anothergol

[MOC] mid-scale Millennium Falcon (WIP)

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I'm gathering the parts to build this. I tried to stay flat (omitting a lot of pipes instead of using bars that generally change the silhouette too much at this scale).
Only a little larger than the toy version, a little over half of the UCS one. 3000 parts.

I'm afraid that my internal structure is way too weak, but I'll see - if it doesn't work I'll get back to the drawing board I guess.

(it's a little inspired in places by this great, sadly unfinished MOC: www.flickr.com/photos/152499780@N02/37671037711)

 

FalconWIP2.png

FalconWIP3.png

Edited by anothergol

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Yay that one looks sweet! I Actually had a look at joerg‘s moc for the mandibles at my model aswell! I was hoping he will finish his work! But now it’s your turn! 
I‘d be crazy about how you designed the brickbuilt cockpit. 
did you already check if all colors are available? The barrels for the docking rings is a great idea!great greebling!

keep up the good work!

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That's really one of the best shaped and snotted Falcons i've ever seen. The only downside is it beeing to small for a proper cockpit cone. But that's highly subjective.

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Yep I only used existing colors and I've already ordered them all.

For the cockpit (the only thing I've actually assembled so far) I've changed it a couple of times, it went from this old version:

One Bad M.F. (WIP) LEGO MOC

to the new one, using a 75937 ring & a couple of 93061 arms holding the 4 bars.

 

The barrels are too small btw, but yeah it's a too well-fitting part not to use it.

 

23 minutes ago, m4st3rt3ch said:

That's really one of the best shaped and snotted Falcons i've ever seen. The only downside is it beeing to small for a proper cockpit cone. But that's highly subjective.

Yeah actually a MF scaled for the smallest MF cockpit (so somewhere in-between this & the UCS one) would be interesting, as it would then make the holes in the prongs have the correct size (here they're too big, but it's that or no holes at all). However the canopy of the toy version is also too long, so it would still not be ideal. Only the UCS one has a proper canopy.

 

Edited by anothergol

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Wow, best Falcon I have seen so far in this scale! 

Are you planning to sell or share the instructions for this master piece?

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2 hours ago, codyaner said:

Wow, best Falcon I have seen so far in this scale! 

Are you planning to sell or share the instructions for this master piece?

I don't know, I wouldn't fancy making instructions for 3000 parts and you wouldn't fancy gathering them (I didn't either) :)

(but first I'll see how much of a nightmare it is to build)

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Holy moly this is great! I love how smooth yet greebly the hull is, something thats tough to nail with the Falcon. Good cockpit too. I assume no interior?

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That really is great - so much detail at this in-between scale!  You're right about a couple of the parts not being ideal, but the only ones that really stick out to me are the barrels on the sides as has been noted.  I would almost lose those, move the dishes out further toward the outside line of the ship, and cap them with a 6w dish to give it a little more taper and call it a day.  But seriously, that's pretty small criticism in relation to the rest of the awesomeness.  I especially like that side profile with the landing gear deployed!  :sweet:

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22 minutes ago, LEGODrongo01 said:

Holy moly this is great! I love how smooth yet greebly the hull is, something thats tough to nail with the Falcon. Good cockpit too. I assume no interior?

I would love to design an interior, but sadly it's all structure.

25 minutes ago, deraven said:

That really is great - so much detail at this in-between scale!  You're right about a couple of the parts not being ideal, but the only ones that really stick out to me are the barrels on the sides as has been noted.  I would almost lose those, move the dishes out further toward the outside line of the ship, and cap them with a 6w dish to give it a little more taper and call it a day.

But you have to admit the barrel looks like a perfect fit, only it's the wrong size. There are also a couple of technic wheels that would fit there. The tubes on the "real" one are only very slightly tapered btw.

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This would make a more accurate canopy, sadly I can't find a way to attach the bars. Ideally I'd need a small ring, but a 3mm tube can't be bent at this size.

FalconCanopyTest.jpg

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That looks really good! Though it seems to be missing two landing legs?

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I can't believe how good that looks.  The greebling is gorgeous.  And that side profile... incredible.

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6 hours ago, Reaper said:

That looks really good! Though it seems to be missing two landing legs? 

Fortunately for me (because the underside in the back was a real PITA), apparently in the first movie it only had 3. And only in the second it got 5, for purely filming reasons (pretty sure Lego went for 5 for stability as well)

Edited by anothergol

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Wow! This model is excellent! Proportions, colors and shape are very well done. 

Very interesting the smoothing of the borders of the Falcon main body, it makes the set much better shaped. The additional colors adds to the overall building from distance.

The rounded holes in the front, using a similar technic of the UCS MF, is a very good choice. :thumbup: :thumbup:

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On 11/7/2019 at 9:13 AM, anothergol said:

I'm gathering the parts to build this. I tried to stay flat (omitting a lot of pipes instead of using bars that generally change the silhouette too much at this scale).
Only a little larger than the toy version, a little over half of the UCS one. 3000 parts.

I'm afraid that my internal structure is way too weak, but I'll see - if it doesn't work I'll get back to the drawing board I guess.

(it's a little inspired in places by this great, sadly unfinished MOC: www.flickr.com/photos/152499780@N02/37671037711)

That's an amazing model! Very smooth, INCREDIBLY accurate. It's like a more affordable version of the UCS falcon, though somehow more detailed.

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12 hours ago, dvogon said:

 

The rounded holes in the front, using a similar technic of the UCS MF, is a very good choice. :thumbup: :thumbup:

 


Not exactly, the UCS uses inverted 1/4 curves, because it had to make the holes bigger (& thus they're not exactly round anymore btw, I don't think that was a good idea).

Here it's the opposite, they're in their simplest form, bottom-up studded, but they're a bit too big (they should be 3x3, around the size of the 6 vents in the back).
On sti fos's version they're shrunk using a 4mm tube, which is an interesting idea (not sure I'll do that, I'd have to revise my gribbling).

 

 

 

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Part of me would like to suppress any criticism and just cheer for another great and especially very original MF model. I think you'd like to hear the other part out, so I will let it speak :D

When I look at the model, the first thing I see are these rays formed by the thin wedges of the plating. Similar effect as with most of the lego playset models, but here it's amplified by how narrow the wedges are and how perfect the model looks in other regards. And I can't unsee them anymore. Somehow this circular symmetry has so strong visual impact that I can't ignore it and just see the homogeneous (albeit greebled and interrupted) panels which it is supposed to represent.

Next thing I notice is the curvature all around the edge shaped up by the curved slopes. And even though I know that it looks pretty propper, give that nice even narrow rim... it just doesn't seem to fit the Falcon. It looks like some huge blacksmith went around and hammered in this rounded edge :)

I totally dig its positives too - the low profile it allowed you to pull out or the absence of a gap between the plating and mandibles.

Anyway, everything else about the design is really cool imo. I particularly like the slight taper in the sloping panel between the mandibles. That's a pretty rare feature on MF models :) I am excited to see the real build for sure. maybe the issues I have will be less prominent than on renders.

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2 hours ago, Kristof said:

Somehow this circular symmetry has so strong visual impact that I can't ignore it and just see the homogeneous (albeit greebled and interrupted) panels which it is supposed to represent.

I agree, but it's the price to pay for 2 features:

-the rays, which are there on the real one, of course not this strong (although I'm not sure the casted shadows will be that strong), but the visible rays make it more recognizable IMHO

-most importantly, a proper sloping all around, as IMHO most MOCs look kinda flat because they divide the back into 3-5 panels at best, and that also makes them have a weird side silhouette

Perhaps grouping the slices in pairs would be an ok compromize, but IMHO it's nice to have the rays.

 

2 hours ago, Kristof said:

Next thing I notice is the curvature all around the edge shaped up by the curved slopes. And even though I know that it looks pretty propper, give that nice even narrow rim... it just doesn't seem to fit the Falcon. It looks like some huge blacksmith went around and hammered in this rounded edge :) 

Here I can't agree because it's what I found the coolest on Joerg Kuehni's MOC. Afterall the whole cover should be curved. Of course it's impossible to do with Lego, but just the rounded ends give a good illusion that it's rounded IMHO.

 
Edited by anothergol

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I'd consider removing few of the tiles on the 3x12 wings, especially nearing the center area, to break up the striped texture a little bit. It still looks fantastic anyway and this is a minor issue.
Overall, this is the best looking MF I've seen so far. 

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When I look at Falcon pics and focus on the main dish plating panels, I first see the concentric circular pattern in some of those ridges or off-color bits. The rays coming from the 'virtual' center of the dish pop up only after for me :D I bet psychiatrists could use it to determine my personality. The bottom line, you are probably right, at least concerning the way you see it. I agree with Jerac that getting some of those tiles off might help to break that up a bit!

To the rounded edge - Joerg's piece because he only has the curve on the portions where the dish meets the mandibles. And there I totally dig it - the smooth blend in it creates is worth the curvature 'extremity' :D at the end.

For the rest of the dish circumference, where it just overhangs the greebling, and most prominently at the very back where this stripe of thrust vector plates is, I think flat would look more appropriate still. But sure enough, different eyes, different view :)

Edited by Kristof

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Do you mean removing a couple of tiles like this?

I'm not too convinced, also because there are some I can't remove. I can't remove the wedges because they connect to the big tube things, and I can't remove the first tiles because they cover DBG plates underneath (to simulate those trapezoidal holes).
(I can round the tips, but.. not convinced either)

I've reworked the center disk btw. It used to be larger in one direction by one plate, I've reworked it to use the 2x2 triangle tiles (that we don't have in the LDD) instead.
The disk gap will also be filled by a 3mm tube, which isn't in the renders because tubes in Studio are simply unusable.
 

FalconWIP4.jpg

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Slowly taking shape.

I made my best to avoid drooping, and the prong does droop a little, but I don't really have many options. I can't attach it anywhere near its center of gravity, so the lever effect is pretty high.

FalconWIP5.jpg

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Following this build with great interest. It's smart the use of ball joins for giving the circular angled shape with more "resolution". How are you going to stabilise them to avoid misalignment?

Adding the angled shape under is excellent. I think I've never seen a MOC with the angled circular shape under. 

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Oh this has been a big shit sandwich!

I'm only happy with the unconventional spine that worked solidly, but the rest..
First the prongs that were drooping, had to add more attach points. Then the cockpit/head that droops & had to be secured more as well.

The pie slices are attached together with their neighbor, AND with their mirror (the gribling is done on the part that attaches both together). And it's all self-aligning so it works well enough, only at the very end it occured to me that I had room to make it more stable with a 3mm tube, so I added that. Plus the underside that I originally was cursing the original falcon to have, that actually helps supporting some of them.

The front-top ones are easy, they're like in every MF, they just lay down naturally on the prongs. The front-underside ones.. I don't know yet! But I'll find something. Only 2 slices of the front ones are attached to their mirror.

FalconWIP7.jpg

 

For size comparison:

FalconWIP6.jpg

 

 

 

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I can already tell that my problem with rays and pie-slicing is way less an issue on the physical model. The internals is mesmerizing to see, one can really appreciate how little space you have to work with to make all the framing and connections!

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