Sandtrooper UCS Falcon

[sandtrooper]

Prelude

There first I'd ever heard of someone brickling the UCS Millennium Falcon was on the Rebelscum forums. Up to that point had never heard of Bricklink but did own some of the first UCS sets. So because I couldn't afford the secondary prices for the set decided to give it a try. So a few years ago started ordering the elements with substitutions for the more costly parts. Close to the time all the parts were finally here, my dad died and there was fallout from this that lead to the Falcon being abandoned for awhile.

Build

For the next couple of years, slowly got back into building UCS sets, but kept putting off building the Falcon because I really wanted to savor the build - since there would probably never be another set like it. Finally got to building in earnest when I stumbled across Eurobricks and the mods featured here, especially those by Scottish Dave. Those provided the inspiration to make changes in the engine and also use dark gray for the six exhaust circles instead of black and landing gear doors.

Electronics

Really wanted to make the Falcon special by using lights. This turned into a major hurdle with planning and installation (not to mention cost). My Falcon was primarily inspired by its appearance in the Empire Strikes Back with some compromises.

Anyway thanks for reading and grateful acknowledgement to those who provided advice and inspiration for my Falcon.

[Cjd223]

First off, sorry for your loss. Secondly, this is absolutely awesome! As a UCS Falcon owner, I would love to install lights to my own model

[youlovvm]

this is absolutely awesome! As a UCS Falcon owner, I would love to install lights to my own model

Edited January 16, 2016 by youlovvm

[Lobot]

Great work sandtrooper; it's always good to see another Bricklinked UCS Falcon! The LEDs look very nice, especially the engines and cockpit. if you don't mind me asking, what did you use? I take it they aren't the LEGO Technic ones, as they seem far brighter!

[rahservizi]

I'm Falcon owner too( build in progress, but almost finished) and i'm very interested about these lights.

[sandtrooper]

Thanks for the replies everyone! The build was a labor of love and a very enjoyable build.

The lights for the engines are a LED strip doubled across the top and bottom of the engine housing. The LEDs came from an eBay auction. They're made to provide a wide variety of colors and flashing patterns, so if clear round plates are used the engines could be almost any color.

The LED strips can somewhat be seen in these pictures:

The rest of the lights and accessories came from http://lifelites.com

The lights had to be tiny to work in the cockpit and with the tips of the mandibles.

Some of the wiring can be seen in these pictures:

[Tariq j]

Very nice work sandtrooper, thanks for the link to the LED lights I think they look excellent on the ship.

[ScottishDave]

sandtrooper, your Falcon looks wonderful. I'm glad you found my mods useful!

The lights look excellent, and they really help it to stand out. As it happens, I have a box of lifelites waiting to go into my own Falcon: so it is great to see a finished model.