The simulated engine deck fans that come with Bandai's 1:72 "Perfect Grade" Falcon model kit have four problems.
First, they're injection moulded as a single component with the whole back piece, so the blades sort of meld into the sides and bottom of the fan interior. This doesn't look right and makes them a little awkward to paint. Second, the rectangular slots in the middle of each fan seem longer than those on the movie miniature, and some are misaligned. Third, the tops of the fans should be aligned individually to the curvature of the top hull, but the Bandai 1:72 fans are all vertically aligned to the horizon, as it were. And finally, you can't motorize the fans because they're all one piece of plastic.
So I decided to make this 3D print, which addresses the first three points. This version of my model isn't motorizable, but I have another version which can contain motors, if you're interested. That version is a lot more work to install, since the motors protrude downwards and interfere with the Bandai-supplied lighting system and battery box.
This static version can't be motorized, but does not require any modifications to the Bandai kit other than the obvious omission of the supplied fan part.
I call this set "static" since the rotors and blades are fixed in place. However, I made each one in two parts, which must be glued together with epoxy or superglue, for ease of painting. Photos of the prototype suggest that the discs and blades were black plastic, and the general dish area of the fan was a medium-dark grey. Since the Bandai grilles let a lot more light through than the Koolshade original parts, you'll probably want to darken the dish area for less contrast, and make sure all surfaces are matte.
Model accurate.
A lot of add-on fans for various Falcon kits feature all kinds of random designs, but I tried to make these as accurate to the five foot shooting miniature as possible. That means a big flat central disc with concentric scribed rings, nine blades, and a rectangular slot. (not that it really matters, of course, since you can't see the fan details in any of the movies anyway...) The fan dishes are also designed as separate parts to fit into each fan housing, which is more accurate to the original prototype than the all-aligned-vertically Bandai model.
Plastic type.
This version is available in both resolutions of detail plastic. There's really no point in paying extra for the higher resolution version, given that the bars of the grille obscure a lot of detail, but it's all here for completeness!
We're sorry to inform you that we no longer support this browser and can't confirm that everything will work as expected. For the best Shapeways experience, please use one of the following browsers: