That's no moon... It's a Tree Topper

[genZOD]

Hello everyone. I'm sure most of you have built the old AMT Death Star kit. It's both inaccurate and hard to assemble cleanly. This version was also pretty heavily warped. Anyway, now it's the star atop our tree.

The trech/docking ring was scratch built from parts I laser cut from MDF. The ring also helped me get the whole thing to be round-ish.

The surface of the Death Star is like 50% Bondo and putty. The seams are aggressive!

The whole thing is lit with fiber optics & plugs into the X-mas tree lights.

Anyway, there she is--our new Tree Topper. I wanted a fairly accurate paint job and my Wife was NOT down to see a big grey ball on top of the tree. This paint job was the compromise. It's two shades of gun metal toned with transparent places and a wash or two. Happy Holidays!

 

[JediMichael]

I know that model....as I see it everyday, being above my work desk AND also my spinning avatar.
I like that and the gun metal look is different enough to work for something like this.

 

[genZOD]

I love the amount of detail you got out of the kit. How did you handle the equator?

 

[JediMichael]

Heres the old thread I made, although back then I used Photobucket, which now threatens everyday to delete my account. Not paying for that.

The Death Star

After taking a break in like this whole year, decided to get around and work on the DS. I had this model for about 7 or 8 years now. For the longest time it wasn't even painted. Then I started painting it and didn't like it. Started over. Then I found Rob's (PHArchivist) thread on google...

www.therpf.com

Thankfully, I also have all the pics anyways.
So after spraying it all gray, I hand painted each of the darker gray by hand. I accidently had picked a paint that was meant for glass, but it worked. I then took the rattle can and messed around with the nozzle, which then gave it this nice and pretty even splatter.
You can see the equator didn't look so good, especially with the flash.

So I came up with the idea to paint it a darker color to fool the eyes into thinking its correct, but really, is not. Probably the easier fix vs all the amount of sanding and who knows what else to try and fix it. Here I also fixed up the dish with more panels, most where just pieces of paper for the correct thickness, and then all the panel lines, with a pencil. Not a normal one, but a little darker than the normal kind.

And then add all the glow in the dark paint, dotted on one by one, That took like 3 or 4 months, and then didn't really show up in my avatar.

So you can see, this kit needs a LOT of work to be even somewhat right. I probably spent more time then most people.

 

[Puma]

Prepare to make fun of me. I'm 55 and have seen every Star Wars IN a theatre, the first was A New Hope in 1977. Fond memory. I was 9 and my older brother was 23. He had to cajole my mother into letting him take me to see it. (she was a nazi and we haven't spoken in years)...anyway...he took me to see it and it was great. I remember it started with an old black and white news reel and then a cartoon and then the movie.
So here's the "making fun of" part, I've seen a few of these by other people, and they are all 'on the darker side' like yours. I haven't watched the movies in a hot minute, so my apologies, but what am I missing? or is this just all 'personal choice coincidence'? Thnx for your tolerance. ; )

 

[JediMichael]

Prepare to make fun of me. I'm 55 and have seen every Star Wars IN a theatre, the first was A New Hope in 1977. Fond memory. I was 9 and my older brother was 23. He had to cajole my mother into letting him take me to see it. (she was a nazi and we haven't spoken in years)...anyway...he took me to see it and it was great. I remember it started with an old black and white news reel and then a cartoon and then the movie.
So here's the "making fun of" part, I've seen a few of these by other people, and they are all 'on the darker side' like yours. I haven't watched the movies in a hot minute, so my apologies, but what am I missing? or is this just all 'personal choice coincidence'? Thnx for your tolerance. ; )

For genZOD, it was his compromise with his wife, for me, it was because I was at the store and picked the color out from memory and it just ended up being a bit too dark. I never felt that was a huge issue and am fine with it.

Heres a scene from the film. (Here the frame has been flipped compared to the model)

And then after the model got left behind, lost, and then finally recovered. Late 80s/early 90s pic here.
It was in very rough shape and the original dish missing.

 

[genZOD]

Heres the old thread I made, although back then I used Photobucket, which now threatens everyday to delete my account. Now paying for that.

The Death Star

After taking a break in like this whole year, decided to get around and work on the DS. I had this model for about 7 or 8 years now. For the longest time it wasn't even painted. Then I started painting it and didn't like it. Started over. Then I found Rob's (PHArchivist) thread on google...

www.therpf.com

Thankfully, I also have all the pics anyways.
So after spraying it all gray, I hand painted each of the darker gray by hand. I accidently had picked a paint that was meant for glass, but it worked. I then took the rattle can and messed around with the nozzle, which then gave it this nice and pretty even splatter.
You can see the equator didn't look so good, especially with the flash.
View attachment 1771164
So I came up with the idea to paint it a darker color to fool the eyes into thinking its correct, but really, is not. Probably the easier fix vs all the amount of sanding and who knows what else to try and fix it. Here I also fixed up the dish with more panels, most where just pieces of paper for the correct thickness, and then all the panel lines, with a pencil. Not a normal one, but a little darker than the normal kind.
View attachment 1771165
And then add all the glow in the dark paint, dotted on one by one, That took like 3 or 4 months, and then didn't really show up in my avatar.
View attachment 1771166

So you can see, this kit needs a LOT of work to be even somewhat right. I probably spent more time than most people

Heres the old thread I made, although back then I used Photobucket, which now threatens everyday to delete my account. Now paying for that.

The Death Star

After taking a break in like this whole year, decided to get around and work on the DS. I had this model for about 7 or 8 years now. For the longest time it wasn't even painted. Then I started painting it and didn't like it. Started over. Then I found Rob's (PHArchivist) thread on google...

www.therpf.com

Thankfully, I also have all the pics anyways.
So after spraying it all gray, I hand painted each of the darker gray by hand. I accidently had picked a paint that was meant for glass, but it worked. I then took the rattle can and messed around with the nozzle, which then gave it this nice and pretty even splatter.
You can see the equator didn't look so good, especially with the flash.
View attachment 1771164
So I came up with the idea to paint it a darker color to fool the eyes into thinking its correct, but really, is not. Probably the easier fix vs all the amount of sanding and who knows what else to try and fix it. Here I also fixed up the dish with more panels, most where just pieces of paper for the correct thickness, and then all the panel lines, with a pencil. Not a normal one, but a little darker than the normal kind.
View attachment 1771165
And then add all the glow in the dark paint, dotted on one by one, That took like 3 or 4 months, and then didn't really show up in my avatar.
View attachment 1771166

So you can see, this kit needs a LOT of work to be even somewhat right. I probably spent more time then most people.

Yeah, I spent FOR EVER on the seams. I’m sure I spent well more than a normal amount of time on this. I still might add more lights. The two halves press fit together, so it’s pretty easy to open up. BTW, My original idea for the equator was pinstripe tape. It looked OK-ish, but I really like having deeply recessed lights.

I like the way the dark areas interact with the original texture on your model to make it look more like the film. I ignored most of the model’s details when I masked off areas too. For about the same reason. I was way less detailed though.

Anyway, if I revisit this I’ll take inspiration for the way you laid in the dark areas & detailed the dish. In metallics—it’s still a tree topper.

 

[JediMichael]

Besides those horrible seams for the equator, having all the random panels, some of which are raised with some having panel lines, none which are even remotely accurate, did cause a lot of issues.
That was my biggest goal, to at least paint it with the correct squares/rectangles all over.
I was actually looking for pics off google Halloween night, 2013, when I found Rob's near perfect replica here on the RPF, so I joined and the rest is history.
It ended up being a year later where I actually started for real.
Here its been just over 10 years since joining. I have learned a whole lot from everyone and am so very grateful.

 

[pengbuzz]

If I were to build a DS model, I would buy a plastic globe and use that instead of the kit. I consider the AMT model far worse than the1/537 Refit kit.

 

[genZOD]

If I were to build a DS model, I would buy a plastic globe and use that instead of the kit. I consider the AMT model far worse than the1/537 Refit kit.

Yeah, if you want an accurate model of the Death Star using the AMT kit is a bad way to go. For a tree topper it’s, like, barely adequate. That said, some people (like JediMichael) have worked wonders with that old kit. It’s almost a right of passage. Like building the AMT TOS Enterprise.

I’ve already started building a parts list in my head for a more screen accurate version. I’d work backwards from available hemispheres…

 

[PHArchivist]

Enjoying this...!

 

[pengbuzz]

It’s almost a right of passage. Like building the AMT TOS Enterprise.

Yeah, I can relate:

 

[genZOD]

Yeah, I can relate:

View attachment 1772748

Very light grid: check, rust belt: check…

 

[JediMichael]

I saw online that someone did something similar, but with a death star that lights up different colors.
Thought it was this one at first, then realized, nope. Also not the AMT kit, but detailing is similar, with its very wrong detailing.