No Hope for the Princess This Time

Well, after all that hoopla getting the Tantive model built just so I could do the photomatch of the tractorbeam scene, I got some funny results.

The impression that you get when you watch the film is that the Tantive is drawn into the Star Destroyer Bay with everything at right angles...

well, it turns out the whole thing was kind of catty-wompus...

 fig. 1 photomatch results

The green lines are the geometry of my models, overlaid on a still from the movie, and with the perspective of the still matched in-program.

looks fairly straight forward, right?

nope.

the Tantive is pitched down 12 degrees from horizontal, and yawed to port about 14.

  fig. 2 elevation view of photomatch results

  fig. 3 plan view of photomatch results

Ultimately I don't think this was supposed to be the case, but is an unintended artifact of the effects composite. The production department didn't perfectly match the appropriate angles when the photographed the ships separately, and instead made it look passable. Still, it's kind of interesting... if you're deeply obsessed that is.

Rebel Blockade Runner (Part 3)

Final details coming together now...

Vac-Formed Wall Panels (Part 2)

The wall panels are nearing completion.

And here's a look at how close they are to the original parts. This is one case, it seems, where the blueprints matched the final product in the movie, a nice surprise. 

Vac-Formed Wall Panels

 

I'm working on models of the vac-formed wall panels that recur throughout A New Hope. A detail that I've mentioned before, these panels only appear on neutral or Rebel equipment, in the Blockade Runner, on Tatooine, on the exterior of the Millennium Falcon and on the rebel troop transport in Yavin Base.

Stacked together, flipped in various ways, and even cut in half, the panels were well designed as modular pieces that could make up any number of variations without seeming like repeated tiles. It took me a while to recognize their repeating patterns throughout the movie, but once spotted they appeared all over the place. They were used with great effect to make ordinary bare corners of the film seem full of technology.

There were four panels in all, and above I'm working on the two that feature largely in the Blockade Runner Set. Original drawings of the panels appear in Rinzler's Blueprints book, but are labeled as parts of the Cantina Exterior (the one place I haven't seen the panels show up).

You can see these two panels clearly to the left and right of the doorway R2 and 3P0 are shuffling through. Above them, on the same columns, are the same panels, but cut in half to form seemingly different panels. 

And here they are again on the Lars Homestead, covering those bulky boxes. Each box had a unique arrangement of the modular panels.

Rebel Blockade Runner (Part 2)

And finally, here's a video of a virtual walkthrough of the model rendered above.

Rebel Blockade Runner

These are renders of my model of the Blockade Runner's interior movie sets, built from production blueprints. I've seen a lot of superb replicas of this set, but most seem to miss the subtly different whites of the wall modules and the scuffed up flooring. I still need to add a lot of details to this model, but I have to say it's pretty pleasing so far.

A fun detail about this set: the flat panels (dark there on the columns, and white on the box modules) are a set of vacuuformed panels used through A New Hope, on most Rebel Technology (Never on imperial sets). Another nice subtlety that tied the forces of good together with the use of unconscious details.


Seen here, behind young Lucas on the Blockade Runner Set. 

and in these examples.

background prop 'generator' boxes on Tattooine (replicated below in Sketchup)

 

And again here on the back of a Rebel Troop Transport in Yavin Base.

 

And even a pair on the Full Scale Millennium Falcon (on the side of the mandible, right at the front)