star-art
Sr Member
I know Mike is putting a HUGE amount of effort into this and it is looking fantastic!
I also noticed there was quite a difference in the overall look of the new version vs the old. While I have not compared pics to the studio model, the old one does look a bit more like what I remember on screen, at least at first glance. But, saying that is not meant to detract in any way from the beauty of this new version.
It seems highly doubtful the original was made from a section of a hemisphere, at least to me. (I'm guessing the theory behind this idea is the curvature of the wing and trying to match that with a similar curve in the fuselage?) Such a hemisphere would have been acrylic and that's a bear to work with as you know. It's really hard to cut such a piece off a hemisphere cleanly and evenly, and machining it would have been tedious and time consuming.
It seems they would have chosen the fastest and easiest way just to keep on time and on budget. I am thinking they probably just cut a hole in a piece of plywood and then heated a sheet of plastic over the hole until it drooped. Then, they could simply trim it and start building. That was a common technique in their shop back in those days (isn't that how they made the original DeathStar?). IIRC, it's also how others made the CE3K Mothership dome.
I also noticed there was quite a difference in the overall look of the new version vs the old. While I have not compared pics to the studio model, the old one does look a bit more like what I remember on screen, at least at first glance. But, saying that is not meant to detract in any way from the beauty of this new version.
It seems highly doubtful the original was made from a section of a hemisphere, at least to me. (I'm guessing the theory behind this idea is the curvature of the wing and trying to match that with a similar curve in the fuselage?) Such a hemisphere would have been acrylic and that's a bear to work with as you know. It's really hard to cut such a piece off a hemisphere cleanly and evenly, and machining it would have been tedious and time consuming.
It seems they would have chosen the fastest and easiest way just to keep on time and on budget. I am thinking they probably just cut a hole in a piece of plywood and then heated a sheet of plastic over the hole until it drooped. Then, they could simply trim it and start building. That was a common technique in their shop back in those days (isn't that how they made the original DeathStar?). IIRC, it's also how others made the CE3K Mothership dome.