Star Destroyer....18 years in the making.....

Been working on this, but mostly little details. There were a lot of places where poster board had small gaps, or places where things didn't line up right. I needed to find something that would fill this in. Elmer's glue would run too much. Was reading that mixing super glue and baking soda, it makes it instantly hard, but I got to thinking, what if I mix Elmer's glue and baking soda. Well, that worked perfectly. Made a type of paste that would fill in the bad spots, dry in 15-20 mins, then was perfectly able to be sanded. Can't wait to see how it will look painted over. I feel like I am finally getting close to actually finishing this...and for good.
 
Great idea! Thanks for posting this. Must give it a try. :thumbsup

JediMichael said:
what if I mix Elmer's glue and baking soda. Well, that worked perfectly. Made a type of paste that would fill in the bad spots, dry in 15-20 mins, then was perfectly able to be sanded. Can't wait to see how it will look painted over.
Click to expand...
 
Good efforts on the scratch building front...if I can make a suggestion: for your 4 small engines you could use caps from shampoo bottles, they could be the right size;) Also, look into the make-up aisle at the supermarket, lots of caps there and also anything to do with teeth floss plastic pics (details,details) cleaning product (more caps and stuff) and finally old computer innards and cassette tapes. keep up the good work.
 
joberg said:
Good efforts on the scratch building front...if I can make a suggestion: for your 4 small engines you could use caps from shampoo bottles, they could be the right size;) Also, look into the make-up aisle at the supermarket, lots of caps there and also anything to do with teeth floss plastic pics (details,details) cleaning product (more caps and stuff) and finally old computer innards and cassette tapes. keep up the good work.
Click to expand...

Good ideas. I have already finished the 4 smaller engines and glue much detail to them, so not going to go and change it. Wish I had known of this site like 7 years ago for ideas.
For now, I'm trying to see if theres a better item to use for the balls on top. Some say its the shield generations. Other places say its a radar dome, which probably makes more since. I now just have 2 bouncy balls on it, but would love to find something more close if possible with the triangles over it. Right now my budget for anything is pretty much nothing, but will still look anyways.
Anyone know what real model piece ILM used for those 2 parts? (or whatever they are from)
 
Looks like they used crystal/acrylic door knobs. 2 different types between the two models. I would need about a 25mm diamater. Maybe I can find one (two actually) at Lowes or Home Depot for cheap. If this gets to tricky to find, or expensive...I'll just stick with the bouncy balls.
 
Perhaps there are christmas ornaments with the shield reactor shape you described? Just a guess but I think I saw some cristaline ones with a string attached.
 
Heres my latest update. Glued the guns on the sides. Been adding more detail all over.









Also, was not at all happy with this ball part before. Can't remember what its suppose to be called. I originally cut out long triangles and glued them together and covered it in wall putty, kind of forming a half circle, but not so great. Didn't even use sand paper back then.
I trying to find something round, found we had this little ball that was suppose to light up, but was messed up. So I cut that in two, sanded it down and it fit perfectly. I never had the detail on the ball part, so was wanted that now. Happen to buy some christmas lights for outside the day before, the wire that wrapped them happened to be the perfect thing. Theres the 4 triangle looking parts. Found that on the part of a dryer sheet bar, the clip on part. (Hard to explain)



And tried to get that opening shot from Return of the Jedi, just instead of a star field, is funnier with my couch. Added death star 2 and shuttle/tie fighters for kicks.
 
Forgot to take pics of this last night. Added the strips on the engines.



Also tried glow-in-the-dark paint dabs for the little windows.
You can kinda of see it reflecting with the light on if close up, but should mix in with all the detail and not be noticeable.


With the lights off, looks pretty good. This shot just turned out really blurry.
 
Mizuno said:
Perhaps there are christmas ornaments with the shield reactor shape you described? Just a guess but I think I saw some cristaline ones with a string attached.
Click to expand...

I have been looking for the round reactor shapes all over the place. Nothing at Home Depot and Walmart. I've looked in the crafts, Christmas, fan and cabinet areas. Tonight I went to Garden Ridge, and they have a big Christmas section. Well, I did in fact find an ornament that was pretty close. Instead of little triangle covering it, it had little squares. But at a glance, looks better than smooth balls. So if I can't find anything better, I'll go buy the Christmas ones. On sale at $3 for 27 of them.

Also, my Dad gave me his old SLR 8MP camera, so I'll be uploading with much better higher res pictures soon.
 
Now that I have a much better camera, took more pics yesterday. Sized them down, hope there still not too big. Today I painted it and it does look really good, but still have a few little things to fix up.
I still need to get the better radar domes, only have the smooth round ones now. Should be able to get that this Thursday.
My Mom sent me a box if stuff for Christmas, in it is the original 1983 making of Return of the Jedi book. The first 2 pages is the pic of the star destroyer with the death star 2 in the background. That was one of 2 pictures I used to start this whole model....thought that was cool she sent it. Brought back memories. I loved the part of ILM talking about the models and how they made and filmed them. Overly complex filming schedule.



You can really see here that its way too short.










 
I really liked the shots where you set it against the floor, standing up so that it looked like it was flying at the camera. Those really made the whole thing shine! Fantastic details and progress!

- Master Tej -
 
With Christmas and everything going on, took a break from this. So now did a little work. Mostly, I added the new balls on the top,...which are way WAY to big...but, for now, going to keep them. The texture isn't even triangles, but little squares. But oh well, figure this is a different version of a Star Destroyer anyways.







And got the this part finally done.


Now I've been added the glow in the dark paint for the windows.
 
Looks like a StarDestroyer alright (that paint sells it already). As for the knobs, they're not too large and since it's another kind of Destroyer, it'll fit.
 
FINISHED!!!!!!!!!
I'd put that in the thread title, but not sure how. So nearly 19 years of work and 3 months since I really started reworking it this time. I never want to do that again.....

Here the final on these, with the little pointy things around the ball part made from toothpicks...pain in the butt to add those things. How did ILM do so good on theres.............!#^@$&!#%&!^


A full picture finished pic. Color is off a bit.


Maybe one day I'll go back and figure out how to add lights at least on the engines....for now, this part is facing the wall, so not too important.


Took the time to scribe detail on the whole model, but this part was the very hardest.


Here it is hanging in my room by my toys and old drawings I made years ago.


Here you can kinda see the tiny glow in the dark paint dots I added.


Heres a little closer pic with the lights off. This shot was quite hard to get.


I might be able to get a better shot of the "lights" and if so, will then post that.
For now, this is it and I'm off working on a new project that I'll be posting soon.
 

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.

Similar threads

E=MC2
1/48 scale star wars tie bomber in the making.
Replies
4
Views
295
E=MC2
E=MC2
Joseph C. Brown
1978 Imperial Star Destroyer variant
Replies
6
Views
661
publiusr
P
Moska
Revell 1/2700 Imperial Star Destroyer
2
Replies
37
Views
3,481
Moska
Moska
matencio
Looking for models to build - Harry Potter, Star Wars, Star Trek, props
Replies
7
Views
531
matencio
matencio
Analyzer
Star Wars Shatterpoint
2
Replies
23
Views
2,533
TerranCmdr
TerranCmdr
Back
Top