Building The Death Star - PRODUCTION

[Newbie Doobie]

Oh man - made me want Spring to come around that much faster! Neighbor two doors down had the BBQ fired up.

And DRY today too! Actually it was the weather that pushed me this far on the project. What a perfect day for spraying paint! But oh well - didn't get that far. Maybe in the next couple of days.

Brilliant work Rob! I know I'm a newbie to this forum,(long time lurker)but I've been doing this for twenty nine years,and I have to say that this is one of the few that I've ever seen done exactly the way the original was(minus the steel frame)! Are you going to leave the screws visible like the real thing,or hide them with Elmers' brand wood filler?

 

[vaderdarth]

Lookin great Rob!!!

 

[PHArchivist]

Small update...

Got the upper dome firmly affixed. By my assessment, the original model does not have glue holding on the upper hemisphere, but since my internal bracing structure is a bit different, I felt I needed to glue the upper dome to the rear trench wall.

Gacked up the dish - it should be rotated about ten degrees counter clockwise. :angry

Spacers to hold the upper dome exactly even all the way around. For those taking notes, I went with 7mm.

View from the rear

I've decided that unlike the original, I will paint ALL of the lower dome, since the dripping glue bugs the hell out of me.

 

[PHArchivist]

I anticipate this to be a six to twelve month project. I suspect the physical construction should take a month or less

Two months and two weeks and still at it!

 

[temponaut]

:love Incredible project!

 

[PHArchivist]

Brilliant work Rob! I know I'm a newbie to this forum,(long time lurker)but I've been doing this for twenty nine years,and I have to say that this is one of the few that I've ever seen done exactly the way the original was(minus the steel frame)! Are you going to leave the screws visible like the real thing,or hide them with Elmers' brand wood filler?

Chris, not sure if I answered your question - yes, I will fill the holes (as opposed to caps), but I'll probably use Aves Apoxie sculpt. The Elmers has worked well for me with resin, but it doesn't like acrylic.

 

[Newbie Doobie]

Chris, not sure if I answered your question - yes, I will fill the holes (as opposed to caps), but I'll probably use Aves Apoxie sculpt. The Elmers has worked well for me with resin, but it doesn't like acrylic.

Thanks for that Rob! I use Elmers all the time,but I usually am building either polystyrene,or wood models. I use this for gap filling on these. I use superglue gel for gap filling,and building on acrylic models. Sometimes Bondo for both!

 

[Jedifyfe]

Rob,
Your neighbors must think "There's that Star Wars nut at it again!"...

Looks great! Is everything glued shut or are you able to open it up to change the light bulbs? Also are you going to keep the incandecent bulbs or switch to UV bulbs to keep the heat down?


Brad

 

[Pauleysolo]

It is looking great-I bet you can't wait until you have it finished light it up that first time!!

I saw the real one in Seattle a couple of months ago- it was really huge and looked to be in pretty decent shape- I am glad it was saved!

 

[PHArchivist]

Rob,
Your neighbors must think "There's that Star Wars nut at it again!"...

Looks great! Is everything glued shut or are you able to open it up to change the light bulbs? Also are you going to keep the incandecent bulbs or switch to UV bulbs to keep the heat down?


Brad

She's over right now drinking with my wife - shall I ask!?

The globe is all glued shut, but each socket is reachable (at least by my long wookie arms!) through the access hole in the back.

 

[Guy Cowen]

That is looking fantastic, I don't envy you having to do all the detail with this but I sure will when its done, how long before the painting starts?

 

[PHArchivist]

That is looking fantastic, I don't envy you having to do all the detail with this but I sure will when its done, how long before the painting starts?

Painting will probably start in a couple of weeks. I need to add some styrene detailing to the globe first, and am sort of in a holding pattern in regards to assessing definitively what detailing is necessary/correct.

Other delays in starting the painting:
1. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to do the grey/black/white speckling of the "cityscapes"
2. Creating a guide tool for masking proper longitudinal lines
3. Intimidation about masking!

 

[vaderdarth]

You can create your guide out of a strip of styrene (thin enough to form to contour of deathstar surface)

You will need a pinhole in the top of the deathstar in the dead center. Then take your strip and put a hole in one end that corresponds. Use a screw or pin and tack the strip to the hole in the deathstar. Then go back and pull the strip tight to the contour of the deathstar. Now make marks where you want horizontal lines up and down the styrene strip. Drill a tiny hole in each mark once you remove it from the deathstar. You can use this to mark your horiz. lines all the way around this beastie. We used to do that to etch in the lines on the R2D2 heads long ago. Before laser cut domes became the thing.

Obviously, the strip will create your vertical lines as well, but only if the strip is cut perfectly straight.

Hope this helps man.

Dave

PS, I'd still attempt the "speckled texture" paint for the deathstar surface using that speckled paint found in the hardware store in the home decoration section. It's really a texture paint. You'll have to put your base coat flat gray on the whole surface first, then go and mark your lines with your guide. Then mask, and add the texture with the speckle paint. They have all sorts of brands and types of this paint. I'm sure you will find a nice gray tone that has white and black speckles all thru it. Wal Mart even carries it I think.

 

[imaginager]

Wow, this has really moved ahead quickly since I last peaked! Sweet! BTW, what do the neighbors think you're building?

 

[TridCloudwalker]

Wow, this has really moved ahead quickly since I last peaked! Sweet! BTW, what do the neighbors think you're building?

I'm sure they just think it's a small moon.

 

[Newbie Doobie]

Painting will probably start in a couple of weeks. I need to add some styrene detailing to the globe first, and am sort of in a holding pattern in regards to assessing definitively what detailing is necessary/correct.

Other delays in starting the painting:
1. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to do the grey/black/white speckling of the "cityscapes"
2. Creating a guide tool for masking proper longitudinal lines
3. Intimidation about masking!

Here's an easy way to do it. I'm used to striping things,so this will go faster my way! Take a thin piece of tape cut to 1/8" of an inch-you can get at your local hobby store - this is used for pin striping RC airplanes. If you can't find it there,look for it at auto zone,advance auto,or pep-boys. You might have to separate it with a pair of scissors,if you buy from these automotive places,as it sometimes comes in strips of two(double stripe). I couldn't find it in single strips at any of these places here in town,except the hobby store. Lay the tape down from the top VERY SLOWLY after you draw out your lines where you need them to be with a charcoal pencil,and a strip of styrene taped where your lines are to be. This will make seeing them easier when masking off the parallel lines from the top to the equator. Follow the equator with half an inch making tape to make the horizontal lines where the vertical parallel lines terminate. Use 1/16" inch striping tape to make the smaller parallel lines. This will make it easier to mask for painting. If your going for a stippled look - use varying shades of gray,and dark gray. Dip an old toothbrush in a jar of paint,then squeeze out all of the paint,and dry it as much as possible. Then,test the spray pattern this makes before applying to the surface. Flick the bristles all over in a random pattern for this effect. The Formsbys' spatter paint(used for car trunks)looks too obvious for this application. The droplets from this are too big,and rough textured for the death star! You can try it with spatter paint,but practice on scrap FIRST! This will help you decide if you want to use this,or what desired effect it'll have.

 

[PHArchivist]

Thanks guys... Believe me - I've thought about all those ideas good as they are!

Dave the speckled craft paint (faux granite) has just about the perfect look, and perfect application process(controlled spray can creating even results), but it is WAY too textured.

Chris, using a tooth brush, low pressure air brush, or other similar method will be nearly impossible to control to create an evenly dispersed pattern, and the application would be random and take eons (multiple passes with differetn colors).

So, I'm still chewing on this one... :unsure

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Use a laser level, the kind that shoots a red laser bean in a perfect 90 degree line on your DS.

I used one to make masking tape lines on my baby's nursery wall. The interior wall is not perfectly true but my lines are.

(laser level is sitting on the little table in the first pic)

 

[PHArchivist]

INPUT/FEEDBACK NEEDED #1

Guys, I installed the dish about ten deegrees off per what I intended. There is a "landmark" that should point straight down to 6:00 that is ****** off to the left.

Oddly, due to the spacing in my build of the dish, about half of the features are where they're supposed to be on the "clock". But the features in the orange area are not.

Questions:
Should I live with it, or should I peel off and sand donw the incorrect features and re-do?
Would you all "respect me in the morning" if I chose to "live with it"?
Is this design aspect important enough to the over all project that I should wrry about it?

 

[micdavis]

Leave it be. Who'll know. You shouldn't have told us.