Building The Death Star - PRODUCTION

[Kris Lyssara]

Seeing the windows makes me excited again for this.

I don't think this constant cycle of excitement and then waiting is good for me,
and my therapist would probably agree,
but as you can clearly see,
I'm too excited to worry!

 

[MooCriket]

You should start selling tickets for the completion date. We can all fly to see it, buy some t-shirts, get hammered, and then one day, we can tell our children... we were there, we saw the biggest gray ball in the land, and it is EPIC.

 

[PHArchivist]

Funny timing - due to the holiday, getting a bit sick, and some home improvement projects, I haven't touched it for a couple of weeks.

But before I knew you guys had bumped the thread, I actually did a bit of work on it today.

 

[Kris Lyssara]

I'm anxiously waiting for pics.
And trying to decide if it's worth it to come up with another rhyme.
After all, they usually take a bit of time.
Though nobody seems to mind
And it's definitely not a crime
So long as my words are kind
Heck, some might find them sublime

.... okay, I'm done for now.

 

[BWarriner]

Words can't describe the awesome on your Death Star. Can't wait to see the final finished piece.

 

[PHArchivist]

More progress today...

Finished all the lines on the upper third of the upper dome.

Worked on making more fine the speckling.

Corrected some stripes that weren't true to the north pole.

Added two light (base) grey shapes to the acrtic circle area that I learned existed on my last trip to Seattle this past October.

Here's the pics:

 

[PHArchivist]

Trudging along with this...

As you all know too well, I analyze adn over analyze nearly to the poitn of debilitation.

Currently I am focused (again) on the granularity of the speckling, particulary on the lower dome, right of the dish. In re-examining the reference pics, it is clear that the method used to finish (paint) this area on teh original was a bit different than in other parts of the model. I have been paintnig out the larger dots and adding in more and finer dots, and hence darkening these areas a bit.

But now I am second guessing myself, as I am messing with the overall color tones of the model. Currently, the city scapes on the upper and lower (right hemisphere) pretty much match in tone. If I continue darkening the lower may be a tad darker. But in some ref shots (at least of the model as it is today), the lower is a bit darker in these areas.

Analysis paralysis.

I'll post pics later so you can see what I am talking about.

 

[PHArchivist]

The other thing that is just making me sick is the discoloration due to yellowing on the left hemisphere.

I am nearly certain this is due to bathing the model in high wattage halogen lighting for a six-month period (while working on the model with the main garage door closed).

I was chatting with VistaVision (friend and industry vet) about this, and we were focused on the clear coat. But a scary thought occured to be yesterday. Even if I am correct that it was the high-powered halogen lighting the caused the discoloration, I have assumed it was the clear coat that yellowed, but what if it was the paint underneath? though the yellowing is fairly uniform over varying substrate paint colors.

It kills me because the Tamiya Light Grey Primer (pre-yellowing) has the perfect grey-blue tone of the original Death Star.

One thing I could do to correct this (somewhat) is to respray the light grey base coat areas inbetween the cityscapes. This would reintroduce some of the grey-blue appearance I lost. But a lot of these areas have lines in them (though fewer than in the cityscapes), so its more complicated that just re-spraying. The yellowing is less offending over the cityscapes, since when over black (dots), the yellowing is nearly invisible.

VistaVision suggested wet-sanding to reduce the yellowed clear coat. This may be an option too. I could at the very least experiment in a small area to gauge how effective this may be.

The final conundrum regarding the yellowing is that I cannot decide if it might actually enhance the model. It creates a bit of a Gull Grey (beige-ish grey, versus the desired blueish grey). It certain shots of the original, it actually looks a bit beige.

 

[PHArchivist]

Obviously I am venting...

This past two posts are more so therapy for me (airing out my emotional troubles?) than anything else. It helps me sort out my thoughts on which way to go on certain things.

For now, I'll stop raving!

 

[robn1]

That's a real problem, not knowing what to do or how far to go. You may fix it, or make things worse by trying :unsure

What clear coat did you use? I hope it wasn't Testors dullcoat, I HATE that stuff. I built almost a hundred models as a kid, planes, ships and sci-fi stuff, and I had to throw them all out because of the Testors turning a heavy yellow color on all of 'em :angry

The first thing you can try is to set it in the sunlight, that might bleach the yellow out. It'll take a while, but the yellowing will be affected long before the paint colors.

 

[PHArchivist]

I'll post pics later so you can see what I am talking about.

OK first a look at the original.

Note in both this screen cap and the shots from the museum, the cityscapes in the first row of the lower dome, right of the dish, are a bit darker, and possibly even smoother in texture.

 

[PHArchivist]

Here are some closer in shots.

Note how it is darkest in the second set in from the left (first pic), then seems to get lighter as it goes to the right.

 

[PHArchivist]

And here is some shots of what I've got going on mine, compared to the original.

 

[PHArchivist]

Here is a close up comparison of the first two shots in the previous post.

I'm nearly certain that that application technique of the speckled varied on the original. You can tell from this comparison that my technique in this area is very different from the original.

Yet, as I have used the same technique "across the board", my technique does match other areas of the origianl nearly dead on.

Anyway, what you see in these comps is as fine and as dense as I can get it using the technique that I am. Up close; a very different appearance from the original. But from a few feet away, it looks pretty much the same.

 

[vaderdarth]

agreed. It's so close from 3 ft away that it's perfect in my opinion.

 

[PHArchivist]

Plus, its not really intended to be viewed under such scrutiny as a close-up, 8mp digital photo.

 

[jawsmodels]

Its also nearly 40 years older Rob!
Looks beautiful mate.
Unfortunately when building replicas they can make you so crazy on accuracy it can do your head in.
Youve done & are doing a fantastic job on this model.
Its amazing what has gone into it.
Keep up the good work.

 

[Jedifyfe]

8mp digital photo.

8mp??? HAH! That is soooo 2009!

Rob, in the wise words of Henry Jones Sr.

"Indiana?...Let it go!"

 

[PHArchivist]

8mp??? HAH! That is soooo 2009!

Rob, in the wise words of Henry Jones Sr.

"Indiana?...Let it go!"

Have faith - my mental stewing is not stagnating me nearly as much as one might assume based on my posts...

Take a closer look at the full sphere shots, and you can see I am just about done with the lines.

Hoping to complete the lines this weekend, and maybe (MAYbe) start in on the dish. THAT will be cool! All the while, I will continue to work on finessing the granularity.

Its funny Brad - if you look at the finest grain structure I have now (check the box closest to the dish, on the right), and compare it to what we first laid down (WAY back when), you'd laugh at how HUGE those dots were!

 

[Spoddy]

I was staring at the original model just this weekend, and when it lights up, i really couldn't believe the light bleed around the main weapon!! Shame it's got to that state..

Anyway Rob, I hope that LucasFilm or ILM call you up and ask to buy it (for a nice price!) so they can showcase it around the world with the rest of their gear.