The Star Destroyer Model's Design Features

The Star Destroyer model will contain about 6,500 air cooled, neon lit fiber optic windows that will be 1/32nd of an inch in diameter. The engines at the back of the model will also contain air cooled lights as well. The model will also feature a fully lit "unpressurized" exterior landing bay, which is located on the bottom of the model and is exposed to space, as well as a "pressurized" interior landing bay which is located along the back wall of the exterior landing bay behind retractable blast doors.

The interior landing bay of a Star Destroyer was never shown in the original version of the Star Wars trilogy since the interior landing bay was never actually built into the nine foot model. Directly behind the blast doors on the model is a wood support rib. All that you could ever see in the movies of the interior landing bay were the closed blast doors, although the first scene in Return of the Jedi does show two Tie fighters supposedly coming out of the interior landing bay of a Star Destroyer to escort Darth Vader's shuttle to the Death Star.

The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition also contains a new computer generated scene in which Darth Vader's shuttle is shown arriving in the interior landing bay of his personal Super Star Destroyer named Executor. In this scene, which is shown below, you can look out into the interior landing bay and also see through the open blast doors into the exterior landing bay on the underside of the ship. This scene doesn't totally make sense however, because this scene shows the interior and exterior landing bays of a regular Star Destroyer, not a Super Star Destroyer.

Because the model will use a series of internal neon tubes to provide illumination for the model's windows and interior landing bay, there will be a necessity to provide the model's interior with a steady supply of cool external air. I am currently planning to install a series of small computer fans on the inside of the model to circulate a supply of cool air from outside the model. The fans will be attached to the main wood support ribs in the model and placed so that the air will fully circulate through the model's interior and then exit out of the engines at the back of the model.

There will also be a need to provide the user with access to the interior of the model to allow for maintenance of its interior parts. I am currently planning to build the top part of the model, which includes the bridge and upper building structure, as a separate and detachable piece. There are several advantages to taking this approach. First, if I build the upper section of the model separately, this part of the model will then become easier to construct and detail. Second, by building the top part of the model as a separate and detachable piece, I can then plan for the entire top section of the model's armor plating to be detachable as a single piece as well. With this design, I will then have access to the entire interior of the model.

The model's interior will consist of a square shaped steel rod with four main wood support ribs connected to it to give the model strength and stability. The model will have three mount points to the steel rod to allow the ship to be photographed from a variety of angles. One mount point is located behind the center engine on the back end of the model. Another mount point is located underneath the Solar Ionization Reactor dome on the underside of the ship. The third mount point is located inside the building structure on top of the model just in front of the bridge. You can see each of these mount points in the blueprints.


Last Updated: March 7, 1998
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