So I've been working on a big ******* project. Creating a CC style campaign, but bigger. I won't go into details on that yet, but rather than fighting over the Corellian Sector, the Rebels are trying to find and destroy a SSD that is being constructed. If things go well, the Rebels can find it and fight it before it finishes construction. If things go poorly, the SSD is completed and steam rolls the Rebels. I'm still writing the story and mechanics, as well as integrating Legion so you have to manage both fleets and armies, all of which play a pivotal role in the progression of the game. I would add X-Wing, but I don't play it so I don't know the rules or how to balance.

But for the epic conclusion, I need to create a SSD, and I'm going all in on this. I crunched some number with the ISD for reference.

Length
SSD 19km : ISD 1.6km - 11.875x
SSD 95in : ISD 8in

Width
SSD 4.75km : ISD 1.050km - 4.52x
SSD 23.75in : ISD 5.25in

Height
SSD 1.1875km : ISD 0.5km - 2.375x
SSD 5.938in : ISD 2.5in

I did the math a few months ago, so I don't remember where I got all the dimensions from. But for an in-scale SSD in reference to an ISD, it would be 95in, which is almost 8ft. So I'm going to make it a 1:2 scale and only go for 48in long, 12in wide, and 3in tall. All of which should look nicely next to an ISD.

I even did a comparison of weapons between the SSD and ISD and the results are pretty ******* cool.

SSD 19km / 4000 turbo = 0.21 turbo/m
ISD II 1.6km / 126 turbo = 0.078 turbo/m
0.21 turbo/m / 0.078 turbo/m = 2.69 ratio
126 turbo * 2.69 * 11.875 = 4024.9 turbo

In case I lost you, an ISD II has 126 turbolasers, the ration between SSD turbo and ISD is 2.69, and the ration between length is 11.875, multiply it all together and you get a SSD with 4000 turbolasers. What does it mean? Idk but I love the ratios.

So my question to the modders and painters, how do I tackle this project? I was thinking of sculpting it from pink foam that will meet the dimensions and cutting it in half for storage. Put some dowels in so I can slide the 2 piece together and add stability. Rather than etching into the foam all the details, maybe make a stamp and press it into balsa wood would would be put on the sides of the SSD. And I have no idea how to make the center, which looks like a small city.

Then I have to paint it, which will be tough. Lot of details.

This is a huge undertaking but as for the central part just use lots of little plastic bits. Kitbash some plastic models. Maybe see if you can find any plastic models on sale, it shouldn't really matter the theme.

Good luck with your project. I would highly recommend lighting it up as you go. And I'd be more than willing to give you advice on how you should proceed if you need any guidance.

1 minute ago, Khyros said:

Good luck with your project. I would highly recommend lighting it up as you go. And I'd be more than willing to give you advice on how you should proceed if you need any guidance.

Man, that would need a lot of fiber optics. Certainly the engines and hanger bays. I have a friend who knows how to wire fiber optics, but certainly any other info and guides would be useful.

13 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

Man, that would need a lot of fiber optics. Certainly the engines and hanger bays. I have a friend who knows how to wire fiber optics, but certainly any other info and guides would be useful.

I've written up my process both on the forums here as well as on my FB page LEDHangar, without seeing what materials you end up constructing it all out of, I wouldn't expect this one to be any different. Heck if anything the shear size of it might end up making it easier since you don't have to deal with miniature everything.

If we just took the scale of the ISD, I used 342 FOs on my first one, most of those are along the sides. With you using a x6 factor, I would expect then to have about 1800 on the model. For the sides alone. Figure you can probably double that number for the cityscape. That would be 56 cables of 64 filaments, and since you can get 3 cables onto a single 5mm LED source, that would be 19 LEDs. But reality is probably more like 28. And then there are the 13 engines, all of which seem to be pretty similar in size, so they would require their own LEDs. For the ISD, I found the best way to illuminate them was to drill a 3mm hole for the LED, paint the engine dome blue and then cover it with a gloss finish. The LED is then exposed providing a bright center of the engine, but reflects off of the entire engine, providing the illusion of illumination through out. I would suspect a similar strategy would work for the SSD.

But with 41 LEDs, pulling 20mA each,you're looking at .82A current to light the thing. You'll need a serious battery in order to accomplish that. If it's fair to say that you want it lasting at least 6 hours, then you'll be going through 4920mAh of capacity, plus about a 30% overage, so you'd want a battery sized for about 6500mAh or more. My initial gut would tell me to go with a cell phone backup, something like this https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCore-Ultra-Compact-High-speed-Technology/dp/B0194WDVHI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1507744284&sr=8-3&keywords=cell+phone+battery+backup

Note that a key feature is that it can't have an on/off button. There's nothing preventing you from getting a larger battery if you wanted, assuming it'll fit (which I doubt you'll have a problem with that). And then all you need is to mount a USB somewhere to recharge it, and an on/off switch somewhere to turn the lights on. Depending on the size of things, you might be able to get away with using the shield domes to satisfy that. Actually, that would be a really cool thing to do (if the scale works that is) - put a male micro USB connector on both of them, and have a female mounted on the bridge. Have one of them modified so it actually connects the pins, so inserting it turns it on. And the other one just removes to provide a recharge location. Just don't screw up which one's which :).

1 hour ago, Undeadguy said:

So I've been working on a big ******* project. Creating a CC style campaign, but bigger. I won't go into details on that yet, but rather than fighting over the Corellian Sector, the Rebels are trying to find and destroy a SSD that is being constructed. If things go well, the Rebels can find it and fight it before it finishes construction. If things go poorly, the SSD is completed and steam rolls the Rebels. I'm still writing the story and mechanics, as well as integrating Legion so you have to manage both fleets and armies, all of which play a pivotal role in the progression of the game.

That sounds wicked.

59 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

I did the math a few months ago, so I don't remember where I got all the dimensions from. But for an in-scale SSD in reference to an ISD, it would be 95in, which is almost 8ft. So I'm going to make it a 1:2 scale and only go for 48in long, 12in wide, and 3in tall. All of which should look nicely next to an ISD.

That's a quarter of the **** table.

1 hour ago, Undeadguy said:

In case I lost you, an ISD II has 126 turbolasers, the ration between SSD turbo and ISD is 2.69, and the ration between length is 11.875, multiply it all together and you get a SSD with 4000 turbolasers. What does it mean? Idk but I love the ratios.

If 126 turbolasers amounts to 4 red dice (assuming the 2 red per side pivot to form the 4 red in the front, since ostensibly that's the entire point of being a triangle), then 4000 turbolasers amounts to 127 red dice - call it 64, at a 1:2 scale.

Which would cost $220 in dice packs and average 48 damage, with 8 accuracies.

8 minutes ago, Khyros said:

I'm not sure I'd do the sides. That's simply too much work to do. Maybe the center part, but I don't like the idea of cutting groves in the foam to lay wire. Might be easier than I think. I won't know until I get there though.

2 minutes ago, svelok said:

If 126 turbolasers amounts to 4 red dice (assuming the 2 red per side pivot to form the 4 red in the front, since ostensibly that's the entire point of being a triangle), then 4000 turbolasers amounts to 127 red dice - call it 64, at a 1:2 scale.

Which would cost $220 in dice packs and average 48 damage, with 8 accuracies.

I already calculated the dice required at this scale It's not tooooo bad.

The front arc of an ISD II has 4 red dice, which is 44% of it's red die firepower, and accounts for 56 turbolasers. 56/4=14 turbo/die

SSD
11.875 scale / 2 = 5.9375 ratio
4000*.44=1760 turoblasers in front arc
1760 turbo / 14 turbo/die = 125 red dice
125 die / 5.9375 ratio = 21 red dice in front arc

Using the same logic:
8 blue dice in front
8 black dice in front

11 red on sides
4 blue on sides
4 blacks on sides

11 red on rear
4 blue on rear
4 blacks on rear

I also have 72 hull and 20 sum shields on the hull zones, which is based off of RotJ needing 13 MC80s (I think it was 13) to bring down the SSD. That's unrealistic for this game, and this is no where near balanced. Just a starting place. Keep in mind this is a fully functional SSD, which means you let the Empire go unhindered in its construction so you kind of deserve to get crushed by it hahaha

I was thinking of splitting the 4 hull zones into 8 hull zones. This means the dice pools are halved, as well as the shields. This makes it more manageable to deal with. I was also thinking of having a "critical" damage for each hull zone, so if you deal X, you have essentially disabled all the weapons on that section so it can no longer attack from it.

This thing should be able to kill anything except the most well equipped ships. And it's supported by 3 other fleets. You're not supposed to win if you fight head on with it. I've been thinking of allowing some extra points for the Rebels if they initiate an attack. 150 points of free stuff for each fleet, which can be explained as the Rebels calling for reinforcements from other sectors in order to bring down an important target. Think Rogue One.

that is a **** of a behemoth you're preparing here! Just a bunch of ideas on it:

-If you're not a professional modeller, I'll advise you to split the job into several chunks, so as to make it manageable, and also that an unfortunate accident on one part will not destroy it completely.

-start by the underside! You'll have gotten better at everything by the time you go for the top.

-why not treating as a surf board? foam on the inside, and glass fiber on the outside? plus if you want to print the details, Mel's doing ISD strips skins that could be good as templates

-or why not go Hollywood-40-style? painted (or printed) canvas over wooden frame, except the central zone...

I think we'll all love to know how this project is advancing! good luck

Is buying that massive 3d printed(?) model for ~$500 possible? It may be considerably cheaper in material costs and labor than building your own from scratch. Unless I'm doing something for fun, I always evaluate if the time it would take me to build something from scratch is more than the time having a paper route (or any job) to pay for it.

7 minutes ago, Thraug said:

Is buying that massive 3d printed(?) model for ~$500 possible? It may be considerably cheaper in material costs and labor than building your own from scratch. Unless I'm doing something for fun, I always evaluate if the time it would take me to build something from scratch is more than the time having a paper route (or any job) to pay for it.

I'm doing it because I want to do it. I certainly don't have $500 to drop either, but I also didn't know people 3D print them except for what Mel does, but that's not large enough.

I made a rough template of the SSD. I plan on making it in 2 pieces, which is why it looks weird in the middle. I'm about 90% done with this attempt. Just need to bring some edges in.

It measures just over 48inch right now, and a little over 12inch at the widest point. I'm probably going to triple the height, so at the point of the bridge, it will be thicker than an ISD. I think all the dimensions are in proportion, and if not, it looks pretty close.

Next step is to touch it up a bit, and then trace it onto a 4' x 8' Foamular 250 board, which I believe is non toxic and can be cut safely with a foam wire cutter.

Wow. Dat's big.

Sweet. This is why I think if they ever do a SSD expansion it should be a campaign built around it and the 'gamepiece' of the SSD would be a printed map. That's a fairly good looking scale for it.

We have the same kitchen table!

Off topic.... but yeah nice SSD too

I've gotta say, the 4ft size you've gone with here looks really good next to the ISD, MC80, and TIE Fighters. It's properly impressive next to them, but not so large it's entirely unwieldy. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Here are a couple of images to help you with the proportions.

It looks to me like the OP's ship is modelled on the Mel's Miniatures/Fractalsponge version, rather than the movie version.

Thus, I think it might be easier to use the details from that, than to reshape this one to match the movie version.

Also - some movie shots do seem to suggest a shorter-tailed ship, than the top-down view seen above - which has occasionally made me wonder if Lucasfilm made multiple Executor props, with slightly different proportions.

The only props that was aware of were the studio model, a larger version of the bridge tower, and a close up of the lateral trench. I did get to see a Mel's version in person and you are right of his reference. ( Nice model but look really stretched out and too flat. )

I did get my measurements based off of mel's SSD that I found in the SSD thread. It was some what supported by pictures.

Now that I'm this far, I actually like the narrowness of my SSD. It will make playing with it easier and not take up as much space.

I can understand wanting to keep it narrow. I was running the numbers for one in scale with the ISD2 and one at 40". It's a beast. I will be following your progress.

13 hours ago, Mortis Angelis said:

( Nice model but look really stretched out and too flat. )

When I look at how wide, proportionally, it looks compared to its height, in ROTJ

I can't say that Mel's is "too flat".

Similarly, some images show a very "short-tailed" Executor. Even with a slight "bow is closer to camera than stern" - it's hard for it to fully account for the difference between the length of the tail in the top-down view, and the length of the tail in movie images:

6 hours ago, Ironlord said:

When I look at how wide, proportionally, it looks compared to its height, in ROTJ

I can't say that Mel's is "too flat".

Similarly, some images show a very "short-tailed" Executor. Even with a slight "bow is closer to camera than stern" - it's hard for it to fully account for the difference between the length of the tail in the top-down view, and the length of the tail in movie images:

The biggest problem with getting measurements from the film is perspective and camera lens. It can play tricks especially in composite shots.

As far as Mel's mini being too flat, my observation was from one model in a FLGS and could have just been the way that model was built. Again, its proportions have it long and narrow as compared to the studio model.

Update 05NOV2017

I have translated the design into pink XPS this weekend, and I forgot to take pictures until after I attempted to glue the parts together. I wasn't able to get a 2"x4'x8' board like I had planned, so I settled on some 2"x2'x2' instead, but that meant I traced the ship from corner to corner, rather than one side to the other. Results in 2 odd shapes, but the effect is the same.

I was hoping I could start trimming away the foam today, but I realized my attempt to glue everything had failed. I tried it with PVA since it's what I had on hand, and I've read it works great to glue the foam together, with that added benefit of being easy to mold (trim and sand) after it dries. I had clamped the pieces and put weights on it and waited over 24 hours. Glue is still wet on the inside... I'm currently trying my second attempt at gluing after etching the board and mixing modge podge and water into the already wet PVA, as well as adding a lot of weight. I'm fairly certain this won't work with PVA, so I'll be getting Gorilla Glue and wiping down the wet glue once I split this things open again.

This end bonded nicely.

This end did not...

All the glue is still wet

Attempt #2. More glue and more weight. Girlfriends nursing textbooks finally have a use again.

18 hours ago, Undeadguy said:

Update 05NOV2017

I have translated the design into pink XPS this weekend, and I forgot to take pictures until after I attempted to glue the parts together. I wasn't able to get a 2"x4'x8' board like I had planned, so I settled on some 2"x2'x2' instead, but that meant I traced the ship from corner to corner, rather than one side to the other. Results in 2 odd shapes, but the effect is the same.

I was hoping I could start trimming away the foam today, but I realized my attempt to glue everything had failed. I tried it with PVA since it's what I had on hand, and I've read it works great to glue the foam together, with that added benefit of being easy to mold (trim and sand) after it dries. I had clamped the pieces and put weights on it and waited over 24 hours. Glue is still wet on the inside... I'm currently trying my second attempt at gluing after etching the board and mixing modge podge and water into the already wet PVA, as well as adding a lot of weight. I'm fairly certain this won't work with PVA, so I'll be getting Gorilla Glue and wiping down the wet glue once I split this things open again.

This end bonded nicely.

This end did not...

All the glue is still wet

Attempt #2. More glue and more weight. Girlfriends nursing textbooks finally have a use again.

Im glad you understand the weight of the situation.