SpacePirate

UPDATE: I managed to work it out. I had to BL more parts for it, so I'll post detailed pictures when they arrive. I used a bunch of random parts to make the cockpit work, so it has a rough look it, but once correct pieces arrive, I'll post the pics of the final look. Funny thing, I ordered original 4x9 LBG wedges, 2413 from B&P, but they instead sent me they newer 14181 ones with stud notches (!). I'm not complaining, because version with stud notches fits quite fine into the rugged look of 10175.

Hey Barahir1401, it would be really appreciated if you shared some more pictures that show how you made the cockpit work. I'm really struggling to figure it out.

Thanks for the advice. I might look for a BNiB "bargain" on eBay. Still waiting for B&P order to arrive.... Though, they charged my card last Tuesday, so hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow.

How much did it cost you to BL parts for 9500? I'm wondering whether to BL it or get one from eBay... I have two of 75025 (Jedi Defender-class Cruiser) still in box, and I'm thinking of getting rid of one and getting 9500 instead. Going back to the topic of TIE Advanced, it looks like you did well on BL orders. I'm still waiting for my B&P order to arrive. It only showed complete yesterday. PAB arrived ages ago, but B&P are taking forever to get all the parts together.

That'd be appreciated. Thanks analogkid81. Can't wait for the parts to arrive now. Btw, there's some fella in Australia selling reproduced 10175 stickers on eBay, if anyone else is looking. Quite cheap too. I paid about £5-6 including delivery.

Your set looks really cool. I'm going for exactly the same front canopy mod. Though, I can't see where you used 1x4 tiles? Great idea with covering the black stern plates with LBG tiles. I may have to order some of those :)

If you can, I'd get both black and light grey canopies. I'm not sure which one will look better myself. Light grey will look aged, which may fit the age of the set better, though black will match the "wings" nicely.... I don't think there's much choice in terms of stern plates, the ones I got were 2 out of 3 in the UK. I did the same with B&P order, about £55 total, and went with 8x8 grille plates from there, rather than the version with a hole suggested on BL. Let us know about the progress. I'll be posting some pictures once I have all the parts.

I guess that makes sense then. You can always pick your own minifigs and make the Death Star your own.

Can't believe that DS 10188 has become so popular post retirement. Had I known, I would have stockpiled more of them beauties :) On a serious note, judging from average prices of pieces and minifigs, wouldn't it be more economical to grab one off eBay? I understand this is not as satisfying as collecting all the parts bit by bit and see the set grow.

Hi jdm44, Oh yes, I forgot about the hoses.... I replaced both 14L and 10L with 6 of 20L (part no. 75c20) and I'm just going to trim them to the right size (cut four of them in half to make 8x 10L, and trim two down to 11.2cm). I did the same on my 10179 UCS MF on some of the hoses and they looked fine. In regard to 6.6L umbrella stands, yes I did replace them with 63965. Again, did the same on UCS Falcon and they look fine. When looking for those hoses, I'd get any length you can find in the right colour, at a decent price that you can trim down to correct length. In my case those were 75c20, though they weren't that easy to get in right amount either, so I had to order from two separate sellers, paying about £1.30 for each. I wouldn't be too picky about the price, as there's only so many pieces that will cost you £1 each or more. Did you manage to get the stern plates, 47405?

Hi guys, Thanks for the advice. I saw 10212 BNIB sell at £399 on eBay, and 10221 BNIB for about £480 (if I remember correctly), so I decided to leave those for the time being and til I have a budget to get them. Instead, I decided to go for 10175 Vader's TIE Advanced :) The reasoning behind is that it's really rare on eBay and BL and will fit perfectly next to the X-Wing and the TIE Fighter (yet to be purchased). Obviously I had to make some substitutions: - 6L umbrella stands, - I've borrowed the idea on the cockpit from Barahir1401, but used 13548 pieces for the corners. - I've also had to substitute LBG stern plates with black, used ones and even these were difficult to get hold of. IMO, these plates are a major showstopper for anyone attempting to build this set, as they're really rare. - Another piece I had to substitute was the "back end" of the cockpit, part 2618, LBG. I got hold of light grey and black used pieces and will see which one suits it better - The last bit was the top hatch. I went with 6 x 6 dish with pattern from AT-TE, part 44375bpb01. I've placed all the orders and am now just waiting for them to get delivered. The total was about £190, but that's due to large number of orders I had to make. Will post pictures once per parts arrive. P.S. The main issue with ordering parts was that I had to make a lot of small orders, like few quid, and even pick some SW minifigs to let the sellers make some profit, because otherwise some orders would be like £1-£2. The problem was that even larger shops had only few lots of required parts, which I think shows that 10175 is made up of random parts, as many sellers don't seem to have many lots of seemingly common parts in stock. In total, 17 orders, 2 from outside UK and a big order from TLG. For anyone attempting anything like that. I recommend getting rare parts from B&P ASAP, as they go like hot buns. In a course of like two days 6190's and 4085c's went out of stock on B&P and I really struggled to get hold of them on BL. The way I order parts is: get prices of each piece from B&P, PAB and BL average (BrickStock is your friend) and if the price on TLG is the same or even slightly higher (especially for low quantity lots) than on BL, I get them from TLG and then get the rest from BL. I hope this helps anyone.

Hi analogkid81, Thanks for the advice. Did you make any substitutions on while BL-ing the 10221?

Hi guys, I thought I'd revive this old thread due to fitting title. I'm looking at bricklinking either 10212 or 10221, but looking at average prices provided by BrickStock and comparing them to prices of sets on eBay (both new and used), I'm wondering is it worth the hassle of getting all the parts together? Tbh, I overshot the cost of 10179 by £180 back in November. I can see how eBay prices of both 10212 and 10221 have increased since this time last year, but so have prices of bricks (or so it seems). So, my question to you all is, what UCS set is worth bricklinking in March 2016? I'm looking for a challenge, but I'm not willing to make substitutions on rare parts only to save £100 compared to a BNIB set. Obviously, this doesn't justify the current prices of 10212 which is around £500-600 and 10221 which is around £700-800... Any thoughts?

This is some amazing work, whoever used LG plates on their Falcon. It makes it look more authentic in my opinion. BrickSash, really like the all the lights and the ramp. I agree the original IS unfinished.

That's what people on Brickset reckon: http://brickset.com/sets/75144-1/Snowspeeder

Using LBG light sabers is a good idea, maybe combine it with LBG rigid hoses for a look similar to original rigging. I also think it's a good idea to mi LG with LBG, as I've noticed that at certain points building out of mainly LBG pieces felt a little monotonous. To be fair, there are so many ways to mod the engine. This is where people's imagination can produce some inspiring results. I'd like to see the mod with screwdrivers. And I think that BrickSash's backlit engine is just another level. BrickSash, congratulations on completing the MF despite having to put up with the difficulty timescale of ordering parts. I think in my case between conceiving the idea and receiving the last orders, it was about 3-4 weeks and I was already getting impatient... I was also late to learn about UCS sets and rekindle the interest in Lego. It was only after I accidentally came across an article on investing in Lego, which was earlier this summer... I can't believe I missed out on the Falcon when it was out and on SSD and Imperial Flagship amongst other things. I think I'd also like the Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal. Anyway, TLG are releasing new UCS Death Star and Snowspeeder in 2016, so there's something to look forward to :)

Thank you all. It is quite a piece. H_Solo, you're right about the number of parts. I ended up missing four lots of parts, so had to quickly re-order them last minute. EdmanZA, splitting the projects into phases is a good idea, though you want to emphasise on ordering rare parts regardless of your approach. Get them out way as you order other parts. I recommend that if you decide to build it in sections, you still order full lots of particular parts. Say, if you require 5 of LBG 1 x 2 Brick #3004, still get full lot of 39 required to build the Falcon, etc. krisandkris12, thanks. I also think that custom dish looks better than that sticker. I have big hands, so I'd struggle to apply it, even with tools. Besides, for what it is, the sticker is quite expensive. I saw someone from Germany sell it on eBay, for about £6-7 a piece, so it's quite an expensive undertaking if the first attempt fails. The idea of brick sculpted dish is not mine, but it looked so good, I had to reproduce it :)

It is complete! It took a while and was quite an effort, but the result is impressive! For some reason, I'm left with a lot of parts! I know that B%P were generous, especially with DBG Technic beams, but other than that I don't know why there's no many parts left! Is BL inventory wrong? Anyway, better too many, than not enough. DSC_0716 by SpacePirate, on Flickr DSC_0730 by SpacePirate, on Flickr DSC_0726 by SpacePirate, on Flickr DSC_0734 by SpacePirate, on Flickr DSC_0762 by SpacePirate, on Flickr DSC_0690 by SpacePirate, on Flickr DSC_0696 by SpacePirate, on Flickr Full album available at: Flickr

Hi Lobot. Thanks. It was quite an effort. I've just finished it, so I'll be posting pics later. I also like the idea of using LBG ladders. It's not mine, though. I originally saw it in another thread, on a Falcon built by our forum user Schneeds. In terms of total cost, it added up to about £850 all in, including mini figs. I had to re-order few lots, because I completely missed (!) them during the ordering process, bit that didn't add up to more than £5. I think it was mainly placing too many orders from abroad. I think I should have used Brickficiency and ordered parts at slightly higher price, but from fewer shops. I guess it's the issue of striking that balance. In total it was about 23 orders, not including re-orders. I also have UCS X-Wing (x2) in the box, still need to order Slave 1 and considering purchasing TIE and Sandcrawler next year. Apparently, there's UCS Hoth Base coming out next year, so it'll be interesting to see how TLG portrayed it :)

Right, in the picture, is my progress as of Monday, 7th. I am currently at the page 280 and will be posting pictures of complete set tomorrow. To anyone planning to build it, I must say (even though this has been said a million times) that UCS Millennium Falcon is massive!! It takes up half the dining table and I'm really struggling to find a place for it. It currently sits on the freezer. I really like the design. You can tell a lot of thought went into the project. It was either designed by a genius, or there was a whole team working on it. The set is very complex and despite huge amount of random parts, all the sections of the fuselage fit very well together. There are a couple of flimsy sections on the top, but being as this is a display model, it doesn't really matter. Other than that, the set is SOLID. I'm really impressed with it and I am looking forward to seeing Lego release another iconic UCS set like this one. I wonder what they could do next. They've released Sandcrawler, which is impressive an unique in its own way, but it would be great to see another spaceship. In the meantime, I've got Red Five X-Wing and UCS Slave 1 to build :) Untitled by SpacePirate, on Flickr Untitled by SpacePirate, on Flickr

Hi Lobot. It's already taken me about 16 hours, and I'm only on page 170. Thanks for the advice on uploading the pics. I'll have to sign up with one of those services and post some pics of the progress :)

Right, after two afternoons, the frame (or most of it) and the legs are finished. Han Solo is having a test drive... I must say that searching through the parts is tiring and probably takes most of the time, but it's still it's great fun. Close-up I'd upload the photo of the actual test drive, but the forum won't let me. I think that steering wheel is ridiculous, and completely out of place in a Star Wars vessel, but I'm sure the designer put in there for a laugh :)

That's a really good way to use Brickficiency, bmerigan. I'll have to give the software another chance with a next, smaller project. In my case, my B&P order was short of one (!) 4L LBG lightsaber stick. I just couldn't be bothered to ring them, so I ordered is as part of another BL order. It's definitely a balancing act, which is especially tricky being that UCS MF is one of the most, if not the most, complex set to put together in terms of ordering parts and building it.

volcompt, you're more than welcome. Let us know how you get on. EdmanZA, I'm glad you managed to get 6179, 6565 and 6564 from Lego. I let it slip and then didn't want risk waiting too long for them to restock it. Actually, I feared they'd ran out for good. So, I ended up paying double the price to order from two stores on the Continent, but ordered minifigs at the same time, so overall not that bad. Yes, I agree about Brickficiency. It searching in the largest, most expensive shops first, is what put me off using it. You can blacklist the stores you don't want it to look at, but I just couldn't be bothered. In terms of total price, Brickficiency returned totals of around £700 or so(without minifigs). Now, I'm not sure if that included all of the parts required. At the time, average total cost of all pieces added up to £830, which I was unwilling to pay. I believed I could get all the parts in for about £630-650 + minifigs, but ended up spending £850 all in, including parts for custom rigging and dish.....LOL (I feel like laughing at it now) I think that prices on BL fluctuate a lot, being that others have spent about £600-650 and EdmanZA mentions £550. This all obviously depends a lot on the number of substitutions. It looks like TLG's stock is rather fluid, which affects total cost. Overall, it's a quite fun experience, especially when you realise that a small bag of technic beams (DBG 3703) cost you almost £45 and you had to order it from Lego!

Hi volcompt. It's nice to see another fan setting out on this ambitious task. I've just received the last of the orders, except the parts for custom rigging and custom dish, so I’ll be starting the build as soon as. I’ve decided to go with custom rigging and dish, due to prohibitive cost of original parts. I’m pretty much (shamefully) copying the ideas shown in: http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=114619 purely, because I think they’re awesome and will look great on the MF. I’ll reference original authors once the build is complete. As the others have said above, you want to decide what substitutions you are willing to make. I went to for the usual: rigging, dish, levers, 5.5L bars, 6x14 dark red plate and the arches (full list in my previous post). But, I kept all original technic beams and pins, as I personally don’t like colour substitutions. However, this decision and buying all original, new, mini figures added to to overall cost. Mini figures alone will cost you about ~£30, depending on availability. Some are rare, like Han Solo, which is model sw179, which is very similar to updated version sw179a (updated head), which is much more and cheaper. In my case, the seller got confused and sent me sw179a by mistake. So, there is some consideration required in terms of how original you want the Falcon to be. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but using BrickStock to create your BL wanted list is a good option. You can use it to get average prices on BL and then make your substitutions. You can then export the list into your wanted list on BrickLink. Like Lobot said, use a good spreadsheet. I used the sheet provided in this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/2wksds/the_cheapskates_guide_to_bricklinking_a_10179_ucs/ There’s some good advice there too. Tbh, I only used it for parts numbers, pictures and descriptions, plus quantity required, and then added my own columns. It’s a bit of manual work, but I got a price of each part (if available) from Pick a Brick, Bricks and Pieces and BL. From BL, I took average price and a roughly the lowest price I can realistically buy the part(s) for. For example, a part has average price of GBP 0.08, but most sellers local to me (in my case UK or EU), sell it in sufficient quantities for GBP 0.03 – 0.04, so I put 0.04 down in the spreadsheet. This allowed me to get the idea of how cheap roughly I can get a part for and whether Lego or BrickLink were the place to go for a particular part + estimated overall cost of the project (Excel is your friend here). Here you can make substitutions and then use BrickStock to generate a wanted list for you. I recommend you make Lego orders as soon as you decided which parts you’re buying from them, as there were some rare and pricey parts that went out of stock before I managed to place the order (due to my procrastination). Once you start making orders on BL, I recommend first looking for shops that have rare parts AND as many of other parts that you need as possible. You can tell this by checking Price Guide for each part. The list of sellers that have the part in stock will give you a rough idea. You want to look in your country first and then countries from which shipping is the most favourable (EU in my case). To get a list of stores that have a part in your country only, click on “Group by currency” on Price Guide page for a particular part. The task is mind boggling at first due to the number of part lots to get check prices and availability for. You may want to use Brickficiency to do the research for you, although you may not like the total price it returns. You want to order from as few stores as possible, especially the ones outside your country, because the shipping costs do add up. I did a mistake of completely ignoring Brickficiency, because I didn’t like the total price it returned for all orders and ended up making about 20 orders in total, many small from abroad. So in the end, I didn’t really save anything. I actually spent much more than planned. Check my previous posts for “Learnt from experience” advice. I’m not sure if this is the best way to go about it. There are probably ways to to improve it. I recommend you take your time and find the best balance between prices, availability and number of orders required.