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Star Wars Prequels Media Movies Toys

Build Your Own Imperial Star Destroyer 234

Posted by michael from the let-the-wookie-win dept.
tashanna writes "I got an e-mail from my brother with a link to this. Someone has built an Imperial Star Destroyer model from the original Star Wars movie that's appropriately-sized for the 4" action figures. The guy made it with an armory, bridge, cell bay, computer room, engineering (split over 2 levels), Darth Vader's chamber, conference room, troop rest room, medical bay and it measures 2 meters, by 1.5 meters, by 1 meter and is for sale on Ebay. There are interior photos on the eBay site. Ummm... WOW!"
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Build Your Own Imperial Star Destroyer

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  • Not So Fast (Score:4, Funny)

    by JollyGoodChase ( 562568 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:31AM (#8957478) Homepage
    That's not Imperial, that's butter!

  • Come on! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Admiral Lazzurs ( 96382 ) * <<rob> <at> <lazzurs.ie>> on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:32AM (#8957481) Homepage
    I know this post is kinda relevant and I am even glad to see it here but has anyone noticed that this is also just using /. to advertise the ebay auction to the target audience?

    Then again, well done for getting free ads on /. :)

    • Re:Come on! (Score:5, Funny)

      by G-funk ( 22712 ) <josh@gfunk007.com> on Saturday April 24, 2004 @03:13AM (#8957612) Homepage Journal
      Not to mention that if that model is in scale with 4" toys, that's the biggest 5 year old in the world.

      • That's no five year-old (Score:4, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 24, 2004 @07:50AM (#8958102)
        It's a space station!
      • Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I guess Nigel Tufnel sketched it out on a napkin for him. :-)
      • that the model is not in scale with 4 inch toys. It is in scale (of some undisclosed ratio) with the on-screen version as far as external construction goes. The inside has been redesigned to be appropriate for use with the 4 inch toys, but a look at the picture will show how out of scale it is. Clearly an ISD has more than six or seven rooms.

        As he says, a toy that was properly in scale to 4 inch toys would be the length of his street. Really, what the guy has done is the perfect compromise between accuracy
    • " but has anyone noticed that this is also just using /. to advertise the ebay auction to the target audience?"

      So?

    • Re:Come on! (Score:3, Funny)

      by nuba ( 660398 )
      <snip>
      Then again, well done for getting free ads on /. :)
      </snip>

      How do you know it was free?
      *duck*

    • Re:Come on! - Watch my movie! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Cirrocco ( 466158 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @06:51AM (#8958012) Homepage
      Okay, if this guy can have his Ebay auction listed on /. then I can pimp my fan film.

      The Ten Dollar Star Wars Fan Film [cirrocco.com]

      Yeah, it's huge and it's great quality. Suitable for VCD as the filename implies. Besides, I don't want to go through my entire life without having been /.'d at least once!

      What's the movie about? We made a bet...a bad bet. We bet that we could make a Star Wars fan film for under $10. Watch the hilarious hi-jinks unfold as we do anything to get the shot! You won't believe the ending! With music from Alice in Chains, Iggy Pop, Jane's Addiction and more!

      Includes trailer for possible upcoming project.

      Download and enjoy! Burn it to VCD and give it to friends! Give it to enemies! Put it on Bit Torrent sites! And meet the stars at Wondercon at Moscone Center in San Francisco at the East Bay Star Wars Fan Club booth April 30-May 2.

    • Actually, I don't think slashdotters *ARE* the real target audience in this case... although we probably know people who _are_ in the target audience.

      This SW Destroyer is not a model replica, it is a _TOY_, intended for play, not for mere admiration. It doesn't matter that it's not to scale because Slashdotters would do well to remember that a 10 year old kid isn't going to care about that when they really enjoy playing with it. That it's not to scale poses absolutely no inconvenience at all to an enthu

    • You'll note that delivery/shipping is free. To me, that suggests the inclusion of a hyperspace drive. And in that case, anything under a few million is a bargain, even if you're only teleporting barbie dolls across the planet!

  • No longer for sale. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bobobobo ( 539853 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:32AM (#8957484)
    Well the auction was stopped early. Wonder why?

    • Re:No longer for sale. (Score:5, Informative)

      by metlin ( 258108 ) * on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:40AM (#8957512) Journal
      Look at the bid history [ebay.com]. It looks like he ended the listing early. And if that page were to be believed, the retractors have stated that they have been unable to get in touch with the seller.

      And immediately thereafter, an "ad" for this gets posted on Slashdot? Makes you wonder you know...

      • Re:No longer for sale. (Score:5, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:56AM (#8957568)
        I think this guy might be quite clever. He's using eBay to host pics, for free, that can withstand a slashdotting! Of course he doesn't want to sell it, there's no way he can get anywhere near what his time and effort that went into is worth.
      • Well, the person did say they were selling it because they couldn't take it with them when they moved. Maybe they either are not moving (heh, maybe they are in the tech industry and that dream job turned out to be less than expected) or found a way to take it with them. The person has a high enough feedback rating I would give the benefit of doubt if I were into such things. After all, he did say shipping was up to the purchaser so I doubt he knew a way to transport ti to wherever he was going.

        I know that
      • No the reason why it was taken off was because it was listed on fark.com 2 days ago :).
    • I dont think he was getting what he wanted for it... it appears it was ended just before the auction would have normally ended.

  • Special Modified Star Destroyer (Score:5, Funny)

    by QEDog ( 610238 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:32AM (#8957485)
    Comes with the Chewbacca Defense system!

  • The Imperator (Score:5, Interesting)

    by OlaL ( 70511 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:36AM (#8957497) Homepage
    http://www.overclockers.com.au/%7Ebluesmurf/ [overclockers.com.au]

  • Building models for profit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dj245 ( 732906 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:37AM (#8957499) Homepage
    Now, to me, selling on ebay really kills the mood of the whole article. "Wow. Star Wars widget. Neat. Hard work. Tons of detail. Oh yeah selling on ebay."

    If the point was not for the person who made it to enjoy it and keep it around, then what was the point? I know that if I spent that many hours on it *for fun* then I wouldn't be selling it on no ebay.

    I donno, maybe the guy has bills to pay, maybe he didn't want it kicking aroundm, taking up space. But when these things are sold on ebay in the same article, it kind of kills the whole "coolness" mood for me. Its like they are pimping the auction to jack up the price. Anyone else feel the same?

  • Ah! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:37AM (#8957502) Homepage
    To put it in classic Slashdot form:

    1)Waste hours of life building scale star-destroyer model.
    2)Post star-destroyer for sale on ebay.
    3)Post story on /. with link to auction
    4)PROFIT!!!!

    Now before you mod me flamebait, realize this is a joke, and dammit I want one of these, but am both too poor and too lazy to ever have one.

    • Re:Ah! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by chrispl ( 189217 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @03:04AM (#8957586) Homepage
      Extensive study has shown that ebay itself IS the missing second step in the equation!

      Try it! It works in almost any permutation!

      Example:

      1. Steal underwear
      2. ebay
      3. Profit!!

      It fits!

    • But... It's not a scale model! (Score:5, Informative)

      by Cordath ( 581672 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @03:31AM (#8957646)
      I'm sorry, but the anal retentive streak in me just wouldn't let this go. In order for a Star Destroyer to be built to the same scale as 4" action figures it would need to be over 75 meters long! Now *that* would be a freakin' lego project!

      • Re:But... It's not a scale model! (Score:5, Informative)

        by thehomeland ( 750151 ) <mike.thehomeland@org> on Saturday April 24, 2004 @03:53AM (#8957700) Homepage
        ... it would need to be over 75 meters long!

        That's exactly what I was thinking. To scale with the standard action figures would mean it'd be larger than you could possibly ship (pun intended) and the five-year-old would probably be able to fit *inside* one of the circular engines on the back. Now, the rooms inside based on the photos look almost to scale, but there should be like umpteen thousand rooms inside one SSD. Compare to the regular sized tie fighters that the figures fit in. You might be able to house ten fighters in that whole model..

      • Re:But... It's not a scale model! (Score:4, Informative)

        by samadhi ( 140608 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @04:05AM (#8957728)
        Maybe you should get a bit more anal about reading the article.

        > Although not entirely screen accurate (it would have been the length of my street for that) the distinctive shape is unmistakable.
      • Actually, you are completely right, and I had actually wanted to add that to the end of my initial post but forgot.

        I was just looking at this thinking....there weren't a handful of rooms on these suckers, they were HUGE! They had huge launchbays that could hold shuttles and squads of tie fighters.

  • 125k hits and still no bids (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Voltronalpha ( 244088 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:38AM (#8957505)
    It really must have taken a lot of work to build it; he built this out of love I'm sure.

    Too bad he didn't realize that the world is bigger than Swindon, Wiltshire UK, and fails to be willing to ship it. After 125,000 page views on this auction mostly from nowhere near him he just terribly screwed himself.

    What a waste of free exposure!

  • umm.. what's he big deal? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anubis333 ( 103791 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:39AM (#8957509) Homepage
    The thing just looks like a big balsa wood model, and it isn't very detailed. I am a model maker, and I feel the creator could have chunked a lot of plastic ship models for nurnies and greebles.. He also, could have chunked old star wars toys for control panels etc. It really just looks like a large DIY project, and not a playable toy. I was a kid not too long ago, and I wouldn't really wanna play with some big balsa wood, grey-pained thing. It also looks like it would also break too easily.

    I mean I wouldn't crit, but when you put it out here, it's open season; not to mention this shouldn't have been on here anyway; it's like an advertisement.
    • You, sir, have hit the nail on the head.

      I couldn't put my fingers on exactly what it was that was missing!
    • The thing just looks like a big balsa wood model, and it isn't very detailed

      Yeah, and even more disappointing - it's not to scale. I mean, jeez, what's the point?

      /kidding

    • I'm glad I'm not the only one underwhelmed. It looks like painted wood. The finish is rather flat, and the "details" looked glued on. Not worthy of being on slashdot, especially since this is just a promo for an auction.
      • You can see the plywood on the edges of the room partitions. When I saw that, I thought that this was more like a dollhouse in construction, rather than a properly done Sci-Fi model. The scale being way off doesn't bother me so much, the real world rears its ugly head every now and then.

    • Re:umm.. what's he big deal? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MoneyT ( 548795 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @03:37AM (#8957661) Journal
      Eh, not being a modler, I couldn't comment on the nurnies and greebles, but it's certainly not the most impresive model one could build. Some of the dimensions look really off, and certainyl some detail is missing, but overall it is an impressive piece of work.

    • Re:Umm.. What's the big deal? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by zokrath ( 593920 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @05:11AM (#8957851)
      You and your replies seem to be missing the point that it is not a model; it is a playset designed for small children like the one in the photograph. He also says that it is quite sturdy, and designed to not have small piece come off during use.

      It is a labor of love that a caring father created for his children, not to impress the denizens of slashdot. I strongly doubt he had anything to do with this getting posted on the front page, and seeing as how he isn't willing to ship it he doesn't benefit much from it.

      I think for an object made largely from wood and decals it looks quite good, and most eight year olds would be thrilled with it, not to mention the envy of their friends. Just because it isn't covered in molded plastic doesn't make it less impressive.

      For someone who still plays with toys, you are rather crtical of how someone else spends their time. Don't take that the wrong way; I paint and convert tabletop figures all the time; I just don't project arbitrary standards inappropriately over the internet.
    • Ok, I took the bait and googled, and when I found out what they were for some reason I laughed my ass off. Maybe it's the silly name, maybe it's the recognition that yes, these things are necessary, but it totally ticked my funny bone. Thank you!

  • I don't have a problem with the ad... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:41AM (#8957522)
    I don't have a problem with it being an "ad" if you can really call it one. But it has nothing to do with building your own. There's no instructions. It's just that some dude built one. That's what the topic should have been: "Some dudbe built a Star Destroyer".

    Who cares if it's an ad? It's still really cool to look at the pictures, regardless if it's for sale or not. Window shopping is cool.

  • Is this legal? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:43AM (#8957526)
    Pissing off Kuat Drive Yards by copying their patended ship design seems like a real bad idea.

    He should have waited until we have atleast one orbital defense platform up.

  • What a brilliant idea! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:43AM (#8957529)
    Advertising your ebay auctions through an article on /. Brilliant!

    All I gotta do is come up with some sort of geeky spin on a complete set of Mama's Family videotapes and I'll finally get these goddamned things off my hands.

  • Its not complete though. my estimation to allow for 4" figures would put the scale at about 1:25, in its entirety, it would be about 64 meters long. Maybe a bit smaller. Try building that :)

  • Err (Score:5, Funny)

    by neuro.slug ( 628600 ) <neuro__ AT hotmail DOT com> on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:45AM (#8957537)
    But it doesn't have a Mr. Coffee or Mr. Radar! Damn you, Lone Star!!

  • This is not the forum for this. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dj245 ( 732906 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:46AM (#8957539) Homepage
    Ok, we have a link to an ebay auction (which is closed by the way), a link to IMDB, and a link to a page generalizing the star destroyer.

    Mod me down, troll, offtopic, but is this really the right forum to be discussing this? There are no plans on how you can be "building your own star destroyer". They is no page on how he made it. When /. covers these sort of things there is usually lots of coverage. Plans, how-tos, "where to buy parts". This? Nope, just the ebay auction page.

    Maybe it isn't disturbing enough, but I think this really belongs here [disturbingauctions.com]. A forum to comment and post funny and disturbing ebay auctions.

  • Oh boy! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bon bons ( 734068 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:50AM (#8957553)
    Yes! Now us (boys) men can take our (dolls) collectable figurines and (play) display them in a scale size (doll-house) terrarium!

  • Very nice, but.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by GFLPraxis ( 745118 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @02:51AM (#8957555) Homepage Journal
    It's very well done, but...

    The maker apparently doesn't know much about Star Wars. He calls it a "scale" replica...considering a Star Destroyer is supposed to be 1.6 kilometers long, those little model people are what, 500 feet tall?

    And the bridge section shouldn't be near as fat.
    He even says that a Star Destroyer boasts "8 laser batteries" when it's a well known fact that it has 60 turbolaser cannons...not 8. If it had 8 laser cannons, two X-wings would outgun it, lol.

    • Re:Very nice, but.... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Have Blue ( 616 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @03:10AM (#8957604) Homepage
      A battery is multiple lasers.
    • Ahh X-wings boast 4 laser cannon and two front mounted photon torpedo tubes, two x-wings would match it if it had 8 turbolasers.

      Did anyone else read his background on the ship. He's calling it a super-star destroyer, saying it's the one Vader hunted down Leia's Corillian Corvette with in ANH, this is incorrect, Vader grabbed Leia in an "Imperial Class Star Destroyer" The older, smaller versions were called "Victory Class Star Destroyers" and were only a half kilometer long. The "Super Class Star Destroye
      • actually the "super star destroyer" in ROTJ is the executor, and it's 12.8 kilometers long. the 5, sometimes 8 kilometers long information is inacurate. a myth created by badly researched RPG games.

        here't the authoritative information: http://www.starwars.com/databank/starship/supersta rdestroyer/

      • Re:Very nice, but.... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Jugalator ( 259273 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @03:05PM (#8960265) Journal
        Vader grabbed Leia in an "Imperial Class Star Destroyer"

        ... although that designation has been debated. See also this quote from Warships of the Empire [theforce.net] :

        Imperator-class star destroyer.

        "The common mile-long Imperial star destroyer. Imperator, the first ship in its class, was built at the KDY shipyards at Gyndine for use in the Corellian sector fleet early in the reign of Emperor Palpatine. [Is Gyndine in or near the Corellian sector?] By the time of Palpatine's fall these ships were ubiquitous galaxy-wide as the stock destroyer vessel of Imperial Navy's territorial fleets, numbering no less than several tens of thousands of ships.

        These vessels were also colloquially known as "Impstars" or "Imperial star destroyers", particularly among the forces of the Rebel Alliance and New Republic. (Of course all star destroyer designs of the Imperial Navy were "Imperial", just as the rebel Admiral Ackbar commanded Calamarian cruisers which nonetheless were not "Calamarian-class" star cruisers!)"


        The older, smaller versions were called "Victory Class Star Destroyers" and were only a half kilometer long.

        True :-)

        The "Super Class Star Destroyer" you see plunging into the second death star in ROTJ is Vader's Capital ship and is close to 5 kilometers in length.

        I'm not sure there is such a thing -- either a "Super Star Destroyer" (from computer games I think) or Executor-class Star Destroyers / Command Ships, from Vader's Executor in ROTJ.

        All this is further discussed here:
        STAR WARS: Technical Commentaries [theforce.net]

        Thank god for that document, that shows someone else is more geeky than me!
    • ...60 turbolaser cannons...not 8. If it had 8 laser cannons, two X-wings would outgun it, lol.

      I know...That's ridiculous! Worst, model, ever!

      ;)

    • He calls it a "scale" replica...considering a Star Destroyer is supposed to be 1.6 kilometers long, those little model people are what, 500 feet tall?

      Why do you think he is selling it? He realizes he seriously fucked up the scale and dimensions. He's trying to unload this piece of shit to get money for more materials to build a new one that isn't such a royal embarrassment.

      If it had 8 laser cannons, two X-wings would outgun it, lol.

      Well, you see ordinarily this would be true, but not in this d

  • thanks! (Score:5, Funny)

    by jellocat ( 605820 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @03:04AM (#8957585)
    I read the summery and was like, "What is a Star Wars"?!?! Then I was relieved to see you had a link so I could easily find out more about those Star Wars.

    Love,
    Duh McObvious

  • My 25th birthday (Score:3, Funny)

    by Myolp ( 525784 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @03:08AM (#8957596)
    On my 25th birthday I got a Death Star replica from my friends. It was built from an inflatable bathball and a large plastic bag. Unfortunetaly it was destroyed by some rebels armed with alcohol a couple of months later. Anyway, while it was still intact I used it to threaten my roommates when they "forgot" to do their dishes.

  • check out the counter on the page (Score:4, Interesting)

    by minus_273 ( 174041 ) <aaaaaNO@SPAMSPAM.yahoo.com> on Saturday April 24, 2004 @03:09AM (#8957601) Journal
    rarely does slashdot link to a page with alot of BW/ power AND a counter. heh you can refresh to see the slashdot effect in realtime.

  • How to build your own Star Destroyer (Score:5, Funny)

    by tekrat ( 242117 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @04:31AM (#8957774) Homepage Journal
    Step 1) Get Yourself and 25,000 metric tons of steel into space.

    Step 2) Start Welding.

    Step 3) ??????

    Step 4) PROFIT!

  • This one has a PC inside it! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by OneArmedMan ( 606657 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @04:49AM (#8957807)
    if you click on this link [overclockers.com.au] you will find one that has a computer inside it.!

  • Build Your Own Imperial Star Destroyer (Score:5, Funny)

    by slittle ( 4150 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @05:33AM (#8957890) Homepage
    # BUGBUG: put ingress filtering on this vent.
    # someone might want to... I dunno... shoot a
    # torpedo down there or something.

  • Lesser of two geeks (Score:3, Funny)

    by t_allardyce ( 48447 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @06:39AM (#8957983) Journal
    Whats worse - buying this, or not buying it because its techically the wrong size?
  • ... can it fly?

  • Finally (Score:2, Funny)

    by TrondS ( 732720 )
    He's getting the money to move out of his mother's basement
  • A Star Destroyer made for 4" action figures? How bout one made for 4' actual people. I won't be interested in buying one until I can sit my own hyperbolic chamber and mentally kill people.
  • .. knew the power of the /dark side/ of the force!
  • I don't have the link, but somebody did have a Rebel Blockade runner on ebay that was built to scale (for the 4" figs) and it had to pulled around on a 35' tractor trailer - an Imperial Cruiser is over 10X larger than a Blockade Runner (150 meters long vs 1600 meters long) so this isn't even close.
  • It's about time we get a link posted here that you can visit without being the first 5 people to see the post.

  • Now that would be awesome!
  • He's selling this for GBP 250! What is his major malfunction!

  • Star Destroyer I Devastator (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Darthscooby1001 ( 774210 ) on Saturday April 24, 2004 @04:11PM (#8960652)
    I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your kind words regarding my Star Destroyer. A subscriber was kind enough to send me the link to this site, which I had no idea existed never mind was discussing my ship. It did indeed take 3 years to build but only with a week here and a few days there. When I started I had no idea what I was going and no prior woodwork skills. I simply wanted to make the ship I yearned for when I was a child and looked at it how I believe a child would. As some of you have noticed I have ended the listing and have sold the ship privately. It has gone to a good home and I can rest assured it will be played with as a toy is meant to be. I would certainly not say a profit was made, apart from the many hours of labour, wood is not cheap to buy. I also gave the buyer many figures and ships to man the vessel with. During the last week or two I have been inundated with emails from Star Wars fans telling me of their admiration for the creation, I am just astounded. I did not expect in a millennia anything like the response I have received. I am not a carpenter or artist by trade, but a simple soldier in the British Army. I am posted very shortly to Germany and really do need to cut down some of my Star Wars possessions. My response to the critics is I have made something that has put a smile on a child's face - what have you done? For the rest of you, hang around another year or three because your inspiration has me planning my next project - A 4 inch scale Deathstar! That is scale so the figures fit in it, not 80 miles in diameter. DarthScooby1001

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