Death Star Diorama

trek22

New Member
Does anyone know if there are any dioramas of the interior of the Death Star.

Say for example the interior tunnel run to destroy the second death star. It would look great with those mini models.

Or even some of the interior chambers or hangars where the rebel scum are chased by the mighty stormtroopers.
 

dnalor

Well-Known Member
ah...to the center of the deathstar...a great scene but would the tubes become a great diorama?

I would like to find the trench run.....or the deathstar parts often seen on ebay..
I searched the net but didn't find anything of the death star..

except a kind of boardgame but wasn't the thing i was looking for.
 

Millenniumfalsehood

Well-Known Member
The Star Wars Miniatures page had tons of free interiors for gaming, but if I understand you right you want the "superstructure" Admiral Ackbar talks about in Return of the Jedi. As far as I can tell, this kit doesn't exist. It'd be dead easy to make, though. Just roll up some red and gray tubes, mount them to a board, and the mount the Falcon and a couple of X-wings to it.
 

Satka

New Member
I second that ... I'd also love a "Trench Run" diorama with Luke, Vader and his wingmen, followed by Han ("You're clear kid!") :thumb:

Does anyone know if there are any dioramas of the interior of the Death Star.
...
 

Inv8r_timmy

New Member
As I pointed out earlier before it so mysteriously disappeared - the original ILM miniature set of the DS2 tunnel was actually made primarily out of paper towel tubes (you can even see the lines on the tubes in the film if you're actually looking for them - it actually is distracting once you know what you`re looking at :) ). Shouldn`t be too hard to reproduce, AND with the added benefit of being screen accurate to boot!
 

Millenniumfalsehood

Well-Known Member
Lorne Peterson was at Wonderfest last year, and one of the miniatures discussed was the Death Star tunnel, because we were curious about how wide the miniatures were and how they were filmed(they seem to stretch to infinity in all directions). He told us about the materials used as part of the answer, and five to six miles of cardboard tubes and three to four miles of sprinkler pipe and PVC, and seven or eight miles of wooden dowel rods were explicitly mentioned as being used because they could get them cheaply in the enormous lengths needed for each of the three tunnel sections, which were each a good seventy-two feet long. They also used fishing poles for the floor and ceiling of the reactor core chamber, because they taper. This is all discussed in the book "Sculpting a Galaxy" by Mr. Peterson, who was the chief model maker on Star Wars in every episode of the original trilogy, so I'd take his word on it. :thumb:

He's a great guy, by the way. If you ever get a chance to meet him in person, be sure to shake his hand. Believe me, he's every bit as big of a modeling geek as we are. :cool:

Interesting story: one of my modeling buddies on Starship Modeler has a model of the Executor which is about three feet long. He had it at last year's 'Fest on the display table. Lorne Peterson wandered by and just gawked at it, then complimented him on the fine craftsmanship. My friend said it was like being told by God that he was doing a good job. :mrgreen:
 

Inv8r_timmy

New Member
Hey, MF, don't know if you ever saw the original making of Jedi booklet from '83, but there's a GREAT photo of the exterior of the tunnel miniature at ILM - it just goes on and on and on, and was built so that sections could be removed to manoever the mocon camera through.
 

Millenniumfalsehood

Well-Known Member
I haven't seen that book, but I do know the ceiling was specifically mentioned in SaG as being the removable bit. It was a very clever setup, especially when you consider that they had to also track the camera backwards down that same tunnel for the explosive finale. That was not composited; everything in the frame other than the TIE Interceptor and Millennium Falcon was the real deal. They only got one shot to do that right, and boy did they pull it off!
 
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