noelbarnes Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 I understand that this "Toy" has been out for some time now. I saw some builds of it on YouTube and decided I had to have one. I picked it up for $50 Aus (whatever that equates to in GBP I am not sure) , but have seen it for as low as $30 Aus. Good Value considering the Fine Moulds (which is smaller) is now over the $1000 Aus mark. Not being satisfied with some of the basic detail in this Falcon, I decided to purchase some of Randy Cooper's Resin details along with some of Shapeway's 3D printed pieces. This bumped the price of this build up significantly, but it is still bigger and cheaper than the Fine Moulds option. The first steps of this project involves cutting away some of the plastic to fit replacement parts. This includes the landing gear, the cockpit glass areas, the gun turret glass and the exhaust ports. I will fill the windows with clear acetate at some point, and use Randy Cooper's excellent resin exhausts and metal etch to complete this area. Seen in the photos below are the Shapeway's radar dish and the top guns. I also have a 3D printed cockpit which will be lit, but this is a later part of the build. The plastic on this toy, as you may have heard is polyethelyne (?), which ultimately means it won't accept paint or some glues. It either needs to be washed down with acetone and primed with automotive primer, or sprayed with "plastic Prep" which etches into the surface and helps for paint and glue adhesion. The plastic is easy to cut and carve with a sharp blade, but can leave tiny burrs all over the place. Sanding can be tricky often leaving burrs too. Hopefully the photos speak for themselves....... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimme Shelter Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Hi - I've seen a similar conversion on this host kit somewhere else (perhaps on another forum) but I did not realise there was PE/resin aftermarket parts available to take away the chunkiness and obvious errors of the base kit. This is looking quite interesting - I'll enjoy watching this one progress 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmonk Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 I'm doing the same with mine and adding lights, though it has stalled at the moment. Great start, enjoy cutting away the plastic to fit all of Randy's resin side parts. Word of advice, study the pictures on Randy's Facebook page very carefully, don't do what I did and just start hacking!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatalbert Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 so what scale does it work out at. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiffy Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 Well, always difficult to scale things like this, but it's pretty near 1/48 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 I've just bought one. The aftermarket prices are a bit off putting. I think I'll watch how things go before committing to buying any. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmonk Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 I've just bought one. The aftermarket prices are a bit off putting. I think I'll watch how things go before committing to buying any. The Randy Cooper resin is a bit daunting at first but goes together well, just needs a lot of cutting and carving plus you will need to do something with the cockpit. Shapeways have a number of upgrade parts and looking at the side sections these fit directly to the kit with little modification, they are however some what dearer! Cheers, Warren 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiffy Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Those Shapeways parts were designed by a guy on the RPF. They were done to make masters for the resin upgrade set available from him & M.Salzo. The resin set is a much more cost effective way to buy them. I have a set on order & I can post up some shots, when it arrive, if anyone is interested. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Despy Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Those upgrades looks nice but I can't justify to pay few times more than I paid for the thing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelbarnes Posted August 14, 2015 Author Share Posted August 14, 2015 Those Shapeways parts were designed by a guy on the RPF. They were done to make masters for the resin upgrade set available from him & M.Salzo. The resin set is a much more cost effective way to buy them. I have a set on order & I can post up some shots, when it arrive, if anyone is interested. Hi Smiffy. I would love to see the parts once they arrive. I'd like to see how they look compared to the Shapeways, clear parts. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelbarnes Posted August 14, 2015 Author Share Posted August 14, 2015 Hi guys. Regarding the cost of extra parts....yes they are expensive. My justification for spending this kind of money was knowing that I wasn't going to get a almost studio scale falcon for any cheaper. The base kit is an absolute bargain. With the extra parts, you can pick and choose which areas you want to detail.....to do a complete overhaul would be far more costly. The Shapeway parts are dearer, but I found that you could scroll through their products and find sets of the pieces I wanted. This saved a few pennies. All things said, we all work from budgets and whatever we choose to do is our call. I have seen this Falcon, simply repainted, with no extra parts and it comes up a treat. Now....for an update. The plastic doesn't take paint or glue well. So I scrubbed it with Acetone, as Randy Cooper suggests, then primed with auto primer. The paint still came away. I had only done the top, so I spend the next two days, scrubbing away the paint with acetone, until it was clean enough to work with. I sprayed the surface with a clear automotive primer...this enhances adhesion. I then primed it with grey auto primer. No problems now, glue and paint stick like....well.. like glue. The exhaust grills are assembled and then glued to the gull. I used super glue, and then ran a two part epoxy around the inside join for added strength. The docking rings were also glued with epoxy. These were a tight fit, but they probably needed more sanding to get the perfect fit. The landing bay covers, simply dropped into place with some super glue. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 Hi noelbarnes, what quality are Shapeway's radar dish and the top guns, Frosted Ultra Detail? The parts look fine, not as grainy as many others, I have seen. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomjw Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 This is superb. I've got to follow this. Cheers, Tom. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelbarnes Posted August 15, 2015 Author Share Posted August 15, 2015 Hi noelbarnes, what quality are Shapeway's radar dish and the top guns, Frosted Ultra Detail? The parts look fine, not as grainy as many others, I have seen. Hi there. The Shapeways parts although frosted seem quite clean. Once I get some primer on I will get a better idea. I also have the cockpit parts and they look really good with all the drilled holes for optic fibre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelbarnes Posted August 18, 2015 Author Share Posted August 18, 2015 Here's another update. Went out and finally got myself a Dremel. Wow!! Does this save time or what? I have started trimming plastic away to fit the engine grills and side detail. Below you will see..... Dremel with back panel removed. Resin side panel added behind cockpit area A shot of engine lips before and after resin details added. Before shot of between mandibles After shot between mandibles with resin inserts added. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmonk Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 If you are fitting the plates to the rear of the engines make sure you leave a gap for the PE grill, I didn't and had to remove them all!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelbarnes Posted August 18, 2015 Author Share Posted August 18, 2015 If you are fitting the plates to the rear of the engines make sure you leave a gap for the PE grill, I didn't and had to remove them all!! Hi mad monk....I have been wondering about this. The ones in the photo have been glued in, should there be a slight gap in front of the plastic lip and the back of the plates......or can I get away with sitting the grill on top of the plastic lip? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelbarnes Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 Here's some of the sidewall detail in place along with some of the engine grill detail being glued in place. \ 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimme Shelter Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 coming on very nicely there - looking forward to seeing the finished Falcon John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmonk Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Sorry for the delay, yes you need a gap for the PE as it is the same depth as the resin frame. I made the same mistake, I used CA to fix the plates so they came off fairly easily. Great work so far, must get back on to mine. Cheers, Warren 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbeach84 Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Hey, guys! Thanks to MadMonk for pointing me over here from the Bandai SW Releases thread. NoelBarnes' build is coming along nicely; I will have to see if I can find some time this weekend to shoot pix of the Tony & Mike Salso cast resin versions of the Shapeways parts for comparison purposes (if that's okay...) I do notice that Randy's parts are 'tribute' detail as they don't actually represent either of the filming miniatures. I don't say that to be negative, as they are a great looking enhancement to the Hasbro 'toy' (model?) and I think they actually look better than the 32" version details... certainly a lot more depth to them. That aside, Tony designed his sets to represent the 32" model since much of the toy's details conform to that standard. However, there are several features that are straight from the 5-foot filming MF (aka 'the original') so it is a mixed bag. The toy has been assessed as the most accurate 5-footer 'form' representation even if the majority of the molded detail is from the smaller miniature. In short, the Hasbro MF is an interesting starting point for any number of modeling interpretations. Even a straight 'paint job' will result in an impressive display piece. The fact that the basic shapes are 'spot-on' basically means all that is needed is 'greeblie' work to get it to whichever standard you desire. I have a feeling that there will be many builds using this 'raw material' for years to come - even if Bandai were to release a large scale version! I'm watching developments closely as I attempt to keep from carving myself as I work on the 'poly-propylene' beast! Regards, Robert 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelbarnes Posted September 13, 2015 Author Share Posted September 13, 2015 I have had all kinds of trials getting the pieces together. I usually sand, shape, glue, un-glue, sand and scrape and re-glue. It has taken way longer than I had anticipated. I have just decided to dive in, and if it is not quite right, maybe a lick of paint and some weathering will draw your eyes away from any issues. Most of the resin is in place, I will now start to put the cockpit together, or the lighting stuff. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimme Shelter Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 Cool This is really coming along nicely - I've said so before but those resin and PE add-ons really bring the host kit back to life. The Falcon is one of my all time oldie fave's from Star Wars - you've invested well there. looking forward to seeing more from you soon John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGA Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 Looks very impressive with all these aftermarket parts! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matiwashere Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 That is turning into quite a nice falcon! The resin parts and all the other bits really improve it. And it looks huuuuge judging from the table. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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