Star Wars - "Millennium Falcon Cockpit" - 1/12 Scale Illuminated

[mtrappett]

I've been busy working on this since April 1019. I had to take a break, but I'm back on it now to the end :fight:

This is the Star Wars Millennium Falcon Cockpit designed by UHU02 that I modified to support additional strength, fiber-optic lighting, cockpit front windows, and updated/modified nose cone fitment required to support the addition of windows. The fiber-optics have taken a lot of work and planning to install. I used approximately 150 feet of fiber of different thicknesses. I followed the original model as far as color and position on the lights.

The model is actually a little smaller than 1/12 scale it seems. The action figures from the Star Wars Black Series from Disney Hasbro are in fact 1/12 scale but these are way too big for the model. The figure of Rey that is used in UHU02's pictures is smaller in size and suits the model well. I wanted to use the original pilots of the M. Falcon in my version but I will have to keep looking for a good fit.

I followed the same sequence for the build as the original from UHU02. The door is shown part way through construction below.




Small door supports/guides are shown below. These are pretty tiny to make.



Here are the guides in place. They stop the door from shifting when in the closed position.







































I did have to strengthen the bulkhead as it was way too floppy for what I wanted to do with the lighting. Even with it won't hold it's shape too well as can be seen in the picture below.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

I am glad to see someone else working on this! At 1:12 scale, there is considerable room for greebling! I am looking forward to seeing how your build turns out!!!

 

[Gandolf50]

Me TOO!!!

 

[Revell-Fan]

WOW! Great start!

Bummer regarding the size issue but it is good you found out to warn others. There are three major producers I know of who make 1/12 Star Wars figures: Hasbro (Black Series), Bandai (model kits & SH FiguArts) and Mafex. UHU02 uses the Mafex. All differ a bit in size. I know that the first Mafex Darth Vader is a dwarf but I'm quite surprised to hear that their Rey is smaller than Hasbro's. You could print a slighty larger copy before you invest too much work in a too small cockpit. Just a thought.

 

[mtrappett]

I am glad to see someone else working on this! At 1:12 scale, there is considerable room for greebling! I am looking forward to seeing how your build turns out!!!

Your right about the greebling! I love that UHU02 designed this.

 

[mtrappett]

WOW! Great start!

Bummer regarding the size issue but it is good you found out to warn others. There are three major producers I know of who make 1/12 Star Wars figures: Hasbro (Black Series), Bandai (model kits & SH FiguArts) and Mafex. UHU02 uses the Mafex. All differ a bit in size. I know that the first Mafex Darth Vader is a dwarf but I'm quite surprised to hear that their Rey is smaller than Hasbro's. You could print a slighty larger copy before you invest too much work in a too small cockpit. Just a thought.

Yes, it will save a lot of heart ache later on. The Black Series seem nicely detailed so I was hoping that they would work without changes to the scale of the cockpit which is already huge, and I have little space in the place we are living right now. The Mafex have really good detail but they don't have the characters I want for this project. They are also expensive especially if they just have to be ripped apart for modification. I am already too far into it to start an upscale. I will just have to work with what I have I guess. Thank you for your feedback though I appreciate it very much!

 

[mtrappett]

Here are the Disney Hasbro Star Wars Black Series Hans Solo, and Chewbacca 1/12 scale figures for size evaluation and comparison.

I think they are nice looking figures with all the joints for posing.




Hans Solo is about 6'' or 150mm in height which at a scale of 1/12 at 1" equals 1 foot brings it to about 6 feet tall which is pretty good. Chewbacca comes in at a lofty 8" which equals 8 foot tall for the real guy kinda like a Big Foot but not as wide in the shoulders



Great detail on these.



The seats are way too small for Mr. Solo. The seats are also straining under the weight of the figure.








An even bigger problem for Chewbacca!







:hide: It looks like he's saying, "Sit down right now or I shoot!"


It could be possible to 3D print the models but that would be a ton of work. Here's the character that UHU02 used for his:

Star Wars - Mafex Rey

And here is the Figuarts Chewbacca but he's 175mm (pretty tall as well).

Star Wars Figuarts Chewbacca

 

[mtrappett]

Moving further with the build.





















There were some issues that had to be fixed during the build. One of them was the width of the floor platform. I had to cut it away and re-space it giving an additional 4mm or 5mm to the width.







Had to modify the thickness of these as the card I used was too beefy. I just peeled away a layer or two. Its important that this is right as if not, it will throw all the rest of the model out.



1.6mm exactly! Just what the doctor ordered! Hey, I got to test out my new digital micrometer too! Claphands























These need to be straight and strong as they are the backbone of the model.... most important! :Smartass:







Floor sections and wrap around pieces that form the cockpit.




A lot of these pieces were way to flimsy for me, so I reinforced a lot of the parts to give more robustness.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

That is a HUGE difference in size and scale.

 

[mtrappett]

I used acrylic paints to match the colors where touch-ups were needed, and on the edges of the paper/card.





The detail that UHU02 adds such as the weathering for the floors is really nice. He's an awesome paper model artist .



Hans would bump his head when he enters the M. Falcon in this case.



It only became really apparent about the scale matching issues when I got to working on the insides of the cockpit like the seats especially.















The cardboard laminating of the smaller details is very intricate. The thicker the card, the more awkward the cutting. Lots of new Z-Series X-Acto blades used for this process. Interesting... they look like piano keys!



This one is a bit different.




Stated gluing in the detail pieces to the inner sides. Tiny amounts of Elmer's white glue thinned a little. The wide white/blue bars are the main lights for the cockpit area. I may replace these with working light strips in the future. I have something on the way from overseas that might work pretty good.



Small gauges pretty easy to cut out and paint the edges with the dark gray to help with the feeling of depth (3D effect).











Getting there bit by bit. Take your time! No sense in rushing it. It's meant to be fun after all!















Some of the details are a real challenge to cut out. Here's one of them .



They really do make the model look better though I think. I did the same on my UFO Interceptor.

 

[mtrappett]

Continuing with the small cockpit details. Tweezers are a must of course.




























































It's easy to get mixed up with these parts so I marked them with a pencil very lightly.







Here's where I had to widen this assembly. I made sleeves out of paper to help guide the sides properly. I left them unglued as long as possible to allow for any more shifting.




The area where the side members are glued to the bottom of the door is what I had to modify. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and my wife is always telling me I am totally crazy! She doesn't see things the way I do .



Yep, here we go! Adding the supporting pieces for the cockpit inner surround. These were way too floppy so I laminated each of them with card.

 

[mtrappett]

Continuing on with the main body assembly for the sides. The idea which I think is really neat is that you can lift the sides of the cabin so that you can put your camera pointed inside the model, and take photos... like a film-set. There are four main flaps... two uppers and two lowers. These gives a really good access for getting the feel of the M. Falcon's innards. The door also slides open and closed.

The sides are held temporarily in place with paper clips. These are a little awkward to line up on the layers of the paper. You also have to keep tweaking the side pieces alignment related to the inside so there is no white paper edges. (later, I modified how this works on mine avoiding the use of paper clips or clips of any kind).

I hope the different camera shot angles help anyone else that wants to build this model. Its not an easy model to build. Some of the most difficult areas of construction are at the end.




I used double-side tape to avoid any distortion of the floors. I also used invisible tape on any edges that are going to continually fold like the sides.




Make sure to glue all the flaps/edges to give it torsional strength .








The more precise the assembly is, the better here. You will likely need to test the parts fit... trim or sand the edge, and test again, repeating this process until it looks good. Make sure to look at the body from the front, rear, and sides to make sure it is all nice and square. Also make sure those side, "work surfaces" are not bowed at all! That will surely spoil your day or week!
























Here is where the paper clips are used. I went over the top a bit making sure it would keep aligned while I glue the necessary edges . Hey, I bought a new box of paper clips! I might as well use 'em.

The door is cool as well! It slides open and shut again allowing the camera shots through the cockpit body. UHU02 has made sure to allow access to the door from the right side (looking at the photo below).








You can see that the bulkhead sides are laminated with card here. Also, you see the edge that is protruding above the inner bulkhead... well, I found I had to cut each of these supports to a smaller width as this interferes with sliding on the outer hull at the end. It's easier I think to handle it now rather than later.







The inner front panels.











This is the control console underway.



This will tilt forward to allow you to access the four seats, and place figures.



Here's the top part of the inner cabin.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

This is coming together very nicely!!!

 

[mtrappett]

More construction for the floor.









Here's another modification. I added thick card in each of the large middle sections of the panels. I added these to provide rigidity, provide a thicker section for mounting the fiber-optics, and to stop any light bleeding through into the cabin.







Ah, the front two seats for Hans Solo, and Chewbacca.











The control console.

 

[Revell-Fan]

That level of detail is insane! Great work so far. I think you are the first building this kit after UHU02. What do you think, how much should the kit be enlarged to fit for the Hasbro's? Just in case someone else wants to use it for them, too.

 

[mtrappett]

That level of detail is insane! Great work so far. I think you are the first building this kit after UHU02. What do you think, how much should the kit be enlarged to fit for the Hasbro's? Just in case someone else wants to use it for them, too.

The upscale required appears to be not quite that straightforward. It appears after more checking and testing with the Hasbro characters that there are areas that may be needing significant changes such as the leg area around the control console inside the cockpit. The characters legs are very long and the minimum width that the joints will allow is still way more than will fit... Its hard to explain in words but the legs would protrude through the sides of the body they are so long. I think it would be necessary to maybe redesign the body somewhat to accommodate these characters. It is unfortunate that they were not available when UHU02 was originally designing the model. The contours and size/spacing of some of the key items would need to be changed in relation to one-another I think. If it was up-scaled based on the size of the legs, then other areas would look too large. If the model was up- scaled based on the seats, then the legs would still be way too long to fit, unless the legs were cut down, or off altogether . It wouldn't be a case of course just doubling the size of the model as a quick fix as that would make it way too big overall. It's gonna take some effort to make the combination with Hasbro figures work. I think that the model as it is from UHU02 is more like 1/12.75 scale.and some of the areas inside are 1/13 scale or thereabouts. The Hasbro characters are also pretty darn heavyweights too! The model would be easily crushed on the sides when it was lifted without substantial strengthening to the outer shell, flooring, seats, stand, and so on. Yeah, if anyone is thinking of buying these Hasbro Black Series characters to decorate this model in its original form, don't waste your money... and these figures are expensive and difficult to get as they are collectors items generally! If you wanted to go the whole hog, and add Princess Leia, C3-PO, and R2-D2, to the mix then WOW!! That would be REALLY heavy! There are also some 3.75" figures from Hasbro out there but the detail is not good, and they of course are too small

Thanks for the kind feedback as well Revell-Fan! I appreciate your support! thumbsup

 

[mtrappett]

My wife has had to go to the ER a couple of days ago, They won't let me see her because of the Covid-19 virus. They also won't allow me to talk on the phone right now as her breathing is hard for her. She has Stage 4 liver cirrhosis... NASH not alcoholic version plus type 2 diabetes. I am very worried! This is helping me take my mind of the problems a little bit!

Anyway, continuing on. Here's the console's base that will eventually be glued to the inner floor. The edges needed touching up a bit to hide the white paper.




This is the bottom of the console before any changes for lighting with the fiber-optics.



The control sliding levers. I found that the paper tubes were just too weak to work with easily so I instead used some thin-walled brass tubing. This is approximately 1/16" diameter tubing cut to the same length as the paper tubes. If you use a rolling action with the modelling knife it is easy to cut the brass tube to length.



These I believe are the warp-drive controls.







Some very-tiny details hard to catch with the camera but you get the idea.



The joysticks and their pedestals.



Here are the levers and other controls in place. This is where I started to think about how I wanted it to be lit-up. There are always compromises of course but the whole idea is to get the feel that the cockpit is active.











Hans Solo and Chewbacca would have their hands into these controls of course... same with the figures if used. Just another consideration.



I love the way UHU02 designed this model's functionality with mobility. I used some sticky tape on the hinge to provide more strength with the continual movement with adding seats and the figures eventually.



I sometimes continue working on another piece while the glue is drying on other stuff. Here I am back on the upper-panel.



There are more parts that are layered with cardboard here as on the sides of the panels. It really does add to the effects though.



Tiny, tiny, tiny parts!! I like to use a slower white glue for these details pieces as it allows time to get them perfectly aligned



This model from UHU02 also has the number of the part that will be placed in that area printed on it typically that is. I haven't seen that on his other models. It seems useful in some areas more than others. I still draw the number of the part in pencil on the back in most cases or attach a bit of a post-it note to it with the number.













Some hoses representations. Awesome details that UHU02 added to this model. That's what has always made me in awe of his incredible work .

 

[mtrappett]

The Lighting Process:

I must admit I enjoy reviewing these photos of the lighting of the model. It's been a ton of work, but it's been worth it to me. It pretty much drained my supplies of fiber-optics, LEDs, solder, heat-shrink tubing and so on, but hey, that's what it was there for after all. I decided to get a new soldering iron with temperature control. I found this really nice iron for the money and it heats up really fast and comes with some nice accessories too. This includes a solder-sucker, solder, stand, two pairs of really nice tweezers, and some clean-up tools for about $20.00.

It looks like some kind of porcupine character with all the fiber-optics sticking out everywhere .There had to be sufficient thickness to enable me to drill tiny holes through the cabin panels to enable the fiber-optics to be pushed through and the fibers would have enough support to hold them perpendicular to the surface. The drills are hair-type drills extremely fine and very easy to break which can really suck! I used the colors of the lights that UHU02 had assigned inside as they seem pretty accurate to me. It's interesting that there seems not to be any green lights? But that also seems to be the case on the actual M. Falcon.




I used Elmer's extra-strength white glue to hold the fibers in place. This seems to be the best glue to use. Super-glue damages the fibers as does most other glues including the hot glue gun. You have to add multiple coats of the glue as well.



I had to have a way to "flag" the colors that should be assigned to the fibers. I used some colored labels wrapped around the fiber cables.



Don't get me wrong, this is a very time consuming, intricate process.







I would break-off and work on the control panel too. Lots of drilling.



I had to dissect the boxes on each side of the panel so that I could route the fibers to the center portion.







Testing the fibers one-at-a-time with a small flashlight.



Here are the front seats. The seat-belts are removable if you so desire. This allows the figures to sit in the chairs more comfortably and looks better that is of course if there are figures available of the correct size.

I had to wet the paper in some cases to get the smooth curves or at least pretty smooth. It would be nice to get rid of the joins at the top of the headrest in the future. There is no denying it, the seats are not easy to build!! This is definitely not a good first model to build. I made a couple of errors making these seats but was able to fix the problems without starting over. I would rate this model as 8-out-of-10 for difficulty level excluding the lighting.



Tricky, tricky!!! The headrest is a tough one to get right... or even anything at all .



Love them seat belts!!



The chairs at the back of the cockpit. By the way, the Black Series figures totally won't fit anywhere near on any part of these! The arm-rests are way too narrow and too flimsy anyway to support any weight of a figure unless its a paper model.















Tagging the color of the fibers.



I started work on the nose-cone.



Oh yeah, I experimented with making the lights at the sides reflective but it turned out not to look how I wanted. I eventually discarded them and replaced them with white glossy light panels. I also made them embossed like on the actual craft.



These were the experimental light panels I made.

 

[mtrappett]

I needed to see how the nose-cone fits into the picture so I decided to start working on that a bit. Beware that there are a few areas that you will find will not fit without a little tweaking here and there.




Its a hard shape to re-create so its to be expected that there may be some slight issues to clean up. This isn't one of them though.



Be careful again to make a few pencil marks on the parts to ensure that they are aligned properly. I had my tablet with the instructions to build the model but some of the pages were not converted from Japanese. That made it so I missed a few minor things that I had to correct later. Make sure to thoroughly read his instructions and test the parts for correct fitment. I found I had to fix a few things.







Here's an area that I had a problem with. The long piece in the arc shape with tabs all along had to be sliced in a few places and trimmed to length. This is nothing major but if you want a nicely aligned model, it will likely be needed. Its not super-clear in some of the images on his Web site exactly what is going on with some parts so hopefully you will be able to clear up any ambiguities after seeing some of my pictures.







Its a brilliant design for the nose-cone of the M. Falcon that UHU02 came up with I think.



always check the alignment! Place the cone assembly on a flat surface and look along the edge that touches the work surface. Ensure that it looks even and that the rim is level. If you don't you will have issues later on. Don't overdo it with the glue too as it will cause distortion.







Have a break and go back to the fiber-optic work to break things up. I found that painting the fibers with an acrylic paint with the color of that it will carry has good results. The paint adheres fantastically to the fiber. It also has the added benefit of improving the strength of the fiber in the card working like a glue together with the white glue. After painting the strands I removed the colored tags that I used initially.















This is a good view of the edging being placed.



Having the number of the part available helps a lot with this assembly for sure.



Joining the two ends.



And there we go! Not bad. I can always seem to find areas that I could re-do, or am not so happy with. It seems there is an art to backing out mistakes that may be made when building these paper models. The use of a little water to soften an area. Or maybe just pulling a couple of pieces apart while they are still drying? Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Cutting another piece of the same and gluing it over the defective piece possibly? Or, in the worst case just remaking the part over. You find your own workflow for fixing stuff as you get more knowledgeable working on different models. I still have a ton to learn.







This is the outer skin of the nose-cone under assembly. This is a main focal-point so ensure that the cuts are clean and sharp. Paint the edges where its needed such as the black at the edge of the nameplate. Any inaccuracies will be plain for all to see here. Any glue marks, dirt, grease or so on.



This is a huge skin piece when it has been glued together. Its pretty delicate too, so take care to support its weight with your hands when its lifted and moved around.

 

[mtrappett]

I kept the cutouts for the windows to maybe use them as templates.








Its kind of a floppy deal at this stage in the game. The strips of paper avoid any problems with a bump where the join is.



This start of adding the window frames.







The pieces at the top of each of the frames shown below were strengthened by laminating them on cardboard. This definitely helps to add some strength at holding the shape of the cone, and I would recommend it.



Note the construction of the horizontal middle parts of the frame as they are built.







Here you can see the result of painting the fibers. It really helps to organize them.



The lights that are in the central bulkhead have a very limited space available on the inside where the door slides open and closed. This is where fiber-optics really shine (forgive the pun) as they take up so little room and can bend in very tight 90 degree angles. I can't think of another way of doing it without interrupting the door operation. I love these fiber-optics for that thumbsup. The finer they are, the easier they can handle bends. The ones I used were less than 1.0 mm usually about 0.5 mm and 0.2 mm.



Back to the node-cone construction.







I found I had to make a ring of paper to assist the joining of the two main pieces of the cone. I had problems directly attaching them together as there seemed too much to do all in one stage. That's making sure the front part of the cone stays in a nice circle shape and at the same time gluing it to the rear part of the cone. Trying to do too much all at once is a recipe for disaster. It's better to break it into steps in this case gluing the front part to what could be considered a "gasket". Then after that looked fine and dandy, then glue the gasket to the rear large part of the cone. There were still some very minor gaps but I filled those with white glue and painted over it with gray paint.



Here's the gasket I made for the job.



Its just laying on top of the part in the picture below.



More work on the main cabin. I laminated each of the "fins" with card as well as the base areas. I also drilled many holes to allow for all the fibers and wiring to be added. At this point, the model is getting quite sturdy.