With two more magazines before this current delivery was finished, my nine-year-old daughter and I were ready to dive back into constructing the Millennium Falcon from Fanhome. Before we could move forward however, we needed to look back. When we had completed issue eighty-eight of the Millennium Falcon – adding the lights for the engines – one set of lights had not been working correctly. With such a big production, non-functioning parts are going to occur. In this situation, it is how the company deals with them that I think is perhaps more telling. I had contacted Fanhome who said they would get a replacement sent as soon as possible. A week and a half later – the day after our previous review – a replacement magazine arrived. I was very happy with how quickly the team at fanhome got the problem sorted, allowing Ember and I to continue with our build.
So before looking at this current installment, it was back to magazine eighty-eight. Having the knowledge of doing this previously, Ember and I knew exactly what we had to do first; it wasn’t to fit the lights to the engine compartment! We knew that the most sensible thing to do was actually plug the lights straight in to the motherboard and check that they worked. There was no point going through all this again if the lights didn’t work. I would like to say that the odds of having two faulty light strips is probably very low but as a very wise scoundrel once said, “Never tell me the odds.” Ember plugged the lights in and thank goodness, they worked. We immediately got to work taking the original housing off and following the instructions to get the replacement one in place. One thing I had noticed with the down time was that the stickered lights were coming slightly away. These things need placing on and holding onto the engine for a few minutes, to let the stick do its job. With that done, it was plugging the lights in again and finally having an engine that lit up properly.
With that done, it was time to turn our attention to the actual magazine that needed work on, issue ninety. I wasn’t sure how I felt about entering the last ten percent of the build; the nineties. I could feel the end coming. While I welcomed coming to the finale, having an actual finished Millennium Falcon model, there was a part of me that didn’t want it to end. Ember and I have been working on this for years now, it has become a big part of our hobby time together. Before I brooded too long on this, I thought I better scout out the issue and find out what we were doing. There have been some huge steps for the model itself, the whole thing really coming together. This installment was a little lackluster compared to others – we would be adding even more details to the mandibles. I mean, I feel these mandibles have had more detail than any other part of the ship! I looked through and was almost ready to see if we could fit in two magazines in one sitting, but I stopped myself. I didn’t want to rush through the last parts of this project, and detailed work might sound easy, but it always seems to find a way of creating trouble!
With nothing much to do except grab some clippers, files and glue, Ember and I sat down to get started on this magazine. Ember sat down and actually said “yay” when I said it was clipping and filing. I didn’t even suggest gluing as she was more than happy with what she was doing. It really shows just how far her skills have come along since we started this project. I didn’t have to say a word: she identified the parts, clipped them, filed them and gave them to me in order to do the gluing. You’ll see in one photo her holding a single piece. This was something that she was really proud of, telling me that it was the thinnest piece she had ever cut out. I’ll be honest, I thought she was going to call me mid gluing to cut this piece out. I almost stopped her as I was worried the piece might snap but I held back and I’m so glad that I did. It made such a change from a few months back!
Ember encountered no problems and I was gluing, so most of it was pretty standard. There was one piece that I found slightly problematic, part ten. This one is supposed to just fit onto the mandible, but I found that a detail piece that we had attached earlier on in the project was in the way, preventing the piece laying flush. Very reluctantly, I started to bend the piece, a bit concerned it could snap. I shouldn’t have worried. The piece had more give than I thought and by doing this I could then put part ten in correctly.
With that we had a pair of highly detailed mandibles and an engine that actually lit up. While the actual magazine didn’t take us long, with sorting the engines out, it had taken us a while, so I’m glad we only did one installment! While the mandibles look great, there are still some holes, so I don’t think we’ve quite finished the detailing on them. It may have been short, but Ember and I really enjoyed this issue. With customer services replying and sorting our problem out so efficiently, we were back on track and into the final tenth of this incredible project.
