Fun Fact: Patrick designed the Millennium Falcon model so it could be displayed to the public as a floor standing model, or to be hung from the ceiling. The catch… the model weighs over 700 pounds.
Millennium Falcon
Acton with his model of the Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon at Matchstick Marvels before its delivery to Ripley’s Believe It or Not
Construction of the Millennium Falcon model took 910,000 matchsticks and was completed in June 2017. As one of the most iconic Star Wars features, the model has a retractable landing gear and cargo ramp, running lights, engine-thruster lights, landing lights, and forward flood lights. It includes sound, adjustable communications dish, laser guns, and a cockpit featuring fiber optic lighting. The model took 2500 hours, 26 gallons of wood glue, and weighs 700 pounds.
The Millennium Falcon is a spaceship in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee First Mate, Chewbacca. The highly modified Corellian ship, a YT-1300 light freighter, first appears in Star Wars (1977), and subsequently in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983) and The Force Awakens (2015), with a brief cameo appearance in Revenge of the Sith (2005). Since then, the iconic ship has appeared in all subsequent Star War films.
“She’s the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy!” Han Solo
The Millennium Falcon’s pneumatic landing gear assembliesFraming for the Millennium FalconInstalling the pneumatic landing gear assembliesFinished internal framingThe model was assembled in the Acton family room, as his shop was too small.
The Millennium Falcon is made to disassemble and be moved through doorways as small as 32″ wide.
Adding the outside “skin” to the model’s framingThe underside details begin while the landing gear is extended.Beginning to add the fine details on the model’s undersideThe view from underneathBack-topside detail of the Falcon‘s engine compartmentHan Solo’s cockpit The sides of the Falcon are skinnned.The topside The Millennium Falcon‘s complex wiring for automated featuresFiber optic lighting is added to the cockpit.Engine on.
Finished in less than 14 months despite its complexity and use of 910,000 matchsticks, it is the second largest model Acton has made, laboring more than 50 hours per week.
Assembling the model at Matchstick Marvels
The Millennium Falcon‘s spatial footprint is the largest of all his models, requiring an area 20′ long by 13’ wide.
The Millennium Falcon model dwarfed Acton’s other models while displayed in Matchstick Marvels, before being shipped to its permanent home with Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
The Millennium Falcon is beautiful despite its reputation as “the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.”
