Howdy all!
A little backstory: I recently got a 2.5' millenium falcon gift that I subsequently hung in my office...
Well, I got a small wall decal of the death star to put on my wall, but that was sort of... lacking... in some ways.
I decided, why not make a 3D-ish Death Star myself instead?
While I was thinking about it, I also figured, why not make it somewhat functional if I can?
That said, I'm presenting the following DIY for those of you who might want to try it.
Could be a fun project to tackle with the padawans or younglings
Materials (all can be found on Amazon or at your local hobby / craft store):
Lightning "Factory Second" Prostyle #1 Driver $6.48 shipped
Clock Movement Quartz Square Straight Black Hand Shaft 3/4" Kit $12.95
(note: if I were to do it again, I would suggest going with the 1/4" or 1/2" kit instead of the 3/4")
Sticky Back Foam Sheets-Basic Colors $9.44 shipped
Black and Grey Spray paint about $4-5?
Optional but recommended: carbon paper - about $5 as well for 10 sheets
So to start off with, I resized and printed out an internet photo of the death star.
Using the carbon paper, I traced the outlines onto the frisbee (pics below are clickable)
(side note: if I were to do this again, I would next use my dremel tool and sand away the "emitter / focusing disc" portion as well as dremel in the curved lines -- on this run I did the sanding after I put the foam blocks on and had a few missteps which you'll see on the close up photos below)
Next, I used that same printout photo and traced the outlines onto a sheet of the adhesive backed white foam sheet. Using a scalpel / X-acto knife, I then cut out the blocks and stuck them to the frisbee, using the outlines as a guide to where they should go.
I then spray painted the whole thing in semi gloss black (but any black will work I think) - paint was still wet in this image. The textural difference between the foam blocks and the frisbee was quite nice once the paint was on.
I used a strip of 1/4" tape to mask the center groove / canyon area, then lightly misted some gray primer to highlight some of the areas and provide contrast.
I then drilled a small hole for the clock nubbin to stick through and attached the clock arms.
Here it is mounted next to my shop clock for comparison
total cost: about $38-39
and the final result hanging in my office next to the falcon and TIE fighter:
thanks for looking! 8)
-C