I just joined the RPF, but I've been a member of The Dented Helmet and Superhero Costuming Forum for years. I Thought I'd add my cheap and dirty Death Star build to this thread.
I like to throw a Star Wars Day party every year for May 4th, and every year I like to have an interesting creative set for people to take photos. This year the photographer said she'd handle the set, but was forced to travel for work at the last minute and miss the party. I had 3 weeks, and almost no budget to come up with a set. This is what we did... we had a big roll of canvas, some scrap Lexan (like thick plexiglass), some scrap plywood, and 3 people with a bit of free time.
My friend was able to get us panels from the sides of shipping crates that were 7ft x 4ft, but made of really fragile wood. We wrapped 3 of em with the canvas, and painted with a gallon of "oops" paint from Home Depot. "Oops" is the rack next to the paint mixing counter where they sell colors that were mixed wrong or a customer just didn't like. We found a nice medium grey-blue for $5.
We drew up some shapes based on a couple of hours of pausing the movie and taking screen grabs, then comparing the height of actors to the wall behind them. We had to buy a few bigger pieces of plywood, but mostly the rectangles you see below are scraps (some plywood, some Lexan). I know it's not accurate, but since we knew people would be taking pictures in front of it, we decided to make the wall a little busier. We threw on some conduit PVC pipe from the electrical section of Home Depot (with junction boxes hanging on nails at the ends). We also used the PVC pipe and "U" brackets to hold the walls together and a little railing on one end to hold it upright.
The 3rd panel I worked on seperately. I had an LED strobe kit from a police car and a box of LEDs, so I wired those up in something that looks sorta like the red boxes you see hanging on the walls in the Death Star. I think it's some kind of power connector. You also see them in the hangar on the Rebel's carrier, behind the Millenium Falcon in ROTJ. I think it's neat how they re-used parts like that to make the universe consistent. There's another box with some vents: just a black panel covered with wire mesh and styrene frame.
And now, the light panels. I really wanted to get these right, but without money or time, the easiest way was to draw it up in Photoshop and take it to FedEx where they could print it for me 2ft x 3ft, which is the size of a standard poster frame. Their big printer only does black, but hey, poster frames are black. Send me a message if you want this file. It's so easy to add recognizable Death Star light panels to your home.
I think we did a decent job...