Wow, I didn’t expect to wait so long before my second post here! Basically, I decided to start going chronologically through the original Star Wars, AKA A New Hope, doing one set at a time…and the first set ended up getting quite tricky. I’m talking, of course, about the Rebel blockade runner, Tantive IV – also known in the documents used by the filmmakers as the Rebel starfighter or Rebel spacefighter.
The main L-shaped hallway was not the problem; it started coming together quite quickly. I admit I was intimidated by the incredible work already done by fellow fans like Stinson Lenz, but I reminded myself that my aims are a little different: while others may (very understandably) focus purely on creating ultra-detailed recreations of these sets, my goal is to create somewhat simpler representations that all sit accurately in the real-world spaces of Elstree Studios. (I admit I have this dream of someday visiting the Tesco supermarket that now sits where stages 1-6 were situated and walking around to specific spots where scenes from the three films were shot, but that’s neither here nor there.)
As an example, here’s the blockade runner set beginning to form in stage 9, on the right. You can see the work from my last post in stage 7 on the left. Stage 8 currently sits empty in the middle, though eventually that will be occupied by things like the streets of Mos Eisley. (These three stages are actually housed in the same building; I’m just making basic representations of the stage interiors.)
What you can’t see here is that I even have aerial photos of Elstree underneath the entire model, both from modern day and from the 80s. These particular stages are still standing and in use, which is amazing, except that means they’re closed to the public. Maybe someday…anyway, here are more Tantive IV shots:
Again, that main hallway is not difficult. The drawings in Rinzler’s Star Wars: The Blueprints are detailed and thorough, and there’s ample reference from the film and from on-set photography.
The trouble was the side corridor, the one where Leia gives R2 the Death Star plans. You can see part of it starting to form in the last two renders. Unfortunately, this area of the set is not as well-documented in Rinzler’s book – the white hallway was actually a late addition, and the main drawing featured in the book focuses on that addition. Still, how hard could it be?
Well, pretty hard, as it turns out. The section you see in the above render was actually a revamp of the Millennium Falcon‘s main hold set, and I haven’t found many drawings of that set, either. I scoured the web for as many reference shots as I could find, but it just got too difficult. Different sources weren’t quite matching up, one of my biggest annoyances in any 3D modeling project. I also realized that the Falcon hold was on an elevated rostrum, but I didn’t know for sure whether the entire blockade runner set had been built like that too. Frustrated, I threw in the towel for a few weeks and worked on some music projects that I’d been neglecting.
Fortunately, I did start to get some inspiration again in the last few days, this time focusing on an area that’s well-documented in Rinzler’s book: the Cloud City reactor control room where Vader sends Luke flying out the window in The Empire Strikes Back. More on that in a future post!
Sets of Star Wars 