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Saw the Star Wars props/real science exhibit in Boston yesterday


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And other then drooling all over myself and the 6yr old for an hour and a half, I was amazed at how well, how to put this nicely, crudely built some of the models are.

now before any of you get into jedi suits and come after me with homemade lightsabers...I get it. I really do.

Some of these are distance shot models, that there are several different models for different purposes, some are maquettes, some are shown once from one angle, but overall I was thinking about the differences between what we build compared the the 'real' models.

(real here meaning the acutal model that ws filmed for the movie, not a real vehicle that characters ride in)

Our are heavily weighted to a level of accuracy that does not exist anywhere but in out minds.

Specifically the Millenuim Falcon, the upcomming Fine Molds kit will have a level of fidelity of detail that isn't matched by a studio model 3 times it's size.

Even the X-wing in the lobby , a 'hero model' highly detailed for closeups, pales in comparison, especailly under and between the wings, to the 1/72 scale kit from FM.

The other revelation was that the folks at ILM never met a model, prop, or set detail that could not be improved with the addition of a few bits of WWII German Panzer IV track liknks.

All the jedi remote balls, the blockade runner escape pod, the interior of Vaders helmet.. all have either runs of 4-5 links or single links as 'greeblies' here and there.

Also lots of Panther/King Tiger cupolas, again all over the remotes and props.

If you're within 3 hours of Boston, it's worht the drive and the $$ to go see. Get your tickets online though, it's much easier.

Mike

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A long time ago in a 'Making of' documentary far away- They showed a Jawa Sandcrawler, or rather the half of it they built because it was only shot from one side. Then there were archive pics of the prop builders sitting surrounded by Revell battleship boxes and piles of parts. And all the ship models had no canopy glass. If any two models were identical (even if it was the same ship) it was more accident than design. Which is probably why most sci-fi modellers are much more tolerant of fuzzy, wrong or missing detail, poor fit and resin kits that follow the Michaelangelo method of construction (Get block of stone, remove everything that isn't a statue)- they are in for a long session of scratch building anyway.

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A long time ago in a state far away, I had one of those Art of Star Wars books.

In it there was a picture of a model builder in front of a wall (looked like 10+ feet long and at least 6 feet high) of model boxes that they kitbashed things from.

I drooled on that page for days...

now I have a wall just like it...

Mike

Edited by Mike D
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I saw that stuff at the "Magic of Myth" exhibit a couple years ago, and I thought the same thing. I was amazed at how great the models themselves were, but every here and there, there was a big thing of chipped or peeling paint, parts with big gaps between them, etc. The biggest disappointment though were the props FOr example, on the X-Wing Pilot's uniform, the big electronics box on the chest was obviously made of wood, and didn't look like it was painted all that carefully. The lightsabers obviously had chrome tape on them, with wrinkles and scratches. I was disillusioned.

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I've seen some of the stuff before, the AT-AT and one of the Destroyer models, I knew the stuff wasn't taht well bulit compared to the models or props we've bulit. and the wooden chestboxes were somethign I've known about, just think about their operating budget for A New Hope, they didn't have the money to be perfect just the 10 foot rule.

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That's the magic of movies : a stick of wood with some plastic chips and parts can look like a Hi-tech blaster weapon or a space ship on screen... I read somewhere that Ken Ralston, special effects supervisor, used potatoes for background asteroïds in ESB...

The movie is good if it "makes believe" and remember that the space ships models were photographed with high speed. It was very difficult to see the details on the screen. Only zoomed pics on models in exhibits can show the (lack of) details

The film director and special effects teams (and actors) are making the difference : With bad acting, bad direction and bad effects, a wooden stick still looks like a wooden stick, with skilled art making, il will look like a ligth saber.

Edited by Grizzly
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Somewhere in my file of interesting model articles, I've got one from "Model Railroader" about the making of the movie "Flight of the Intruder". The visual effects folks built an enormous (I think it was N-scale) floor-covering model of Hanoi for the camera to "fly" over. The trick -- which they pointed out in the article as being different from the normal obsessive hobbyist approach -- was that they only detailed what could or would be seen.

Of course, movie modellers also have control over how closely and at what angles people see their models. We don't have that luxury...

One of my prized possessions as a kid (and still, for that matter) is the "Star Wars Sketchbook", which includes many of the concept sketches for vehicles and spacecraft from the first movie. Interesting to see how they evolved. Occasionally they'd show up in spinoff material, like the role-playing game or the flight simulators. For example, the "Z-95", which was supposed to be an obsolete forerunner of the X-Wing, was actually an early sketch for the X-Wing itself. (I was disappointed they didn't take a similar approach in the prequels.)

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