your help on this project.  Unfortunately, no more 10179 manuals are available at Lego.com, I was totally bummed when I put in my order yesterday.  My price is seriously piling up since I had very small inventory with which to work, and would like to do this right, meaning purchasing the expensive pieces at some point.  Lego was out of the yellow technic piece for now, so I'm getting those FREE!!  Lego loves giving things away if you are nice, trust me, I've received free pieces, VIP points, etc.  Anyway, my piece progress as of now is:

Inventory:     879 pieces.....$0.00
Bricklink #1: 1767 pieces.....$190.00
Lego.com:     1050 pieces.....$215.00
Bricklink #2:  953 pieces.....$201.00

              4649 pieces......$606.00

Honestly, this is more than I was hoping to spend on this project, but will still save some money, and have the fun of building it.

One more Lego order for $50, plus all the small bricklink orders today equaling $200(including $60 dish), plus the one big Bricklink order for instructions, sticker, boat rigging pieces for $375, and I've got about $1200 into this project.  A lot more than I wanted to spend, didn't really save much money, but the set is 90% new as is, instructions are new also, and got to have the fun of the search.  At the end, had to find a lot of stores that had 1 or 2 items, that hurts.  Anyway, thanks for the inspiration, my wife my have to stay upstairs for a while, there will be no understanding on her end on this one.

[jFox]

LegoDad, on 18 April 2012 - 08:34 PM, said:

One more Lego order for $50, plus all the small bricklink orders today equaling $200(including $60 dish), plus the one big Bricklink order for instructions, sticker, boat rigging pieces for $375, and I've got about $1200 into this project.  A lot more than I wanted to spend, didn't really save much money, but the set is 90% new as is, instructions are new also, and got to have the fun of the search.  At the end, had to find a lot of stores that had 1 or 2 items, that hurts.  Anyway, thanks for the inspiration, my wife my have to stay upstairs for a while, there will be no understanding on her end on this one.

Ouch, $60 dish?  I wonder if you got it from the same store I did, and he doubled the price as his stock went down (damn you, supply and demand!).  As for your wife, just show her some in-progress pictures of how awesome it is. Maybe that will sway her to your side (if only a little).

So I hadn't had much building time for a while, but started making a big chunk of progress in the last few days.  I'm 173 pages in, over halfway!  The frame is done, and we've got some firepower too!

As Lobot mentioned, it did get pretty big when the mandibles get attached to the front.





33 inches from end to end. As long as my arm now!


The boat rigging pieces on the back, which due to cost I opted to get in black. $0.80 for black or $120 for grey... Later I'll attempt what someone else had mentioned and spray them.  They stand out a bit, although I wonder if that's only because I KNOW they're supposed to be grey.




Finally starting to get some plates covering the frame.  Which is nice, because it was a bit drafty inside. Han and Chew are close friends, but not THAT close.




And last up, the guns!  One for the top and the bottom, I really like the way these were constructed.  Especially the dish/window pieces; they're not attached by studs, they just have a couple of wedge plates holding them in place by a slight overlap.  I never really thought about building something like that, and it works pretty well.




And lastly, the gun attached to the underside of the ship.  The top gun goes on later (and is removable, I think?)



*Insert pew pew laser sounds here*


I'm hoping to get a lot more time with it over the next few days, maybe even finishing it up.   I think I can see a light at the end of this really, really, really long tunnel!

[cavegod]

Regarding the pin joiner with slot, my official set has the slot version of this part and mine was one of the first batch so i don't think it ever had the one without a slot.

[jadeirene]

cavegod, on 25 April 2012 - 05:41 PM, said:

Regarding the pin joiner with slot, my official set has the slot version of this part and mine was one of the first batch so i don't think it ever had the one without a slot.

My set has the pin joiners without slots, so they do exist.

[Geoffrow]

I have been watching this thread for last month and I have taken on the big challenege by Bricklinking the Millennium Falcon.  I am just waiting for my last two orders to turn up then I can start the big build.

[Keat]

Thanks for giving me inspiration to get started on this! I initially forked out quite a hefty sum for a new 10790, got scammed (thank god for paypal)- and now after reading this thread am well on my way to brinklinking my own UCS Falcon.

[jasonsmith]

jFox, on 27 March 2012 - 08:35 PM, said:

Do it!  It's the most fun I've ever had with LEGO, and that doesn't include building!  

I agree 100%, it was an entirely new Lego experience that I will never forget.

[HBA4345]

Glad I found this thread, started doing the same myself and have about 3300 parts already. I'm not going for exact matches, the prices for the rigging and dish are just too absurd for that, and a lot of the technic internal structure is hidden so can be any colour. Wouldn't mind an instruction book though, I bet trying to use the PDF file will wear thin after a while.

I am starting to run into the problem of individual bricklink stores having fewer lots in stock. Rather than waste money on 'filler' purchases to meet minimum spend limits and delivery charges from multiple stores I think I will get as far as I can and then do one final order through Lego replacement part service for the rest.

The reason I got sold onto this method was that rather than give my wife a heart attack for spending $1500 on a single lego set I can spread the cost over months of smaller purchases. I figure it'll still be up around $700 to complete, but it doesn't seem too bad when I am only spending $80 to $100 a month on it!

Just have to figure out where to display it now, the wall mounted TV bracket idea is very tempting but it mean I'll probably have to build it twice, first time to plan, second time with bracket mods....oh well, not such a great hardship!

[jFox]

HBA4345, on 30 April 2012 - 04:46 AM, said:

Glad I found this thread, started doing the same myself and have about 3300 parts already. I'm not going for exact matches, the prices for the rigging and dish are just too absurd for that, and a lot of the technic internal structure is hidden so can be any colour. Wouldn't mind an instruction book though, I bet trying to use the PDF file will wear thin after a while.

I am starting to run into the problem of individual bricklink stores having fewer lots in stock. Rather than waste money on 'filler' purchases to meet minimum spend limits and delivery charges from multiple stores I think I will get as far as I can and then do one final order through Lego replacement part service for the rest.

The reason I got sold onto this method was that rather than give my wife a heart attack for spending $1500 on a single lego set I can spread the cost over months of smaller purchases. I figure it'll still be up around $700 to complete, but it doesn't seem too bad when I am only spending $80 to $100 a month on it!

Just have to figure out where to display it now, the wall mounted TV bracket idea is very tempting but it mean I'll probably have to build it twice, first time to plan, second time with bracket mods....oh well, not such a great hardship!

That wall mounted bracket sounds like a great idea!  In fact, I just saw something like that here: http://www.fbtb.net/...php?f=10&t=6446.  Super cool!

A few more progress pictures.  Up to page 227 now!



Covering up the top with plates.  She's almost ready to fly without spilling cargo everywhere.



These are the escape pods. The building process on this was really impressive.  It's all based around that black brick in the center.  It's a really funky brick, studs everywhere!  But once you snap all the hinged-together pieces around it, it feels pretty solid.  Part of why it's taken me so long to build this thing is I'll spend quite a long time just marveling at each step.



"No, this one goes here, that one goes there!"




And lastly, the in-progress cockpit.  It would seem that the tiles and slopes in front are supposed to have stickers for them.  I don't have the sticker sheet for it, though, so I guess I can try and find some printed tiles.  Do they make printed cheese slopes?

[Masked Builder]

Wow, you're almost done!  Keep working on this.

[Lego Otaku]

jFox, on 01 May 2012 - 02:40 PM, said:

Covering up the top with plates.  She's almost ready to fly without spilling cargo everywhere.

Unless she's stopped by the Imperial.

Great looking project so far.