I liked these scribbles in my Moleskine. I’ve kept it on my desk in front of my keyboard as I’ve transcribed dimensions from photos to CAD. Solving the geometric equation that results in the right shape an proportion has been a lot of fun – for me at least.
Studio Scale is the homepage for the Millennium Falcon Builder’s Club. The Club is a Yahoo Groups group and there is a pile of great information there. Everything from lists of kits for kit bashing to actual part maps that previous Falconers have put together and documented.
Without this resource, I’m not sure I would have taken-on the project.
This is the base model in 3D. I’ve been using Solidworks to make the CAD data that will eventually be used for machining and for build reference.
Aside from a few unobtainable kit parts, this is as much detail as I’ll be putting into the surface model. All the armor plating and greeblies and other details will be done by hand – probably over the course of many years. Oh my!
I’ll show in a future post how this model has be “parted-out” for machining. It’ll be a mosaic of smaller chunks of ABS plastic.
Initially, I had looked at making all out of one large piece of ABS, but it would have cost a mortgage payment just to make the saucers – way out of my budget. Smaller pieces means I can be more efficient in cutting a dome out of a source material that starts off essentially square.
My approach will, hopefully, be a bit unique. While I’ve done quite a bit of traditional fine scale modeling – most of my model-making experience come from the product design prototyping arena.
For this type of prototyping we use so pretty cool tolls that I hope to apply to my own Falcon build. I’ll employ some rapid prototyping, CNC machining, casting and probably some laser or ultrasonically cut part as well.
Of course, the ‘kit bashed’ portion of the model is where all the detail comes from. This aspect will be very traditional – except in instances where kit are no longer available, to too expensive to be had – like the Entex 935 RSR Porsche.
Having a somewhat digital workflow inevitably leads to a trail of digital assets. These assets, I’ll make avail able in some form here on the Falconer site.
The first of which is my 2D layout for the 32” Studio Scale model.
I’m using this as reference for placement of detail and overall proportion. It’s my translation of Helder’s documentation but it’s still largely interpretive – and in flux. But this is it as of the beginning of March. I’ll update it as my own model evolves.
The file can be opened into Adobe Illustrator and is dimensionally accurate, so you can grab measurements as needed.
I started my Falcon project in early January, 2009. It took me about a month to start unearthing all the resources available online.
It seems typical of a falcon build that the falconer spends hours scaling dimensions off of grainy little photos or scans from old books (most of which are out of print).
I’m not sure it it was coincidence or fate, but about the time I decided to start my own build, Helder Santiago posted hundreds of high-resolution photos of his Master Replicas model. Most of Helder’s photos include ruler’s and calipers for good measure – quite literally.
Here are the links to his photos:
I called this little internet cul-de-sac “The Falconer” not because I’m the only falconer – I’m actually just an aspiring falconer. It’s more of an homage to some of the guys who have come before me and inspired me to pursue my own build.
The two stand-out builds for me are Tim Ketzer and Morten Moeslund. When I saw what these guys had done, I knew that I had to join in on the fun, but I also realized also what an insane amount of work it would be. These two are have set the standard – I hope to live up to it.
Thanks guys!
I have a crazy ambition to build a full-sized studio scale Millennium Falcon. I’ll document my journey from time-to-time here.
This is a subset of my usual blog that can be found here – because one blog isn’t enough. Occasionally I’ll cross post, but for the most part – all my Falcon related stuff will be chronicled here and most likely end when the project’s over.
Enjoy!
J.