erv
Well-Known Member
That's a project I've started about 2 years ago and though it might be time to share the build log now that I'm going toward completion, thanks to quarantineTime(tm) 
It sort of started with the purchase of the GTP toys panels, which I found perfect for getting a proper scale of the death star walls to scale them for my basement staircase project. I found many useful information in the SW blueprints book but I was still unsure about some proportions, so I bought the Space Walls for studying dimensions.
Once I got a full box of their 1:12 scaled walls, I wanted to do something with them and it lead to this project. The Home Cinema (slash props display) room had a basic but neat table like this one (IKEA).
Nothing fancy it has a glass top allowing for putting some paper items under (I had an aged middle earth map there, a few pics etc) and the side drawers are handy for remotes and such. It just didn't match the colors of the room anymore (now V2 HC room), it was purchased black to go with the black carpeted floor for version one now it's all beige, egg shell, red and gray. In addition, when we watch a movie in general during the WE, we bring food and we needed a larger table for the 4 of us so the ikea table became a Playmobil house stand for my older one (with parts storage in the side drawers, keeps the mess away) and I looked for options for a bigger table. To be noted that we don't have enough space to fit a fill sized HIC (so my HIC build is integrated in the HC room door instead).
To complicate things, there's this big hasbro millenium falcon toy I purchased when it came out, which used to be displayed like poop on the HC room V1 wall, looked more like a western hung dude instead of proper presentation. I moved it in my little one's room but my girls didn't play a lot with it. So I thought the new furniture should be a display for it. I was also very disappointed by the lighting interaction of the falcon, the engine lights suck, there NO bottom lighting etc.
I sourced a teak table of 1x1 m square with a glass top to see thru and started the project by oiling it, Festool orbital sanding + oiling kit to the rescue, and food grade oil satin / silk finish.
as displaying anything with an open box collects dust, I thought that I would just close the sides with plywood coated with real teak sheets
Then I realized that it would look very odd to have the falcon just sitting on a wood plate. I had some space walls panels that (finally) wouldn't fit in my display cabinets, so even if the scale isn't perfect, it was the perfect height for the table and I decided to make the inside of the table look more scifi. As the bottom of the table has a small gap (to retain magazine and remotes) made of very thin teak, I decided to add a shiny black flooring made of a PVC sheet, just like in the death star boarding hangars.
So the 4 sides will be "coated" with panels and a led strip lighting controlled by IR. Here's a proof of concept as I'm still waiting for more GTP panels, they had production issues with the storms and floods in china.
Regarding control and interaction, I'm using a basic RGB strip for the general lighting. Those are provided with a cheap remote. As I hate multiple remotes and I have already plenty enough in the HC room, I sniffed the strip IR remote with a teensy (CFX still in dev at that time !), wrote all the codes, then sniffed my A/V amp (sony) remote that has unused keys and which is emitting with totally different protocol compared with the ledstrip.
Then I built a IR gateway / relay / proxy in one of the space wall posts
this way, I will control the falcon using IR with a higher level scenario (like, engine on, start cruising, engine off, land, chewbacca quotes, luke's saber training etc) using the A/V amp remote and the falcon will automatically reflect the selected scenario part with a different lighting. The stock remote can still be used to control the desired color ambiance. I yet have to decide where to place the IR receiver and emitter in the falcon but it will probably be RX in the cockpit and TX in the glass top (top canons).
I did a bunch of test fits in the table. In the meanwhile I've also ordered EL sheets to light up the back of the shine-thru wall panels so that they can glow like the real thing. Please excuse the really crude install and blue tape it's clearly not final.
It sort of started with the purchase of the GTP toys panels, which I found perfect for getting a proper scale of the death star walls to scale them for my basement staircase project. I found many useful information in the SW blueprints book but I was still unsure about some proportions, so I bought the Space Walls for studying dimensions.
Once I got a full box of their 1:12 scaled walls, I wanted to do something with them and it lead to this project. The Home Cinema (slash props display) room had a basic but neat table like this one (IKEA).
Nothing fancy it has a glass top allowing for putting some paper items under (I had an aged middle earth map there, a few pics etc) and the side drawers are handy for remotes and such. It just didn't match the colors of the room anymore (now V2 HC room), it was purchased black to go with the black carpeted floor for version one now it's all beige, egg shell, red and gray. In addition, when we watch a movie in general during the WE, we bring food and we needed a larger table for the 4 of us so the ikea table became a Playmobil house stand for my older one (with parts storage in the side drawers, keeps the mess away) and I looked for options for a bigger table. To be noted that we don't have enough space to fit a fill sized HIC (so my HIC build is integrated in the HC room door instead).
To complicate things, there's this big hasbro millenium falcon toy I purchased when it came out, which used to be displayed like poop on the HC room V1 wall, looked more like a western hung dude instead of proper presentation. I moved it in my little one's room but my girls didn't play a lot with it. So I thought the new furniture should be a display for it. I was also very disappointed by the lighting interaction of the falcon, the engine lights suck, there NO bottom lighting etc.
I sourced a teak table of 1x1 m square with a glass top to see thru and started the project by oiling it, Festool orbital sanding + oiling kit to the rescue, and food grade oil satin / silk finish.
as displaying anything with an open box collects dust, I thought that I would just close the sides with plywood coated with real teak sheets
Then I realized that it would look very odd to have the falcon just sitting on a wood plate. I had some space walls panels that (finally) wouldn't fit in my display cabinets, so even if the scale isn't perfect, it was the perfect height for the table and I decided to make the inside of the table look more scifi. As the bottom of the table has a small gap (to retain magazine and remotes) made of very thin teak, I decided to add a shiny black flooring made of a PVC sheet, just like in the death star boarding hangars.
So the 4 sides will be "coated" with panels and a led strip lighting controlled by IR. Here's a proof of concept as I'm still waiting for more GTP panels, they had production issues with the storms and floods in china.
Regarding control and interaction, I'm using a basic RGB strip for the general lighting. Those are provided with a cheap remote. As I hate multiple remotes and I have already plenty enough in the HC room, I sniffed the strip IR remote with a teensy (CFX still in dev at that time !), wrote all the codes, then sniffed my A/V amp (sony) remote that has unused keys and which is emitting with totally different protocol compared with the ledstrip.
Then I built a IR gateway / relay / proxy in one of the space wall posts
this way, I will control the falcon using IR with a higher level scenario (like, engine on, start cruising, engine off, land, chewbacca quotes, luke's saber training etc) using the A/V amp remote and the falcon will automatically reflect the selected scenario part with a different lighting. The stock remote can still be used to control the desired color ambiance. I yet have to decide where to place the IR receiver and emitter in the falcon but it will probably be RX in the cockpit and TX in the glass top (top canons).
I did a bunch of test fits in the table. In the meanwhile I've also ordered EL sheets to light up the back of the shine-thru wall panels so that they can glow like the real thing. Please excuse the really crude install and blue tape it's clearly not final.
