Building The Death Star - PRODUCTION

Let's see if this works... Here are pix of my model so far. Yeah, looks crude but gimme a chance! :) Remember it's a long way from being finished. The work shown is about 2 days work so far and a cost of only a few dollars......

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The main two hemispheres (and the stand base( were robbed from, of all things, a bird feeder which I found and bought just for this purpose about 15 years ago in the bargain bin of a Home Hardware store in Brandon MB. Saw the bird feeder and figured the parts would be perfect for making a Death Star!

A few details to add, the lights, switch and adapter plugs (so it can run off batteries or wall current) need to be added then paint. Although all the hard work is done as far as hardware is concerned, the time consuming part will be the paint work. Lots and lots of masking!

The top and bottom halves are held together with magnets so it's real easy to service the inside of the model if needed. The model plugs into the stand using a phono jack and plug.

The lights are done using three strips of 12 volt LED "tape" which is very bright, but the glue on the sticky back isn't so good. I'll have to stick that better with superglue to the clear cylinder in the centre.

The model will be sprayed overall on the outside with white primer to keep the inside reflective, then coated with dark gray primer for light blocking, tehn the work begins of applying the final finishes using light gray and then mask and spray granite spackle paint for the darker gray areas. After the paint is all dry, I'll take the end of a tiny drill bit on a pin-vise and scratch the paint to create the thousands of "windows" to let the light shine through.
 
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I found a photo-etched steel kit of the Empire State Building (stand's under 6" tall). Kit pieces provide a near-perfect stencil for the DS trench windows.

BUT...

Doing a quick test, the window of the ESB kit - though perfectly sized for the DS trench hanger bays - are really too small to get an etching tool in there to scratch away the paint (and retain the proper rectangle shape.

If I hadn't already layered on tons of paint to make the trench light proof (if the back wall of the trench was still light-transparent) I'd think of having a custom-made photo-etched metal strip and just glue the strip down. But to do that now I'd have to sand down the trench wall so light will pass through.
 
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Spring soccer is almost over and I'm making a dedicated push to finish this.

Been hung up on a small area in the city block immediatly to the right of the dish where I screwed it up with some over spray.

Had to respray the base coat, re-speckle the area, and add back the lines. All done now, except that the patina of the clear coat on the new area doesn't quite match. The amount of clear and/or the degre of age/weathering do not align, making the new area look - well - newer. Getting it to match will be tricky. More clear? More time (to yellow)...? Not sure...


Also been vexed by how best to do the trench lights but a friend shared with me an etching tool with a flat blade (like you suggested robn1), and inital test looked good, so I'm set to move forward with trench lights.

Talked earlier about wet-sanding to "fix" the yellowed clear-coat. I a crazy old fool if I pursue that. Maybe in my old age if I'm ever bored, but not before I "officially" finish the project.


I am, however, still obsessing about the blank grey areas between the city blocks, and am still respraying those. But that won't last long until I'm satisfied, sick of it, or both.

A few more days at most. Six or twelve months ago I was deep in the process of doing so, and DID reach a poitn where I was a bit tired of doing so, and was more or less happy with it. But after stepping away for a while and not gping back in, I see it needs more of this. But again, maybe two to four more work sessions (days) at it at most.


Then its on to upper hemisphere lights, trench lights.

Then a fork to stick in it...
 
Here are the shots I promised...

Yellowed square to the left; corrected square to the right - lost of areas and lines like that..
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Can you see the corrected area?
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The last light in the trench on the right is the new one (Brad did the rest a LONG time ago)...
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I am, however, still obsessing about the blank grey areas between the city blocks, and am still respraying those. But that won't last long until I'm satisfied, sick of it, or both.

A few more days at most. Six or twelve months ago I was deep in the process of doing so, and DID reach a poitn where I was a bit tired of doing so, and was more or less happy with it. But after stepping away for a while and not gping back in, I see it needs more of this. But again, maybe two to four more work sessions (days) at it at most.

This is addictive. The more I do, the more I see that needs to be done.
 
I can see some panels are more of a warm gray than others, but it doesn't really stand out. It just looks like variations in color.

Having followed this build from the beginning it's exciting to see it so close to being finished!
 
Nice to see this still going. I dont think people realize how much work these large models are. I know the betty is a killer. Its never ending details and parts. But keep at it. I enjoy seeing the updates. Its just so cool.

Al
 
I can see some panels are more of a warm gray than others, but it doesn't really stand out. It just looks like variations in color.

Having followed this build from the beginning it's exciting to see it so close to being finished!

Cool... Other than the lights, it pretty much is done (other than my obessing about the finish!).

I do like the variation in color too. I think my overall goal is to have most of it (about 2/3 - 3/4) corrected to the more blue-ish grey tone, but leave some of the yellowed, warmer grey. Plus, even the corrected areas will likely patina over time, and "warm up".

By the way, the best way to see the difference is in the dish. The center dish is more yellowed, or warm. This was by design; the original was that way. I accomplished that simply with a heavier coat of clear, more so that simply age/time.
 
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The builder's eye is more critical of the work done. The observers eye, a bit less. To most I would say the finish and detail is perfect.
 
The builder's eye is more critical of the work done. The observers eye, a bit less. To most I would say the finish and detail is perfect.

Yeah - I've already started to back down on re-spraying the yellowed areas. Will do a few here and there as I work on the lights, but for the most part I'm moving on to the upper dome lights now.
 

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