Millennium Falcon, 1/72 Bandai

[TristanR]

 

After sitting in the cupboard for a year, it is finally time.   

Pretty excited about building this, I would like a better stand, and I don’t like the grilled engines that they added in the special edition or whatever. To me the engine is a bright white bar, and I intend to bring the full force of 2020 LED technology to this modification.

 

Some very useful sites:

 

https://sites.google.com/site/millenniumfalconnotes/

 

https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/bandai-1-72-pg-millennium-falcon-also-the-revell-germany-rebox.262348/page-143

 

First impressions, it’s an incredible kit, the level of detail and accuracy are amazing.  The push fit nature of these kits aren’t great for modification, if you need to constantly dry fit to test things.  I’m going to to be filing down a lot of the ‘posts’ that hold most of the parts together.  It is nice that you can pretty much build the whole thing without glue,  y worry is the damage caused when trying to pull the thing apart.

 

Here’s the cockpit, the idea is you to backlight the cockpit with 2 white leds, but I might go for fiber optics here.  All the detail is raised on the cockpit walls, which makes it paintable, but I think you’re supposed to use decals instead, softened to f, to conform to the molded detail which isn’t a look I am excited about.  I’m going to figure it out later, and get started on the hull.

 

 

One of the ‘pits’ from the lower hull. The lower hull itself is split into two, and these pits must be installed before the lower hull gets assembled.

 

 

its fun to spot all the tanks parts in these areas.  What is that? A Leopard tank?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TristanR]

I want to make a Stand in the spirit of the movie prop.  That means some ability to attach the model onto a rod at multiple places around the model, top, bottom, one either side maybe.

 

In this close up of the 5’  model from the movie, you can see this hole drilled in the side with some kind of metal structure inside.  This is what I will try to do, but I’m going to try and hide it a bit more.

 

 

I’m going to 3d print a frame, a goal being the least amount of modification to the base kit parts.

 

First I need an accurate representation of the part in the computer.  After spending a frustration time with digital calipers, and far too many measurements I remembered that it is 2020, and there must be a better way.

 

There is this process called photogrammetry, which is able to build 3D models out of a series of photographs. 

 

 

I’m using this software called ‘reality capture’, and have a tripod with a camera already.

 

After initial tests it was clear that the software works by identifying unique parts of an image shared accross multiple photographs.  So glossy things willl never work, as the the reflected light doesn’t stay put on the object as the camera moves around it.

 

since the plastic is slightly glossy and pretty featureless it scanned horribly.  Some i’m Painting the interior flat grey to Eliminated reflections and it also lights better.

 

 

 

After a lot of messing about, and a few hours of YouTube tutorials, I managed to get something I hope I can work with.  There are the setting in the software, but a lot relies on the quality of your images.   I tried a few setups, and the most successful involved moving round the model with a tripod with a long exposure time and aperture settings that allow for a large range of focus.  I also found the it would help to scratch up the paintwork to provide unique features that the software can use as an anchor. At least I think that’s how it works, it’s pretty remarkable, and I don’t understand what it’s doing really, since I want to know where the edges are in particular,  I’m scraping the paint off the corners so they stand out in the photo’s more.  I’m just trying stuff and seeing if it improves the quality of the scanned model.

 

One thing that really helps is taking lots of pictures.

 

 

A lot of pictures .

 

 

The software makes this point cloud from all the images.  This point cloud took overnight to process this. 

 

 

 

From the point cloud you can make a mesh, which I simplified down to 3 million triangles so my computer would survive the encounter.  Now I can export it into some software I can work with.

 

 

Up close, it’s easier to see the places the software struggled to get a good look at.  I don’t feel confident about the scale.  There is a way to pick two points featured on multiple photos, and tell the software what the real world distance is between them.  Hopefully I have enough accuracy in the places I care about.

 

 

[TristanR]

I plan to use coupler nuts and threaded rod to add rigidity, maybe it will be too heavy.  In the image below they are in yellow.  I will use a common thread of 1/4” -20, the same thread that cameras have for mounting on tripods etc.

 

Fair amount of guesswork is happening here, i’m Going to be surprised if the first printed version will works out.

 

I think This is going to be split into three.  I will have a central one that hold the top bottom and front, then one for each side.  It will be too big to print otherwise. And maybe I don’t want the side parts?

 

the central part looks like this.   It will snugly fit over the posts on the hull, and I’ve included some holes to locate some small bolts where the part meets the kit.

 

 

The side parts are different from each other due to the boarding ramp.  There is a kit part that sits at the back of the ramp that i’m Not accounting for.  The ramp isn’t articulated (an outrage really) so I’m having it shut.  Anyway, this part will slip over the same posts as the center part.

 

 

Test prints!

 

 

Ok that didn’t fit At all.  In fact, it wasn’t until version 3 that I had one that fit.  My scan needed scaling so the two rearmost post were 1mm further apart.

 

This was painful and slow, but now I have something that fits.

 

 

Fits well, will stay in through friction, theprint seems to bloat a thing amount so I had to bore out the collars that fit around the hull posts.

 

 

Hereit it is all in place, I had to shave a bit off the roof of the loading ramp to allow the threaded rod to pass through.  Now I’ve done it, it adds a lot of weight, so I may not bother with it.  Now I just need to make sure I can make the escape pod (docking ring?) parts cover the ends of bolts.

 

 

[Space Ranger]

Good Lord! Do you have your own supercomputer? My old steam-powered FrankenMac could never handle that much data without choking.

Edited November 21, 2020 by Space Ranger

[Mike]

Now that's a bit fancy!

[gunpowder17]

Wow!

 

[Stephen W]

Fantastic stuff, love seeing others use technology in this way to do some creative things like this. 

[GMK]

23 hours ago, TristanR said:

 

its fun to spot all the tanks parts in these areas.  What is that? A Leopard tank?

 

 

 

 

Looks like a Chieftain  1 hull to me?

 

Great work on a very special kit. Loving the use of photogrammetry to map the interior of the kit. Watching with interest. 

[TristanR]

 

Space ranger, it’s a good computer, but it was straining at the seems and took a long time to process all this.

 

GMK, very close! After far too long on the internet, it looks like it was a Tamiya chieftain mk5 hull!  There are lots of these part maps out there, if you have an evening with nothing going on it’s a fun rabbit hole to go down.  

 

 

 

I have a bit of progress on the work on the ‘docking rings’ 

 

the way the kit kit goes together, these octagonal side parts slide down two channels in the lower hull from above, since I want to support the coupler well, I Had to attach the octagonal panel to the frame first, and then slide both together in from above.  Carefull measureing the height of the supported coupler nut so it’s held exactly at the center of the docking ring.  I made a backing plate in the frame that the octagonal kit part will attach to, I need to be careful that I don’t push these parts outward with the frame, else when I drop the upper hull on, there will be a gap.

 

 

This is the hardware I’m using, the green bag is little machine bolts that I can use to bolt the frame to the hull if I need to. 

 

 

Here’s the other side, I had to Dremel a hole in the exact center of the part to allow for the frame’s nut holder.  The kit had these two lugs that the docking ring cover fits onto, I had to trim them as you see, but the lugs are hollow, allowing me to add some lugs of my own to the frame that fit inside these hollows, for a sure fit.

 

 

So when it’s together it looks like this. If I did my sums right the coupler nut should just meet the back wall of the docking collar cap.  If I am short, I will shim it with a washer.  The frame has a stop that keeps the nut from being pushed too far in for a snug fit, but this also means I have to be spot on with the measurements.

 

 

Another complication is the way the surface detail is handled.  The upper deck doesn’t have surface detail for the docking collar, er, corridors?? (See below) instead they have three flat panels that push fit onto the upper hull, here they are not pushed all the way in case I snap them with removal hose the gaps. I will shave off the friction tabs like I have everywhere else. But I do not want gaps, which mean I will likely have to use glue.  So far the push fit nature is helpful.

 

 

Docking collar covers.  Here, live already drilled out the hole for the coupler nut, you can see that the hexagonal ‘door’? Piece is attached by three pins, which are just far enough apart to accommodate a 1/4 hole, which is nice, but I think I will replace them with small magnets rather than wear out the pins.  It should be an elegant cover if it works.

 

 

So ilve drilled the holes for the magnets (I will glue them in from the back) and here’s the cover in place.  The coupler nut is about half a millimeter off center, but since I don’t need the pins, I can make the hole bigger.

 

 

Seems  s to be going according to plan, I can screw in the rod with not issues.  The big question is wether all of this Victorian engineering will actually support the weight of the whole model from here.  I won’t know that until it’s all bolted together.

 

 

i invested in an armature rig as a display stand.  I really like how it’s in the spirit of the filming models, and I also think it will be very useful when it comes to painting.  It’s very strong and the Allan keys on the joints allow for a very tight hold, but it can still be manipulated.  

 

You can also see invest started on the the engine lights.  None of this blue waffle grid engines for me, it’s solid white ‘a new hope’ engines using as many leds as I can cram in there.

 

 

Cheers!