Starkiller Base

Overlay of sketchup photomatch from Force Awakens Poster.

Here's my theory about Starkiller Base. The First Order figures that both Death Stars were a great idea, but were obviously vulnerable to attacks from small fighters. So with Starkiller Base, they take a stable planet, and put a big laser in it. This way, it would basically take a Death Star to destroy the thing.

Millennium Falcon Turret Spin

Created this animation to show how the turret is now able to rotate, as I outlined in the previous post here

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

so the turret is backwards... spotted on The RPF by the eagle-eyed Jaitea. It's be speculated that the turret can or should rotate into this position, though it's never been seen on film. Until now.

I think I can deal with this. I think I'll have to do a quick animation, to see what it looks like swinging around. But visually it totally makes sense, and doesn't break the ship or add anything stupid, in my opinion.









But what's really weirding me out though is the disappearing red panel...

this is the rear quarter from the first teaser, ostensibly from the same desert battle with TIE fighters. Note the red panel


and here she is now with in the new trailer with no red panel.



what gives?

I kind of hope she gets blasted at some point, and we see Han or somebody standing on the falcon replacing her panels. That could be a fun scene. But I also wonder if the flight scene in the teaser was made up specially for the teaser, and the model they used had a red panel for some reason, which was discarded for the actual movie.

time will tell.

Full Scale X-wing

The last X-wing I built was based on the special effects model used for filming the battle sequences for A New Hope. Now here's a completely different version, based on the full-scale prop, over 40' long and 36' wide.

They're basically very similar, it takes a sharp eye to tell the two versions of the iconic ship apart.

here's an overlay of my geometry, showing how close it is the genuine article, filmed on the Elstree Soundstage.

X-Wing

Building myself an all new X-wing from scratch. DaveG of the Replica Prop Forum posted his progress building an x-wing from a casting of one of the original models used on A New Hope.

more here

As I followed the thread, I became deeply dissatisfied with the model I'd previously built.

so here's where I'm at now

Props of A New Hope (part 3)

Next up, on the continuing project to create a model of each prop from a New Hope, Darth Vader's Light Saber.

Stared out as a flashgun for an old camera, specifically an MPP Microflash. Just a few details were added to the exterior to round it out.

and here's the collection so far

Landing at Yavin

Landing at Yavin Base

Yavin Base

Props of A New Hope (part 2)

Here are some in-progress renders of the next two props from A New Hope. The DH-17 Blaster used by Rebel Marines aboard the Tantive IV, and trusty (if inaccurate) E-11 Blaster used by Stormtroopers the whole galaxy over.

Both props started out as Sterling Submachineguns, popular during WWII, and had lots of greebles piled on top to make two distinct blasters. One of the unique features of Star Wars was the use of modified real world weaponry, which often fired blanks during filming (to which laser bolts and sound effects were added in post-production) In Pre-Star Wars movies laser weapons were completely static, and actors would pretend (or not) to feel any recoil from them. Props that fired blanks in Star Wars, adding a real kick to the action, gave the film a much more realistic feel. That said, in the opening scenes of A New Hope, only the Stormtroopers had functional blank-firing guns, the Rebel weapons were crude rubber castings.

and here's a collection of all the props I've modeled from A New Hope so far...

Props of A New Hope (part 1)

To keep myself occupied during all this interminable waiting between snippets about the Force Awakens, I've started a new project. I plan to make a model of every prop that appears in Star Wars A New Hope, in order of appearance. I already tackled every ship/vehicle and every droid elsewhere on this blog. To kick things off, the first prop seen is a Rebel Marine's Helmet.

Force Awakens Star Destroyer

Built in Sketchup using photogrammetry.

Falcon and X-Wing in flight

with some bonus extra angles

Force Awakens TIE Fighters (work in progress...)

Special Forces (two-seater) TIE

Standard TIE

and side-by-side.

Force Awakens X-Wing

I'd built a model of this a long time ago, but lost it in a back-up fiasco. So here's an all new version. Designed in sketchup from photomatched images of fullscale prop built for Force Awakens.

Earlier work in progress renders...

Comparison

Adding a little texture now...

Tosche Station