I wish I could! It takes so long to make the kits that I cannot even keep up with retail orders like I want to. If demand continues to be high I may invest in having the kits produced off-site...but that will probably drive the cost up a little bit per kit.
2. Why does it
take so long to make a kit?
Currently I do everything by hand. I create the masters, which takes countless hours of research and even more hours of building. I design molds, and create the molds using RTV silicone. I then mix the resin (a two part polyurethane resin) and pour it into the molds. The mold is then placed into a pressure chamber and pressurized to 30-60 psi (to reduce the chance of bubbles in the resin and ensure high quality parts.) The part then cures for 30 minutes to an hour, then I remove it from the mold, inspect it, and trim any flash and runners. The part is then prepped for packaging. Repeat this about eighty times and you get one kit! Then there's the chemical milling process ("photoetching"), and cutting the aluminum tubing.
Back in the summer of 1995, I stumbled across my original 1977 version of the Falcon, sitting mostly finished in its original box. I started the kit when I was young, and even though I had added details to the side panels in the form of motorcycle parts and the odd wire, and had added the forward bays built (very badly) from sheet styrene, it was just too toy-like. SO...
I spent about a full year gathering research and finding kits that contained the parts which the ILMers used on the filming miniatures. I was extremely lucky in finding many of the parts in a scale close enough to work, but sometimes I found myself creating the shapes I needed out of raw styrene. I obtained copies of all the best photos I could - the original ILM: Movie Magic book, the so-called "Technical Journals", several copies of the movies on VHS, and just about anything I could that had a decent Falcon photo.
Once I'd finished the parts, that should have been good enough, but during the year that I was working on the "masters", I picked up four more Falcons on sale. I thought I'd do them all in different settings or versions: the Star Wars version, landed; the Empire version in flight and landed, in dioramas, et cetera. But I just couldn't bring myself to re-master parts for each one of those kits. So I did a little research, and with the help of some very cool guys at the local hobby shop, learned how to mold and cast my own copies. Still, I had no idea of selling them...I just wanted extras for myself.
So I finally get my first good copies made and I took them to the hobby shop to show off. While I'm at the counter, this guy walks up and asks what the parts are for, and then asks where I bought them. When I told him that I had cast them from my hand-made originals, he asked me how much I sold them for...and that's where it all started! Just sort of a big accident.
The truly remarkable part of all this is that from 1977 to 1996 the Millennium Falcon had the same basic flaws - too tall and no detail - and in almost 20 years' time, no one had ever sold accurizing parts for the old girl! I suppose one might say it was just meant to be.
4. How can I
produce my own parts?
5. Do you sell
kits from other individuals?
I would, if anyone showed any interest. I've already put up a link or two to other folks who make parts, and I am more than willing to do the same for others. I'd like to get some of the garage kit companies to try selling through our site, at a better "percentage" than many other sites have.
6. I'm looking for
a specific model...can you help me find it?
Absolutely. If I do not have what you are looking for, just ask! I probably know where you can find one, or I can check my local sources to see if I can procure one for you.
To date I have been able to obtain some pretty cool models for folks that they had all but given up on. Some are:
The Enterprise A movie version, The Enterprise E, Terminator vinyl kits, and a few odd ones like the old Seaview and Flying Sub kits.