This model was originally built by Ed Halbig and myself in the late 70’s when we were teenagers. We used posterboard and a few model greeblies. The scale of the original model is around 1/48. For this version, I decided to go big and make it 1/32.
The frame was wood and the mounts were plumbing fittings. I knew it was going to be heavy, so I over compensated for that a bit. After the the wooden frame was built, I covered it in sheet styrene.
I designed it to be mounted from top, bottom, front and back. You can see the mount points in the above picture.
Above is the paper pattern I made to get the scale right.
The first bit of detail I built was the laser canon that would go on the nose. No idea why I started there. Probably because it was not cutting sheet plastic and thus was more interesting.
Here we see the new model’s bridge in comparison to the old one. The old model was covered in lots of panels and had very little greeblies. The new one would be more like the Falcon and thus, covered in model parts.
Here is a shot of the original model on the new model’s frame. My only regret is that I FUBAR’d the width of the model making the new one fatter than the original.
Here’s the bridge at the head of the model getting framed around the mount point.
A necessary step, but one that I loath, boxing in the frame with plastic sheets. The only cool part about this is that when it’s done, you have the shape of the model completed.