Leafing through the old Star Wars models and props book I came across some Concept sketches made by the ILM SFX crew. They spent a third of the miniatures budget on one of these before George Lucas changed his mind and indicated a burger he had bitten and indicated that this was the new Falcon shape he wanted, and the rest as they say is Movie History.
So wanting to do a scratch build using mainly household junk and some extruded plastic, brass tube and wood dowel, I chose the model below.
6 Likes
the first step was to do my own construction drawing so I can extrapolate the details that are only lightly sketched, that’s all I have, one concept sketch from one angle.
The main body, or as I will refer to it as the Fuselage, will be made from drink cans.
an Ice cream cone top.
the diameter is the same for the can top, amazing luck.
and some interesting basic supplies from the model shop, the AT AT will have to wait.
5 Likes
Look forward to seeing what you do with it.
1 Like
first of all, using serious glue to join the fuselage segments.
the Cockpit sprayed and joined to the fuselage
cutting the upper tube carefully and joining that to carboard rings covered in sheet styrene.
3 Likes
with the lower smaller gauge tubes glued securely to the fuselage rings, it’s time to start scratch building the frame that run longitudinally along the Fuselage.
using strong extruded plastic for the frames main members.
once you have integral strength you can add finer display detail
the frame added to the upper and lower tubes
with both frames added, the model can rest squarely on the worktop and stop rolling around.
4 Likes
the engines outboard of the side frames will be made from 20mm dowels 30cm long, with domes cut from two spares box aircraft tanks.
I think the domes are from a 1/24 scale Hawker Hunter.
didn’t need the tanks as I was converting the model into the Duke Hunter air speed record machine for my local air Museum
6 Likes
the Dowels will be sprayed in High build primer to get rid of the grain.
4 Likes
while the Dowels dry, it’s time for some styrene bashing, making the rear engine supports.
these won’t take any weight, they are just for display, the weight of the wood dowels will be taken by steel rods from wood to the frame lower brace.
4 Likes
Interesting to see how you progress.
One thing always made me smile about the prototype was the nose that was so clearly a Soil Vent Pipe Top shroud.
Keith
1 Like
whatever they could get their hands on at ILM that looked space like or could be disguised, the MF they used on star wars has Tiger Tank rear decks, a Jagdpanther upper hull, F1 car and you can defiantly see landing gear from something.
So far the test fit of the Nacelles, slip those off to detail them to look like engines from a long time ago in a Galaxy far away.
4 Likes
Looks like an interesting project!
It reminds me of the Eagles from Space 1999.
2 Likes
Great idea and superb execution so far!
1 Like
Interesting that you should spot that, part of the reason Lucas rejected the long Fuselage design was because Gerry Anderson had just released Space 1999 and he wanted to avoid any comparison with the Eagle Lander, going one further from 1999 Eagle with Millennium Falcon. He was also of the opinion that the Eagle Lander was more realistic and likely something NASA would be using in a few years time, this was 1975.
digging through some spares for likely Greeblies.
styling the Nacelles up with mini fins
5 Likes
with the engine Nacelles bonded onto the mounts, it’s time to styrene bash the large tail fins out.
their appears t be a slight curve to them
4 Likes
the support struts look to be substantial too.
5 Likes
oh I’m following this for the long haul!
1 Like
the Horizontal tail fins and the struts ready to go on.
fitting and holding the main struts in place
4 Likes
a quick check, offering up the fin for clearance.
6 Likes
both fins fitted in position.
the nose cone appears to have a box like structure under the chin, with two projections either side facing forward,
using a spare ice cream clear plastic cone for reference, to mark the curve, the cone sinks into the top surface of the box.
the bases of the projections are made from spare Typhoon Rocket warheads.
The Typhoon I made a while back.
6 Likes
