Death Star Trench Turret - Making the Death Star Turret from STAR WARS.

I just love all the powerful stuff they designed and built for the Death Star in A NEW HOPE. The trench turret is one of the coolest and deadliest of them all, save the planet killer itself. I wanted to build a fast but still impressive model so the turret seemed like a good idea. I spent no more than four hours doing research and drawing the construction plans before I started building the model. It is very simple - just two plastic boxes on top of each other with lots of surface panels, kit parts and a massive couple of guns.

I started with the lower half of the tower. I basically built the box in 1,5 mm styrene sheets. I strengthened the construction with some crossing ribs on the inside to keep the rather huge walls from buckling inwards. The seams between the walls were filled with putty and sanded smooth.

This model was so large that I decided not to scribe the panel lines, so I started cutting all the surface panels from 0,5 mm styrene sheets. The panels were glued to the surface with thick-flowing styrene cement. I allowed the cement to breathe for a few seconds on the back of the panels before I applied it to the wall of the tower. This was necessary because the solvents in the cement would have warped the thin plastic if it had nowhere to escape. After the panels were applied I let some very thin styrene cement flow into the seams to ensure a solid construction. I then filled and sanded the panel-joints at the corners and the lower box was finished.

For the top section I had to figure out a way to swivel the turrets head and be able so raise and lower the heavy guns. To keep the guns in the desired position without dipping I had to make a counterweight at the rear end of the guns axis. I made the whole mechanism from massive PVC bolts.

I then made the walls and the surface panels the same way as I did for the lower section.

Most of the details on the surface of the tower were kitbashed from discarded model kits.

The model now started to look menacing, but I felt that something was missing - it seemed too small somehow. I therefore decided to build it onto a base and add some mass there.

For the base plate I selected a cheap square table from IKEA which legs can easily be removed or assembled.

At the moment this model is on hold, but only a few details and the guns are left before it can be painted and put on guard in my living room. It is so large I have NO idea where to put it - it is 70 cm high and as wide as a small table from IKEA.

One thing is certain though - I will finish the model soon so stand by for updates!