The last magazine had left us with an awesome mandible that had really taken shape but had been a stressful business for me. Trying to work my way around the delicate pieces that had been attached – in my opinion – too soon, had made the last time I had worked on the Millennium Falcon less pleasurable, and more anxiety driven. Not that any of that had affected my nine-year-old daughter (Ember) who has joined me on this build since day one. She knew what she was doing and had just taken it all in her stride. Thank goodness children are resilient!
With that installment still in my mind, I didn’t really know how the next magazine was going to go. Was it going to be more working around the delicate pieces? Would I be pulling my hair out in frustration? There was only one way to find out. I did my reconnaissance as I always do, to prepare for anything that might need a bit more attention or prepping. I instantly noticed that the extras that you get with the magazine, all about starships in the Star Wars universe, was only two pages. I usually skim over these as they are not really why I’m here. I want to build the Millennium Falcon. I always have a quick look and this time; there was a severe lack of information. There could only be one reason for that: there were a lot of instructions for this build.
All forty-seven. That’s how many steps there were to these instructions. Coincidentally, it is also how many fine details there are to add during these instructions. That is a lot. I complained that I wished the finer details came after the construction. It seems that a lot of them do. Yes, I want to switch the order of the magazines but in doing so, there would be times where it would be fine detail after fine detail. The light at the end of the tunnel? We would be adding some electronics to the end of the mandible. While that is cool, I was trying to make sense of all these detail parts. For Ember, she lets me do all the gluing with parts like this, as she does not like using super glue. Hopefully with the tweezers I had brought her, she might take a bit more of an active role, but I could see this being a slow installment, one that wasn’t going to particularly excite her and something that was going to increase my frustration.
I can’t say that I didn’t think about doing this part without her, surely it would be easier. Yet we had come this far in the project, together. We had faced several problems during that time, together. This was just another obstacle to overcome and maybe – just maybe – she might surprise me and get stuck into it. There was only one to find out!
Ember and I sat down and quickly started on the inner details. Ember was more than happy to clip and file, with very little input from me. When it came to gluing them, the tweezers did the trick; if I put the actual glue on, she’d attach the parts. It didn’t go quite so well to begin with, but Ember listened as I showed her what to do, and after her second or third go, she knew exactly what she was doing. This was one of those times where the repetition was fantastic for her. It allowed me to demonstrate what she needed to do and then she could hone her skills by actually doing it. By the time we got to the other parts, we were a well-oiled machine, she was cutting and I was assembling everything that needed to go onto the mandible itself.
The mandible. Oh, it was a bit of a problem. Trying to glue on the parts, while holding it, while avoiding the details we’d already added, while trying to also use the glue… well, it was not great to say the least, I really wish the long, thin details had been attached after all of this! Not only that, but steps six – nine has the wrong numbered parts, just to confuse things! Part seven should say glue (2) to (3) not (1). Then parts eight and nine should be talking about parts (1) and (4) not (2) and (4). Once you’ve got it sorted it does all make sense, but when you are juggling so much it is just another thing to have to deal with. But with the inner mandible done I thought that maybe – maybe – the outer details might be a bit easier. Let’s all hear Obi-Wan’s voice from Return of the Jedi, “I was wrong!”
When Ember turned over the magazine page, her whole body sagged, she couldn’t believe how much we still needed to do. This first part had taken us almost an hour. She had been careful, thorough and to give her credit, we had spent as much time as we usually do when completing a magazine. I could see she was getting tired. We endured through the first two steps until we got to step three, and we started to deal with small pieces, pieces so small that even I sagged and started worrying about losing them. I could see Ember’s face; I needed to take over. The relief that flooded her was obvious… I just wish I had that relief! Ember would come back later. But thank goodness she had gone because things were going to get difficult…
…the mandible…. Again! I was very quickly realising that I was adding more details, while trying to avoid already attached details, to a mandible that I wasn’t actually going to be able to lay down without putting pressure onto a detailed part somewhere on the mandible. Before anyone asks, yes, my head was hurting. There was now a jig to rest this on, although I could see from this magazine that one part was included and would clearly build up… eventually. The problem was I needed it now! I have never before had such a problem with the last few installments. I needed these in a different order. I needed the jig to be able to lay this thing down when it had details on, I needed the more robust details on before the more delicate ones. I mean for me; this seems obvious but not so according to these instructions. I got through it, but this wasn’t so much of enjoyment but just trying to survive, trying to get through without damaging any of Ember and my previous work. It was already a long installment, but that was sort of a blessing, but it was creating problem after problem.
Taking a deep breath, trying to make sure that the mandible could at least rest on some foam to try and help protect some of the details, Ember came back to help me with the headlight. Electronics, I mean, Ember and I love them. But as we were both already rather tired, I was a bit on edge after having to be so careful with all these pieces and one of the instructions says it’s a good time to test the headlights before attaching everything. Connect it to the control board… easy enough. But then it says to connect the battery pack, which is on the other half of the Falcon away from the control board. Suddenly something that seemed so easy was a huge task to take the battery pack off one half of the Falcon, attach it to the control board to test a light and then put it all back… that was where I drew the line! This was where I was going to just trust to the force and hope the light would work because I did not have the energy to do that!
Letting that part go, Ember and I could just concentrate on attaching the light. After the stress of the rest of the magazine, it was a welcome relief to do something simple and straightforward. The wire was a little fiddly and pushing the housing into the mandible added more stress, but it was done! It looks great and for all the pain it has caused this week I’m sure it will be worth it. One thing I do know for sure, the other mandible is going to be done in a very different order – if only so I can keep my sanity for a little bit longer!
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