BrickLinking a UCS Millennium Falcon

[kiwiatlarge]

I have just finished my parts ordering for a UCS 10179. 21 Bricklink orders, 1 Lego pick a brick order, 1 Lego bricks and pieces order.

Total parts cost $917, postage $170. I live in Victoria, Australia.

I found shipping from UK is barely any more expensive than Aus. Shipping from USA was a bit pricey.

You can read about my part substitutions, etc., here: http://merigan.tk/lego/blog.php

Last delivery should arrive tomorrow YAY!

One thing I did to find the cheapest price was use Brickficiency. After the first run I removed all parts which were available in less than 80 stores. That then gave me 3 stores where I could order 3/4 of the parts.

I have drawn the radar dish sticker in Adobe Illustrator but am not sure where to get it printed yet, since the aim is to be printed on a clear sticker.

Fantastic blog... almost gives me motivation to attempt this, lol..

[bmerigan]

For those following this thread, here's a pic of the stickers I made. Very happy with how they turned out.

Printed the radar dish pattern on inkjet sticker paper ($10 ebay.com.au). I could not find a paper type setting in my printer (Canon MP610) that worked properly for the shiny sticker paper in testing, but because the color of the grey pattern is quite light the ink didn't blotch. Lucky.

The control panels were printed on photo paper and carefully cut out and stuck on the bricks with craft glue.

It was REALLY hard to stick the sticker on the dish because of the concave shape.

[rollermonkey]

Very nice! You could probably make a few $$$ selling the files or even just printing the stickers even if you don't want to be putting them on LEGO yourself. I'd pay at least a few bucks over cost for a dish that looks that good.

I bought a couple parts for a 10179 when I placed my last BNP order.

I'm going to do this one very, very slowly.

Edited August 4, 2014 by rollermonkey

[neoconagenda]

I am amazed that some print shop owner has not made a molded stamp for this dish. But you did a wonderful job on that dish!

[ScottishDave]

Excellent stickers - really well done. The dish in particular is excellent.

I also had problems getting my dish sticker (available to download here) properly centered. In the end, I added a square the same size as the central piece on the lego dish: by carefully cutting around this with a sharp knife, I was able to center my dish pretty well.

I also sprayed my completed sticker with ink jet fixative before applying. This allowed me to use the soapy water trickfor easier application.

I see you updated your blog also - that is one good looking Falcon. Congratulations!

[kr-lik]

so... i made my first order myself... will keep you all posted :}

[boomers]

I bricklinked mine too but took it one step further doing it all black (well actually over 99% black since not parts exist). Cost for sure exceeded the 2k due to lack of bricklink experience at the time.

Posted a pic of it in another topic - Alternate color Ships

[rome00150]

Those are some amazing stickers. Great job! I especially like the one for the dish.

[Schneeds]

I recently finished my bricklink Falcon as well. I decided to use Harmacy's engine mod instead of trying to paint the boat masts. I think it actually looks better and more accurate than the original version. I may at some point try to make a sticker for the radar like others, but I was fooling around with brick ideas and came up with this for the radar. It's different, but I kind of like it.

[VK-318]

I like that radar dish mod. Not sure how accurate it is, but it looks pretty good!

[Lind Whisperer]

I was originally going to mention this when I first saw it come out back in 2013(when I still didn't have an account,) but there is a new way to get the Falcon rigging pieces from LEGO.

I didn't mention it because I was sure someone else would, but apparently not.

The 2000431-1 Connections-Kit. Take a close look at the center. Yep. They are.

The only problem, is that it costs $754.99 per kit. This could be worse, though. That's three individual riggings. The set as a whole has a large variety of other parts, which could make up the difference. My suggestion, is that three (or four) people pool their resources together and buy one. I'm not sure how much I could add, but I'm fairly certain I could chip in a small sum for a few of the less in demand parts(I like the looks of those railings, and I could use some gears for a project I've had in mind...).

[rollermonkey]

Um... The rigging doesn't show on the inventory list...

and that set has been replaced on S@H in the US by another high-$$$ Serious Play set that doesn't show the boat riggings on the pile.

[kibosh]

That is a fantastic looking brick built dish!

[harmacy]

Yippee! - glad to see other people using that method to create the engine detail. Its so cheap, and very effective!

[boomers]

Has anyone else noticed a serious increase in prices for the parts to build this beast, even using different colors? I was considering doing another but I think I may reconsider now.

[kr-lik]

first order arrived.I decided to go for used bricks as the cost of new ones are sometimes x2.

so yeah... about 500 pieces already with couple of mistakes by the seller and few pieces missing...

gotta love bricklink sometimes :]

[hachiroku]

I'm making numbers and I could have one for 150€. I have more than the 70% of bricks. I don't know what to do

[Robianco]

I'm making numbers and I could have one for 150€. I have more than the 70% of bricks. I don't know what to do

Erm... How about order those extra parts for $150 and make one! ;)

[rollermonkey]

I need to print out the parts list, I've got more than a couple lots here already and more on the way...

Huh. 30 lots on hand "already".

...out of 265.

Yeesh. This is going to take a while.

Edited August 22, 2014 by rollermonkey

[Runamuck_28]

i have just started bricklinking my own UCS Millennium falcon, i have 3200 parts so far. im in Australia and havent had any trouble finding and parts, im not too fussed about alternate colours so i have substituted some of the inner parts. im finding it very enjoyable finding all the parts but cant wait to start building.

[mentalmike]

bmerigan & ScottishDave - I'm loving what you have done with the engines! Did you need any other parts other than the following?

4073 Trans light blue x 350

3022 Light Bluish Gray x 70

3004 Trans clear x 50

[ScottishDave]

Hi mentalmike,

That looks about the right number of parts to me. You may want to have a few more 3022 to hand - I count 78 on mine.

You do need a few extra parts, to join the new engines onto the existing framework. I did this in three places:

- at the middle, where I replaced two of the 3022 with 2x10 plate 3832.

I also joined the engine block at the sides. To do this, I shortened the existing blocks on either side of the new engines - the originals are shown here. I removed the 1x8 technic beams and replaced the grey plates with some shorter ones (1x4)

Finally, I joined the engine to the sides using a combination of 1 x 2 technic bricks and technic locking hinge pins

You don't have to do exactly as I did: bmerigan came up with his own solution, which he has posted detailed pictures of on his blog.

I hope this helps!

[mentalmike]

Thank you very much for the extra info - off to bricklink to spend even more money!

[Lego Otaku]

I was originally going to mention this when I first saw it come out back in 2013(when I still didn't have an account,) but there is a new way to get the Falcon rigging pieces from LEGO.

I didn't mention it because I was sure someone else would, but apparently not.

The 2000431-1 Connections-Kit. Take a close look at the center. Yep. They are.

< snipped >

That picture was wrong. LEGO used it for their sets but the parts shown in the picture were different than what LEGO actually offered. I'm sure there were quite a few irate resellers who jumped on the picture only to find the masts aren't in the actual sets. Without the masts, the resell value of the rest won't come close to paying off the price of the set.

[Runamuck_28]

i have now ordered 3900 parts!!!! getting closer now