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 Talking
about a classic symbol of the early Star Wars days - the first
Death Star is the real phantom menace. I have always
wanted to have one in my collection, but would I dare I build
one? The job of first painting it and then drilling thousands
of window holes felt impossible, but a seemingly daunting
task proved to be quite the opposite.
Approaching
the project left me feeling a bit like I did the first time
I saw the movie back in 1977 – sitting in the cockpit
of the Millennium Falcon, being drawn in by the tractor beam.
Once I got onboard everything went surprisingly well. The
funny thing is that I built this model in only three weeks.
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decided to follow ILM's example and use two plexiglass half
domes. Finding domes that were good enough proved to be the
most difficult aspect of this project. I wanted my model to
be approximately 60 cm in diameter. As I started searching for
the domes I soon realized that the prize and availability of
such large items would be as devastating to my economy as a
blast from the DS superlaser it self. I settled for two 40 cm
domes that were originally sold as fisheye display-shelves.
The roundness was perfect! The key to perfect roundness is that
the domes were blow-molded inside a negative mold. If they were
vacuum-formed outside a positive mould the thickness would vary
due to the stretching of the material during it’s heating
and forming, which again would lead to difficulties in aligning
the domes along the equator. |
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OK,
now I had the domes. I started working without any planning
at all (afraid the plans might be stolen by rebel spies).
The first thing I had to do was to matt the outside of the
domes. This, I did to provide a better surface for the paint.
I used sanding paper with a 240 quality, which is pretty fine.
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I
then found the equator by marking the height of the domes
polar center equal to its radius. I took away a few millimeters
more to leave room for the equatorial trench. I drilled a
series of small holes to form a thin slice where I could insert
the blade of a thin metal saw with fine teeth. Beware! Plexiglass
is brittle and will easily crack under too much stress. It
melted and jammed the saw all the time, and I had to be very
careful when getting it loose. The process of hand-cutting
the domes took about three hours and left me with a hundred
blisters in the palm of my hand.
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With
the domes trimmed to the right size, I used a wide and flat
file to even the edges. I now had to find a good reference
picture where I could measure the exact position and size
of the superlaser dish. I found a good one of Dennis Muren
taking a reading in front of a bluescreen.
I
marked one of the domes and cut it out with a 3-millimeter
thick drill bit. The cool thing is that at high speed the
drill bit will melt the plexiglass, almost milling its way
through the material. Be careful not to work it too close
to the circle marked on the dome, the method is effective
but hard to control. Leave a few millimeters for the file
and sanding paper.
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I
decided to mount the model from underneath. I bought two aluminum
tubes that fit telescopically. The thinnest of the tubes were
made to go all the way to the top of the model, so that the
upper dome could rest on the upper end of the tube. The thickest
tube was cut shorter and glued to the lower end of the thin
tube. This way the bottom dome rests on the upper edge of
the thicker tube.
To
re-enforce the mounts I turned two pieces of PVC on my lathe.
One was glued on the bottom dome where the rod enters the
model, and one at the top as an alignment for the upper end
of the rod.
I then milled three plexiglass rings. Two rings to fit inside
the domes along the equatorial separation line. The third
ring to form the actual spacing between the domes – the
trench itself. I used acrylic glue called Acrifix 108 to bond
the rings to the domes.
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then glued a thin acrylic strip to the inside of the lower ring
to serve as an alignment along the equator. The strip also prevents
stray light from escaping along the trench. |
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The
time had come to test the internal lightening of the model.
I had bought a socket, a light bulb and an electric cable
with a dimmer.
The
cable was thread through the tube and through a hole in its
side above the bottom mount of the model. I assembled the
model parts and plugged it in.
I was amazed how much light there was!
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superlaser itself was vacuum-formed from styrene. I made the
plug from epoxy putty. The laser is built up in layers, so I
formed two 1 mm and one 0,5 mm sheets. These were cut into different
diameters and sandwiched. I scribed the fine lines inside the
laser with the back of an X-Acto blade and added some small
pieces of 0,5 mm styrene to simulate the raised surface elements.
The laser was bonded to the plexiglass with epoxy glue. I enforced
the seam with epoxy putty. The domes were then sprayed with
automotive primer. The primer was sanded smooth with 240 sanding
paper. |
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also had to give the model a coat of black to seal the surface
against emitting unwanted light. I had to be careful to avoid
too much paint buildup or the edges around the equator would
be rounded. |
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There
are some very thin raised surface sections at the polar regions
of the Death Star. Plastic would be too thick, so I decided
to build them up with primer. I masked out the parts that
needed to be raised and sprayed a coat of primer over it.
It was a joyful moment when I removed the masking and found
that the result was most successful.
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domes were then given a coat of Tamyia paint. A very light imperial
blue that I mixed myself. I now faced the rather daunting task
of masking out all the surface sections of my battle station.
I made a tracing tool that allowed me to draw straight lines
from the poles to the equator. This tool, or mallet as you could
call it, was filled with plaster at the base to make it steady. |
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carefully drew the lines with a soft pencil so as not to scratch
the paint. I used Tamyia masking tape to mask out the sections
that were to be given a darker coat. I first laid long strips
tape out on a sheet of styrene and then I used a steel ruler
to cut extremely thin strips. These strips were then applied
to the model. (The good thing is that when you remove the tape
after the model is painted, the pencil markings come off with
it.) |
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sprayed the open areas with a darker version of the surface
color. Some areas were sprayed lighter than the rest to give
a feeling of surface variations. I also did some sections in
a slightly more earth colored tone. Once again the unmasking
became a moment of awe and satisfaction. The model looked great! |
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| Faced
with another seemingly hopeless task I had to drill thousands
of window holes to make the Death Star operational. I used a
0,3 millimeter drill bit and a small electric drill. I feared
this would permanently re-locate me to the local nuthouse and
indeed almost happened. It was awfully tempting to switch to
a bigger tool. The only thing that kept me sane through this
process was a frequent test mount to see the effect – I
had a boost of inspiration every time I turned on the light. |
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finished result was far beyond what I had dared to dream about.
I felt like the Grand Moff Lasse with the power to destroy any
planet I cared to select. |
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