The Oota Goota is a ship that is dear to my heart.

I have fond memories of GMing for my friends as they spread mayhem around the galaxy in this ship (which they promptly stole off its owner as soon as they saw it.

I felt I needed to make it because the sight of 2 Falcons on one side of the table is just wrong to me.

I have made molds of the 8 pieces. Here are some I've painted.

(disclaimer: I'm still very new to the painting side of things. And the photography)

This one was the first and belongs to my son. He's a B-wing guy so...

Here's a green one.

And here's a crusty grey one.

That's really awesome! I love the design. Very Star Wars, nice twist on the old one. I especially like the engines. Seems very cobbled together.

Nice work on all of them! I like the paint job on the green one, very sleek.

That's really awesome! I love the design. Very Star Wars, nice twist on the old one. I especially like the engines. Seems very cobbled together.

One of the many stock versions of the YT1300 does actually look quite close to this one...

...the one in the middle is nearly there, but the OG is still heavily modified.

You can see where it used to have a cockpit in the same position as the falcon.

The flat areas on top next to the engines are unique.

And the strange dome on the starboard side. I like to think it's for one of these...

You can see how close the little ship is to the normal edge of the YT1300. I think it would make sense if it had a dome like that to accomodate it.

(Not based on anything, I just like the idea. The OG is soooo much older than the Owners Manual.)

Looks great. I want one!

Very impressive scratchbuild

Your painting mightn't be the greatest, but your modeling skills sure are. Awesome work!!

CyCo click the hyperlink to Armored YT-1300 in my sig

CyCo click the hyperlink to Armored YT-1300 in my sig

****! Thanks for pointing out your work!!

I'm totally with you that it looks strange to have to Millennium Falcons on the tabletop. The Falcon is supposed to be a special snowflake among the YT-1300s.

Do you have pictures of your model building process? And did you use Fantasy Flight's Millennium Falcon as the basis for your conversion?

No, if anything, the Falcon is a typical YT-1300... She just has some modifications. Her overall look is typical of the line.

Luke Skywalker: [on first seeing the Millenium Falcon] What a piece of junk!

Han Solo: She'll make point five past lightspeed. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself.

Special snowflake.

This was posted earlier as the normal forms of the YT-1300. Based on this graphic, the Falcon matches the basic style of the one in the left middle. The special modifications he was talking about could be about the engine and other systems.

Do you have pictures of your model building process? And did you use Fantasy Flight's Millennium Falcon as the basis for your conversion?

No Falcons were harmed in this process.

It's not a conversion, I sculpted it from scratch and then made molds of the 8 pieces that make it up.

I'll take some photos and make another post about the process this weekend.

(I'm a bit time-poor this week).

Any chance you'd be willing to sell me one?

The process I used was just starting rough and then refining.
Check out the first version of the cockpit...



LOL. I'm so glad I'm not still at that point.
Here's a rough engine...

For the main part I started by printing out the plan and elevation pictures from the sourcebook at the right scale.

Then I used coreldraw to produce the other views i didn't have (soooo fun).
I used those to produce this version...



That's made of cardboard, plasticard, sculpey (for the curved hull etc), easycast (cockpit), and paper on the mandibles paneling.

I noticed straight away that the plan and elevation pictures didn't resolve in some cases.

The little fins at the back didn't show in the plan.

There was some weird detail towards the front edge of the saucer section on the elevation that wasn't on the plan.

The flat section with that little dome on it behind the top gun couldn't be at the height it was in the elevation while still being as wide as it was in the plan.

Things like that. I dealt with most of these problems as well as i could.

This was the point were I turned my attention to where the part line should be. I knew it had to be 2 seperate molds so i could knock the bubbles out (you don't have access using a 2 part mold and pouring it solid).

I'm pretty hapy with how hidden the part line is.

Then I could make a silicon mold and turn it out in easycast (a 2 part rigid white urethane. Instant plastic).

This was a good point to get to because I can carve the easycast, glue to it, and it wont get damaged from wear like the flimsy first version started to.

Though after a while the easycast starts to lose it from all the sanding, filing, carving etc, and it's time to make a new mold so I can turn it out again in fresh easycast.

so here we are with the first plastic one at the end of that process, ready to be molded again...



...and after some more messing around, mold it again, then work on that new one til I get this...



..and then, eventually, I'm happy.
I have these, the 'plugs'...



They are the master versions which I used to make the final molds and will re-use If those molds deteriorate.
They'll just stay mounted on the boards like that til I need them.

When you're pouring a mold (and using one) the enemy is bubbles of air.
For those early molds I didn't mind getting one or two because I was going to work on what I turned out anyway.

But for the final molds I wanted a very high quality so i took them into work and used the vacuum de-gasser, a little chamber that produces pressure and pushes the bubbles out for you.
I dilluted the silicon by 10 percent which helped a lot too.
These molds rule.

If you look at the molds for the 2 main body parts and the airlock/dome it's not hard to see how they work.
I'm just pouring the plastic in there like jelly/jello.
(Sure, slight simplification. I have to knock the bubbles out of the nooks and crannys. And the top part is slush-cast (hollow) where the bottom is solid to prevent warping, but basically it's that simple)

Once the plug is finished and mounted the process for making a mold like that is simple.
Make some walls around the edge, mix silcon, pour.

But the 2 engine banks needed to be 2-part molds

To make one like this you imbed the plug in a little bed of plasticine. This bed will set where your part line is.
Traditionally you would put the line along the widest point but for this one I opted to make that sligtly more under (when viewed from above) to hide it a little.
I also made the one of the pieces have the whole of the engine opening because a part line through there would have looked awful all the time (you can imagine).
So I end up with engine and plasticine looking like this...



..I pour silicone and let it cure.

Then I flip it and take away all the plasticine.

I insulate all the surface of the silicon with a light layer of vaseline.
This stops the silicon from the second half, which we pour now, from sticking to the first half (suuuuucks).
Let it cure then satisfyingly seperate the 2 halves.

You can see where the easycast gets poured and the little channels that let the air bubbles escape have to be trimmed off.

You can also see where a frekin bubble stopped this piece from turning out usable.

All the pieces require tidying up of some kind. The biggest drag is leveling off the underside of the main top piece on the mandible area..
There can be quite a bit of excess there and it needs to be carefully cleaned up.
The area where the mandibles contact on the bottom piece can be quite a bit of work too.

The guns are 2 part molds as well.
I set a little piece of wire in the dorsal gun before I pour.
These molds have channels for the air to escape running from the end of the gun barrels.
I pour the easycast then push it through like a plunger to push all the bubbles out.

Any chance you'd be willing to sell me one?

FFGs policy is that they don't want us selling stuff on their site or using it to promote auctions.
So I hope I'm not getting in trouble when I say yes, I'll be selling some of these ships on a prominent auction site that will remain nameless.

They aren't there now but will be soon.
I'll mostly be doing them with tamiya spray undercoat on them and you do the rest (or give a 40k guy some ale or something to do it)
They'll be auctions so i don't know how much they'll go for.
I totally won't be doing anything by PM.

OK. I'd appreciate a heads up when you put them on there though.

Looks like a lot of work there. Well done.

So it looks like you did a mix of 3D printing and traditional scratch building. Do you have your own 3D printer? Any recommendations on that front?

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

If you look at the molds for the 2 main body parts and the airlock/dome it's not hard to see how they work.

I'm just pouring the plastic in there like jelly/jello.

(Sure, slight simplification. I have to knock the bubbles out of the nooks and crannys. And the top part is slush-cast (hollow) where the bottom is solid to prevent warping, but basically it's that simple)

Once the plug is finished and mounted the process for making a mold like that is simple.

Make some walls around the edge, mix silcon, pour.

But the 2 engine banks needed to be 2-part molds

To make one like this you imbed the plug in a little bed of plasticine. This bed will set where your part line is.

Traditionally you would put the line along the widest point but for this one I opted to make that sligtly more under (when viewed from above) to hide it a little.

I also made the one of the pieces have the whole of the engine opening because a part line through there would have looked awful all the time (you can imagine).

So I end up with engine and plasticine looking like this...

..I pour silicone and let it cure.

Then I flip it and take away all the plasticine.

I insulate all the surface of the silicon with a light layer of vaseline.

This stops the silicon from the second half, which we pour now, from sticking to the first half (suuuuucks).

Let it cure then satisfyingly seperate the 2 halves.

You can see where the easycast gets poured and the little channels that let the air bubbles escape have to be trimmed off.

You can also see where a frekin bubble stopped this piece from turning out usable.

All the pieces require tidying up of some kind. The biggest drag is leveling off the underside of the main top piece on the mandible area..

There can be quite a bit of excess there and it needs to be carefully cleaned up.

The area where the mandibles contact on the bottom piece can be quite a bit of work too.

The guns are 2 part molds as well.

I set a little piece of wire in the dorsal gun before I pour.

These molds have channels for the air to escape running from the end of the gun barrels.

I pour the easycast then push it through like a plunger to push all the bubbles out.

Any chance you'd be willing to sell me one?

FFGs policy is that they don't want us selling stuff on their site or using it to promote auctions.

So I hope I'm not getting in trouble when I say yes, I'll be selling some of these ships on a prominent auction site that will remain nameless.

They aren't there now but will be soon.

I'll mostly be doing them with tamiya spray undercoat on them and you do the rest (or give a 40k guy some ale or something to do it)

They'll be auctions so i don't know how much they'll go for.

I totally won't be doing anything by PM.

I'd be interested in such an auction as well, were it to arise, theoretically, perchance.

Really excellent work!

Looks like a lot of work there. Well done.

So it looks like you did a mix of 3D printing and traditional scratch building. Do you have your own 3D printer? Any recommendations on that front?

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

No, it's all by hand.

Maybe youre confused by the parts that have grey and white on them. Sometimes I tint the eastcast and sometimes I don't.

Or maybe it was when I mentioned coreldraw? That's just a vector based graphics program. I just used it to make a picture of the four views i didn't have.

I have no experience with 3d printing. Strictly old school.

Hit up gosric or melsminiatures or one of the other shapeways guys.

For those that wanted a heads up:

heads up

This kind of stuff just amazes me. I would have no idea where to begin.