Millennium Falcon Exterior Details

Lots of work added to my exterior model of the Millennium Falcon, but lots and lots more to do. Arriving at this point has been a matter of referencing the full scale movie set built for A New Hope, and filling in the blank spots with "DNA" from the 5' Studio Scale Model built for effects shots.

The last image, for instance, showing the rear undercarriage assembly, was detailed completed from the studio model. That area was virtually blank on the full scale set. Almost all that bulky junk was kitbashed, in the studio model, from WW2 tanks. Painted all one color, it does lend the ship a sense of a working machine. 

The phrase "Drive Safely" really was on the rear end of the effects model. It was one of many joke decals, applied by the art department, which would have been too small to be caught on the silver screen.  

the Millennium Falcon Exterior in the Deathstar Docking Bay

Uploaded a video flyby of the exterior model of the Falcon. All the details you see on the Falcon are composited from the full scale movie set built for ANH, and the 5' Studio Scale Falcon used for effects shots. The movie set itself was only partially constructed, and lots of details are completely omitted from the top side, to save on budget.

In case you're wondering, the words "DRIVE SAFELY" and that long serial number really are on the back of the studio scale model of the Falcon. A fun little in-joke by the art department.

Lars Homestead Garage

A start on Luke's garage from blueprints found in the Rinzler tome. A good start, getting the lighting right has been key. The T-16 in the background was also built from production blueprints. The so called Lars Family Speeder was built from some basic plans that appear in the Star Wars Techinical Journal (Shane Johnson, 1994), but needed a lot of modification. Lots of details to be added, including the possibly modified Gaudi chair.

Bringing The "Linear" Falcon to Life

Early in the production of Star Wars, Joe Johnston and Ralph McQuarrie designed Han's "Pirateship" as a long bodied rocket-like vessel. Big engines on the back, a cylindrical body (underneath a lot of structural details) and a nose cockpit. This early conceptual design of the now iconic ship is sometimes referred to as the "Linear Falcon". However, concerns were raised that linear arrangement seemed too much like the Eagle transport vessel of the then airing TV show, Space 1999 (1975-1977).

A model of the ship had already been built, so rather than scrapping the 5' behemoth, they modified the cockpit into the hammer-head configuration we're now familiar with as the Leia's Blockade Runner. The old cockpit was removed, and became the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon we know and love.

Below is a work in progress model of that original design, based on Johnston's studio model, and McQuarries beautiful production paintings.

The scale is based on the 8' diameter of the movie set Falcon's cockpit (a model of which has been transplanted here from my model of the Falcon onto a model of the Blockade Runner body) Greebles were pulled straight off the Falcon as well, making a sort of mock up of what a full scale set of the ship might have looked like. I also used some virtual kitbashing to complete a few details, cutting up models of tanks and trucks to add to the exterior (which is how many of the studio-scale Falcon details were created) The ramp design is based on Joe Johnston sketches.

Yavin exterior with the Millennium Falcon

This is a composite that shows what might have been if the full scale prop of the Falcon had been composited into the shot of the Yavin Base exterior. I found copies of all the original elements of the shot that ended up in the film, and started playing around with recreating it from scratch, adding an element of my own. To get the Falcon into the shot, I used sketchup's photomatch tools to match the perspective of the hangar shot below. Then I added some simple figures into the scene where the actors are standing, to set the scale. Next I added my replica of the full scale movie set into the scene.

Here is the final composite

Now here's the the stack of effects elements

and finally, here is the shot as it appeared originally in 1977, without the Falcon

 

1950s Millennium Falcon

a bit of a "now for something completely different" while I've been busy with some projects....

a while back I realized that the Falcon was basically just a flying saucer with some serious stylistic modifications. Like the Enterprise before it, the ship transcends a basic Forbidden Planet style craft in some ingenious ways, but it got me thinking. What if Star Wars wasn't Lucas's interpretation of old TV action serials like Flash Gordon, but was instead a direct adaption of a hypothetical 1950s show featuring a farmboy, a space cowboy, and a old samurai flying through the cosmos in a "hamburger and olive" flying saucer?

well, I've answered part of the question of what that might look like with this little model.

The cockpit is from a B-29 Bomber, which is rumored to be the inspiration for the actuall Millennium Falcon's cockpit. The distinctive mandible style is based on a pair of vintage Vernier Calipers. I have a theory that the mandibles on the real Falcon were inspired by a more modern version of Vernier Calipers, and that the designers chose that intentionally, based on George Lucas in interviews saying that he imagined the falcon as being able to grab cargo.

Full Scale X-Wing Model

Started work on this model some time last year, and recently got a chance to make some major progress with it. I'm basing the exterior almost entirely on the full-scale prop used in the Yavin Hangar scenes in A New Hope. I've used sketchup's photogrammetry tools to refine the great blueprints designed by user Oldman over on the Replica Prop Forum.

The design is actually for a long time collaborator who is planning to build a 1:6 X-wing. The renders you see here are my 1:1 model scaled down to 1:6. A generic 12" ruler there on the ground in front of the rebel pilot cut out should give the proper sense that this thing is going to be Huge...