75192 - UCS Millennium Falcon 2017 MOD/MOC

[Schneeds]

Any chance you guys could post the parts list some place for bricklink?  Fantastic job recreating Marshal's. 

[eddmont]

3 hours ago, Schneeds said:

Any chance you guys could post the parts list some place for bricklink?  Fantastic job recreating Marshal's. 

If you can download the .io file you can export a wanted list. Just remember to double the number of parts.

[Neophyte_brickie]

Re: Marshal Banana's docking ring custom mod

That's disappointing that the 'correct' number of link treads is one too many.  Curious that it seems to be just right in Studio.  There's got to be a solution, right?!

I've modified @Vouatch's design to incorporate the idea of using an 8x8 round plate; it seems to work in Studio.  I've done a Bricklink order, so will post again with the final result - see if it eliminates 'the sag'!  Will be happy to share if it works.

edit: I mean the 4 round corner 4 x 4 plates that come together to form the equivalent of an 8 x 8 round plate.  They form part of the original docking ring construction.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Neophyte_brickie

[eddmont]

1 hour ago, Neophyte_brickie said:

Re: Marshal Banana's docking ring custom mod

That's disappointing that the 'correct' number of link treads is one too many.  Curious that it seems to be just right in Studio.  There's got to be a solution, right?!

I've modified @Vouatch's design to incorporate the idea of using an 8x8 round plate; it seems to work in Studio.  I've done a Bricklink order, so will post again with the final result - see if it eliminates 'the sag'!  Will be happy to share if it works.

edit: I mean the 4 round corner 4 x 4 plates that come together to form the equivalent of an 8 x 8 round plate.  They form part of the original docking ring construction.

I tried that, but you then need to put on a 2x2 round plate on the bottom of the 2x2 plate modified with bar. If not the 1x2 clips hit the studs. Then when you attach to 10x10 dish there is a huge gap between the dish and the tiles/tread. If the 10x10 were flat it might work but it doesn't exist.

[Neophyte_brickie]

1 minute ago, eddmont said:

I tried that, but you then need to put on a 2x2 round plate on the bottom of the 2x2 plate modified with bar. If not the 1x2 clips hit the studs. Then when you attach to 10x10 dish there is a huge gap between the dish and the tiles/tread. If the 10x10 were flat it might work but it doesn't exist.

My design doesn’t use the 2x2 modified plate with bar. I think it will work, but need to build it with real bricks!

[Neophyte_brickie]

 

A little sneak peak (Studio render - minus the 3x1 tiles around the outside) while I await my brick shipments. Looks the same on the outside, but differences are under the hood!

Edited November 18, 2020 by Neophyte_brickie

[ch3ck_mat3]

cool mods!

[Vouatch]

On 11/19/2020 at 12:17 AM, Neophyte_brickie said:

 

A little sneak peak (Studio render - minus the 3x1 tiles around the outside) while I await my brick shipments. Looks the same on the outside, but differences are under the hood!

Happy to see new tests to understand why it didn't work. Hope you'll receive your parts quickly. For my side, I never did a bricklink order, I would try it next year after holidays.

[Pepinard]

@Vouatch

Could you please show us (me ?) how you done the back of your falcon ? I'm talking about the mod you had on the differents panels (up and down) around the engine. I really like it ! Thanks

@Vouatch

[macaron35]

Is it easy to sell a second hand MF ?

I'm thinking of getting rid of mine. No space to display it.

I already sold my other UCS ships to get smaller ones and kind of hesitated to keep the MF but now I am seriously thinking about selling. The only issue is, will i get a decent price for it or will it lose a lot of value once built.

thanks

[ClassicLook]

On 11/14/2020 at 7:43 PM, eddmont said:

I finally got the pieces I was missing. I shortened the technic link tread by 1. I also had to add a few parts to keep the tread from sagging.

 

Also made changes to the docking ring wall. You'll notice the dark bluish gray 1x1 plate moves from above the 1x1 brick modified with clip to below it. This allows to attach back the hose nozzle without it hitting on the dish. 

Thanks @Vouatch for figuring out the design and sharing the LDD and @Lockfor hosting the file for us to all use. 

It's a great MOD, which looks much better than one of the factory model. For some critics: there is too much gap between the outer side of the ring and the panels and I'm missing the red and brown colours from it, but I don't have any suggestion, how to solve them. Anyway, nice job!

337577_big másolat by Gyula Herr, on Flickr

401406_big másolat by Gyula Herr, on Flickr

[Vouatch]

@ClassicLook Hello, happy to see a new proposal. I'm not sure that with this version we will go near the movie design colors but, that's interesting to try it and I love the idea of putting reverse the 2 handles.

What do you think about this new version?

the dark red only appears in 4 different points as on you picture and the 4 dark tan clip are the same as well.

 

[Vouatch]

On 11/25/2020 at 3:53 PM, Pepinard said:

@Vouatch

Could you please show us (me ?) how you done the back of your falcon ? I'm talking about the mod you had on the differents panels (up and down) around the engine. I really like it ! Thanks

@Vouatch

of course, look at those pics:

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Vouatch

[Pepinard]

OK ! So everything just hang with the bar and the tile with a clip. I tought everything was connect under. Already made a bricklink order. Thanks !

[Vouatch]

yes you're right, very easy to do, but not easy to align lol But since they have to be mobile each one, it's technical correct. A future good way would be tu put reverse tile under to make it more clean.

Think about mixing dark red / grey and dark tan to accord with MF general color

Edited November 29, 2020 by Vouatch

[Pepinard]

Yes, the inverted tiles was my plan at the begining since I looked at Marshal banana's Falcon. But because I'm not really good with stud.io, I'll first wait for my order and try at this moment to put some inverted tile. But with only  2x2 .. it will be quite complicate I think.

[Neophyte_brickie]

Well, my brick shipments finally arrived and last night I got busy building. 

Behold: a Marshal Banana style docking ring with the correct number of link treads!

I have to confess, this relies heavily on some illegal techniques. I'm pretty busy for the next few days but after that will post some more detailed pics to show what I did, and some instructions.

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by Neophyte_brickie

[eddmont]

5 hours ago, Neophyte_brickie said:

Well, my brick shipments finally arrived and last night I got busy building. 

Behold: a Marshal Banana style docking ring with the correct number of link treads!

I have to confess, this relies heavily on some illegal techniques. I'm pretty busy for the next few days but after that will post some more detailed pics to show what I did, and some instructions.

 

Nice. Interested to see how it worked out.

[Jez_AU]

I’ve just finished my falcon and am slowly trying to get it close to the OT looking falcon. I’ve changed the dark grey on the mandibles to light grey to match the rest of the it and have nodded the engine as well. Just waiting on parts to fill the spot between the mandibles and then I just need to replace some of the tan squares. I’ll post up some photos once I’m finished. I did find a really cool link that shows the 5’ Model and a Bandai PS finished model. It’s really good to see what’s red and what’s dark grey etc. hopefully these might be useful to someone

 

https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/my-falcon-in-the-current-fsm.334726/

 

 

[Vouatch]

On 12/1/2020 at 10:55 PM, Neophyte_brickie said:

Well, my brick shipments finally arrived and last night I got busy building. 

Behold: a Marshal Banana style docking ring with the correct number of link treads!

I have to confess, this relies heavily on some illegal techniques. I'm pretty busy for the next few days but after that will post some more detailed pics to show what I did, and some instructions.

 

Youhou, thanks for feedback, will appreciate to know where changes are made. Result is nice, but a question that I posted las time, can't we see inside too much?

I think we are at goal with this design!

13 hours ago, Jez_AU said:

I’ve just finished my falcon and am slowly trying to get it close to the OT looking falcon. I’ve changed the dark grey on the mandibles to light grey to match the rest of the it and have nodded the engine as well. Just waiting on parts to fill the spot between the mandibles and then I just need to replace some of the tan squares. I’ll post up some photos once I’m finished. I did find a really cool link that shows the 5’ Model and a Bandai PS finished model. It’s really good to see what’s red and what’s dark grey etc. hopefully these might be useful to someone

 

https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/my-falcon-in-the-current-fsm.334726/

 

 

thanks for this link !!!

Try this one : https://sites.google.com/site/3dsfinfo/

Edited December 2, 2020 by Vouatch

[Neophyte_brickie]

10 minutes ago, Vouatch said:

Youhou, thanks for feedback, will appreciate to know where changes are made. Result is nice, but a question that I posted las time, can't we see inside too much?

I think we are at goal with this design!

Yes, absolutely, I just need some time to sit down with it again, take it apart, take more photos etc. I think the design still needs some tweaking and I’ll be interested to see if the users on this forum have any ideas.  

[Jez_AU]

Here’s some photos of my progress.

Dark grey on mandibles removed and some of the red panels modified around the fuse and engine area. 

Untitled by LEGO-Dad, on Flickr

 

Updated engine from Classiclook on rebrickable

Untitled by LEGO-Dad, on Flickr

 

Added some led lights and they rock!!
 

Untitled by LEGO-Dad, on Flickr
 

Untitled by LEGO-Dad, on Flickr
 

Untitled by LEGO-Dad, on Flickr

[Vouatch]

@Jez_AU hello, hard to say if your version is better like this or not, your color changement is very low, I have some difficulties to find it. so it would certainly said that this is a good work, with little touches and keeping the original design !

Did you use an original picture, can you share it to look what was wrong?

[anothergol]

A part to consider for the side rings:

while this old wheel sucks as a support because it's too thin & offers no friction for clips

..the new (larger) one from the Ecto 1 really does and is an amazing base for cylindrical stuff, with more room around.

[Neophyte_brickie]

On 12/2/2020 at 7:55 AM, Neophyte_brickie said:

Well, my brick shipments finally arrived and last night I got busy building. 

Behold: a Marshal Banana style docking ring with the correct number of link treads!

I have to confess, this relies heavily on some illegal techniques. I'm pretty busy for the next few days but after that will post some more detailed pics to show what I did, and some instructions.

Ok, so here goes - this is going to be a long post.  I've further tweaked my Marshal Banana-inspired Docking Ring mod, and I've achieved a solution I'm satisfied with.  I must reiterate though, this may not satisfy the purists, as it relies on a completely unorthodox technique - albeit using genuine Lego pieces.

The essential problem is that the attachment between adjacent link treads is not tight - it is designed to allow frictionless rotation of the individual treads around the connection axis.  A chain of link treads is therefore basically floppy - it won't hold any particular shape without bracing.  So not only do the link treads need to be braced from the inside of the structure, that bracing has to provide stability to essentially every individual link tread (otherwise small lengths of the link tread chain remain floppy and sag inward), and it has to force the link tread structure into a circular conformation.  @eddmont has shown that's more or less achievable with 31 link treads, but the solution sacrifices the symmetry of the original @marshal-banana design, losing the pattern of alternating 3x1 tiles around the outside of the link treads.  The 32 link treads of the original design is just too saggy on the internal structure conceived by @Vouatch and realised by @eddmont.

This is how my solution looks from the outside:

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

As you can see it is achieved using 32 link treads and is nicely circular.

The following photos reveal the internal structure:

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

This assembly, with a base comprising 4 round corner 4x4 plates, attaches directly to the 10x10 inverted radar dish.  The 8 columns of 1x1 round plates around the outside of the base (each composed of a stack of 3 round 1x1 plates) is critical to the overall construction - the profile of these creates a kind of track just the right distance from the centre of the construction in which the chained link treads can sit.  The ring of 32 link treads is thus held in position by these round 1x1 plates.  The following photo shows how the chain of link treads sits nicely up against these columns of round 1x1 plates:

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

There is still a problem though.  It becomes more noticeable once the 4x4 round corner wide macaroni tiles are added:

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

There isn't enough support to the inside of the ring of link treads to prevent it sagging inward between the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions.  This is where I had to get a little unorthodox, and employ a lot of trial and error.  You're going to need a bunch of these (hose nozzles) - 8 of them to be precise:

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

If you've built the UCS Millennium Falcon you'll have a bunch of them left over; and even if you don't have enough, they are cheap as chips to buy.  These are exactly the right size to wedge into the gaps on the inside of the ring of link treads, and force it to assume an almost perfectly circular conformation, as in the following photos:

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

It's easier to get the hose nozzles into position if you temporarily remove the handlebars.  You can use a small hobby screwdriver or similar to get them seated correctly (the space is far too tight for fingers, and you need to have the link tread ring in place first to hold them in, since there is no connection to other parts).  If you get it right, the hose nozzles are held very firmly in place - there seems to be little risk that they will spontaneously come loose, and in turn they buttress the link tread ring very firmly - there is no appreciable rotation of individual link treads.  So the whole construction feels very stable, and it's very easy to then attach the 3x1 tiles around the outside.  My only residual issue is that the link treads and attached 3x1 tiles sit a little higher than I would like:

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

Notice the gap between the base of the link tread ring and the 10 x 10 inverted radar dish.  That's me being pedantic though - I can certainly live with it.

As @eddmont has pointed out, the base to which the docking ring assembly is attached needs some slight modification:

Untitled by Robert O'Sullivan, on Flickr

This amounts to swapping the position of the 4 modified 1x1 brick with clip and the attached dark bluish grey 1x1 plate - such that the 1x1 plate moves from above the 1x1 modified brick to below it.  You can use a standard 2x2 brick to attach the docking ring structure to the base (I've used two 2x1 bricks in the photo).

For those interested, here is a link to instructions (created in Stud.io) for the docking ring, which includes a parts manifest: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h93bm22umaa7sq5/MFDockingRingMBinspired.pdf?dl=0 Please note the instructions do not include the 8 hose nozzles and the 16 3x1 light bluish grey tiles.  I've ended up slightly modifying the surface layer of the inside of the docking ring along the lines of @Vouatch's latest iteration, but this is all a matter of aesthetics; obviously you can play with the colours as well.

I'd be very interested to know if anyone comes up with improvements to my design, particularly if anyone comes up with a solution using only legal building techniques.  

Edited December 6, 2020 by Neophyte_brickie
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