Having always been a lifelong Star Wars fanatic, it was only natural to guide my children into the same views of a galaxy far, far away. My son, Landon (4) has taken a special liking to the dark side of the force, and like his father, likes all things Imperial.
He proclaimed one day, as we were looking through Amazon’s online plethora of Star Wars merchandise, that he wanted a Lego Death Star. Now, this kit currently sits at a cool $649.99 – that is a little steep, even for a die hard fan like myself. So, with my wife’s blessing, I set out on a build of epic proportions, at least for a novice wood worker.
I had a basic idea in my head of what I wanted to accomplish. It had to act as a “doll house” of sorts for his various action figures and space craft. Building a complete spherical Death Star would not only be time consuming but also way too large. So I went forward with a “book shelf” type design.
The backboard was the first item to craft, using 3/4″ plywood. Using the tried and true method of securing a plumb bob in the middle and drawing a nice curve to be cut out using a jig saw.
I then secured the outside walls and floor to the backboard. The curved section was sourced from 1/4″ hardboard. Which was bent, glued and tacked into place.
Now you may have noticed those turbo laser batteries sitting on top of the structure… more on them in a bit. But, the next step was the internal structure, I knew I wanted internal walls separating different spaces. I also made a couple different doorways and a floor pass through.
I wanted the inside of the curved wall to have some depth to it and a feeling of structure. So I took 1″x1/2″x4″ pieces of wood and started gluing and tacking from the back wall forward. I over lapped and staggered them to give them an interlocked appearance.
The surface took a little bit of thought to devise. The original Death Star was a large model, with a very detailed surface. I wanted to capture the feel of it, without having to resort to a massive amount of 3D printing or time consuming scratch building.
I settled at wooden blocks made into a pattern. With random hardware parts, dowels, bearings making up the small details.
I gave it a little bit of old Rust-Oleum paint to see how it was looking.
Now for the turbo lasers.
I wanted to capture that feel of Luke getting blasted running down the trench getting blasted by those massive turbo cannons….
So I had my friend Greg over at Tiny Train Solutions print them with his 3D printers and I then primed and painted them. I found the design online, which I apologize I have not been able to locate again.
I started painting the walls and started working on the details. I called upon my wife to help me apply the custom vinyl stickers I had made by Desi at Desi’rable Designs.
I wanted to have the interior stand out, while covering the imperfections of the wood. So the backboard was painted white and then the black stickers were applied over that. Giving it the feel of the Death Stars “hallway wall lights” (I have no idea what they were really called). The bottom level (as you can see on the right side of the image above) was for the larger figures and craft so I gave it a paneled look by cutting and painting individual pieces of hardboard.
It needed lights, so I settled on the good olde’ “Amazon Special” LED multi-colored strip lights. These are cheap and easy to customize to fit your needs. The come with a remote, power pack, control box and roll out strips that have an adhesive backing. To get the correct lengths and for clean looking mount job I need to shorten and wire numerous pieces. The strips are easily cut with a scissors at pre-marked locations. Soldering on the small tabs though requires some extra care.
I then brought all the wires together into a terminal block that I mounted on the back of the shelf (yes the block has a cover). The control box has an IR sensor on it, that is attached with a small length of cord. The cord was just long enough to ensure it can receive signals when standing in front of the Death Star.
The final piece of the puzzle, which is the only one I would like to go back and improve sometime – the dish, the big ass laser. It was a point of frustration and brain storming the entire time (3 weeks) it took me to finish the project. But in the end, I feel it looks good. Yes of course I would love for a massive dish… but then how does he play behind it? Do you make it removable? Well that adds weight to it and makes it harder for a four year old to play with it. What worked out perfect for me was a modified one time use salad bowl, cut down, sanded and painted. It has the perfect amount of rigidly strength but also bends when bumped into. It is mounted with a simple screw through the trim. Which I did apply to all the walls and floors.
In the end, my son has spent countless hours already playing with it. It brings a smile to my face every time I hear him flying his shuttle out of the landing bay, while humming the Imperial March.