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This web page describes the construction of my Imperial Star Destroyer model's main armor battle plating. This plating is connected to the model's interior main frame, and the armor gives the model its instantly recognizable shape. A total of three pieces of 3/32 inch thick sheet aluminum pieces were manufactured for this part of the model. These structures cost me 1,350 dollars to have built and were delivered on January 29th, 2001. They were built at a specialized metal shop in Niwot, Colorado called Dynamic Design and Manufacturing (www.dycoinc.com).
I began the process by taking my armor's CAD drawings and scaling them up to make them six feet long. I had to do this because my CAD representation of the model is based on a 5'3" long model. Once I had the drawings scaled up to six feet, I created matte board prototypes of the skin to check that they would sit correctly on the interior frame. I found that creating the prototypes was a useful exercise because it helped me avoid spatial conflicts in the planning of where to place holes and cross supports and fans and such.
Once I had the parts redesigned and all the dimensions added to them, I took the plans to DD&M on December 5th. I talked with a gentleman named Myron Varner. We talked about the design and my model in general for about an hour and a half and Myron said that they could make the armor for me without much trouble. Later in the week he gave me the cost estimate and told me the skin would be done on January 5th. When I picked up the armor pieces on this date, I found that DD&M had made a couple of mistakes that forced the rework of their CAD design and subsequent remanufacturing of the armor pieces. On January 25th, I accepted the redesigned pieces.
Unfortunately, I was not able to take pictures of the actual machines used in the armor's construction due to the fact that some of the work going on in DD&M is classified. But I do know that the armor's shape as well as its holes were cut out using a large, table mounted carbon dioxide laser. A large bending press was used to bend the armor pieces along their length.
Below are some pictures of the armor pieces before they were permanently attached to the model's interior support structure.
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