The Moisture Vaporator Project

DaveG

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
What I really need is a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.

The Moisture Vaporator from Star Wars: A New Hope is such an iconic set piece. Spread out over the vast desert plain of Tatooine behind the Lars homestead they looked both alien and familiar, being reminiscent of oil wells dotting the Arabian plains. Building a model of the Vaporator seemed to be a good addition to my Star Wars collection.

The first step was research. There aren't a lot of good photos of the Episode Four Vaporators, there are a bunch of the Vaporators from Episode One which are still standing in the Tunisian desert but I wanted to base mine on the original. But they are pretty simple objects and one fairly clear photo provided most of the info needed. There was also a copy of the blueprint for the Vaporator in the Star Wars Blueprints book which helped with overall dimensions and proportions.Using these as guides I created a 3D model of the Vaporator using Rhino modeling software.

Vaporator Rhino Model 1.jpg Vaporator Rhino Model 2.jpg

The computer model allowed me to work out which parts would be made from scratch and which parts would be 3D printed. In the end most of the structure was built up out of acrylic and most of the detail parts were 3D printed.

There was no particular scale the model needed to be, I wanted it to be large enough to look impressive but not too big as to be unwieldy. Originally I thought about making it 1/6 scale, which would have gone great with Sideshow's 1/6 scale Luke figure. But at that scale the Vaporator would have been 38 inches tall! Too big. I also wanted a scale that would be practical to mold and cast... I mean, what good is a Moisture Farm with only one Vaporator? I settled on 1/12 scale, which made the Vap 19 inches tall, and Bandai also has a 1/12 scale Luke figure that I could display with it for a sense of scale.

The first step was to turn the various round parts of the body out of acrylic on a machine lathe. Rather than turn the sections together I decided to turn each part separately and the stack them together on a core. The cube section was built up out of 1/4 inch thick acrylic sheet.

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The fine detailed parts were mostly 3D printed. Some of the parts were attached to the main body to be cast in place while others would be molded and cast separately to be assembled later.

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All the main body parts were disassembled, primed and sanded smooth, then reassembled into three major sections for molding,; the Base, the large Main Body and the smaller Upper Body.

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Here is are all the pattern parts fit together prior to molding. The three vertical Wing pipes were made out of brass tubing with 3D printed details. It was so cool to see the whole thing together for the first time!

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Next step... molding and casting.
 
looks beautiful! Can't wait to see more. Any chance they'd be modular? I'm thinking about the three slightly different version in the main pit of the lars homestead

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It looks like for the cluster of three they basically cut different sections, although the Vap on the left has 4 wings instead of the three I'm doing. The main body of my model has three sets of rectangular holes for the wings at a 120 degree spacing. I'm sure it would be possible to do a bit of surgery to attach four wings at 90 degrees.

One of the cool things about the vaporators is that every one seemed to have different add on details. They make a good kit bashing project!

This is the main reference photo I used for mine:

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Dave,
If you ever do a run I would be in for one. This would look awesome displayed near my Luck Farm boy gear.
 
That's a great approach with the separate sections. And, in 1/12th... oh the possibilities... VERY nice!
 
Thanks guys! Yeah, this was one of those projects that I just got to liking more and more the further I got into it. The Vaporator is really just a bunch of simple geometric forms stacked up, nothing fancy, but it looks great altogether.

On to molding and casting... All of the major sections required multi piece molds. The process was more or less the same for each, the part was imbedded in water based modeling clay (I like WED clay from Laguna Clay) which is carefully contoured to the desired parting line. Then negative hemispherical locking dimples are cut into the clay and the first half of the mold is poured. After the silicone has cured for 24 hours the mold is flipped over and all the clay removed. This is why i like using water based clay, it can be cleaned off completely with warm water and carefully brushing. The cured rubber is coated with a release agent and the second have of the mold was poured. In the case of the main body part a three piece mold was required for the top surface.

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Pretty much every part was molded except for the brass tube mast and copper wire used for the condenser coils. Gang molds were made of the small detail parts so I wouldn't have to make so many individual pours.

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The parts were pressure cast in grey tinted polyurethane resin.

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The beginning of a decent Moisture Farm!

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The minimal flash lines were cleaned up and the first Vap was assembled and primed. The castings went together pretty much as expected with only minor adjustments.

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Now it's ready for painting and weathering!
 
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Beautiful, as always Dave.

Wouldn't this piece make a great "display stand" base for Luke's Skyhopper? I'm picturing a vignette of Luke performing a pissed-off-at-Uncle-Owen-farm-boy-flyover in his Skyhopper, as long as we can get Gus to make a 3D file of Uncle Owen ducking for cover. If that happens, count me in for one of each (Vaporator, Skyhopper, and Uncle Owen figure). The text/title/headline under the piece should read, "You can go to the academy next year."
 
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