LUNCH AT DEATH STAR

Lunch at Death Star - 2022 November

The idea came from that I saw the Stormtroopers from Thingeverse.com, where an artist named FunkyArt had positioned the clones as the Lunch atop a Skyscraper, an old black-and-white photograph taken on September 20, 1932, of eleven ironworkers sitting on a steel beam 260 meters (850 feet) above the ground on the sixty-ninth floor of the RCA Building in Manhattan, New York City.

Sketch and plan

Started with a small brainstorming, thinking of what kind of environment (where) the Stormtroopers should be set in, and if to add a small Darth Vader (forced perspective) to look down or up on the lazy clones. Death Star was the option and if Vader shows up or not, that we will see...

After I made a prototype of the Stormtroopers (approx 9 cm tall), I came to a quick conclusion that I needed to scale it down (alot), so I could fit all 11 on a bridge and pillars to hold the bridge. 

LED lighting to be added

Main constructing materials: Resin prints, Card board, Foam board, Paper sheet for acrylics, Plasticard

Size: H:30 cm, W:38 cm and D:10 cm


3D printing details

Stormtroopers from Thingeverse, artist FunkyArt (free)

DeathStar Light Panel from Thingeverse, artist Freddy1990

Star Wars Death Star chasm bridge door from Cults, artist Charveys3D (pay)

Printer: AnyCubic Photon Mono resp. Abycubic Photon S

Slicer: Photon_Workshop_v2.1.29

Resin: Elegoo Resin Blue Transparent resp. Elegoo Resin Grey  


Prototyping - the pillars

I wasn't sure where to attach the doors, so I made a simple prototype with card board and tried different heights, and also where the light panels should be attached. 

I went for the second picture and now I had a blue print to work with.

The Pillars are cut out of foam boards and plasticard to cover corners and panel sides.

I knew I wanted LED lights in the pillars, so I tried with some strips and single LEDS, but the result where not what I wanted. So I went and bought closet LED panels (incl. USB charged batteries), they are just 5 cm to small in height, but it works fine.

The Bridge

I 3D printed out two doors in resin (see above where to find the files), where I needed to scratch build the bridge where the stormtroopers will sit on. 

I started to measure the minimum distance to be able to fit all 11 stormtroopers and look into how to connect the bridge with the doors. Luckily the bridge size on the doors matched a foam board of 5 mm in thickness, so I cut out the size to match and also cut out a plasticard (<1 mm thick) in the same size. I then cut out holes in the plasticard and foam board so that the troopers can sit properly (all are easily removable). Added panels (in plasticard) to match the looks and feel of the doors, glued magnets on the doors and bridge sides for easy removal and reattachment.

How do you know it is the Death Star?

This question has been a nightmare, I more or less stopped crafting for almost three weeks to figure this one out. 

Should the background be convex and get the illusion of space and round, but this was not an option, the piece itself was already big, and adding this - Oh My Goodness 

So the solution was to paint the Death Star chasm in perspective mode. 

I painted the background on an acrylic paper, where I first drew the panel lines where the light is decreased the further down it goes down in the chasm, and I continued the with the panel lights onto the “floor”. Painted with artistic acrylic paint, sealed with varnish and sturdied back with cardboard and the bottom with a thin wood board.

Stormtroopers

My hubby primed and painted them all white with an airbrush (Vallejo acrylics), the details (mostly black and grey) is GreenStuffWorld acrylics. 

The additions I made  was to add a straw for the L-057 clone (on far right) and for made "home-made" decals for the bottles.

*Missing clone*

Looking for a special clone, forgot his name but it started with L-057 something 🤔 he is the love of my life 😍 he went missing..

Assemble

All parts now ready to be assemble. I had previously glued 2 squared foam parts to the bottom, so that the pillars can be set atop them and won’t wiggle around. The background is then attached with magnets to the pillars. The LED lamps are attached to magnets (again) inside the pillars and a top is placed above to conceal the inside of the pillars. And then it is only to attach the 11 stormtroopers.

I added an old 3D printed figurine - Mr Vader himself