Scale: Not stated
I always wanted to see "Star Trek's" infamous planet basher actually bust-up a planet--or in this case, a "small moon." And this scene makes sense when you consider that in "The Doomsday Machine," Spock said that the planet killer came "from outside; from another galaxy." Kirk later speculates that it "was used in a war uncounted years ago." In other words: "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." Also, knowing how many planet blasting weapons were developed in the "Star Wars" galaxy, it's likely that in the end there would be one all powerful survivor.
To make this battle of the planet killers diorama, I scratchbuilt the 14" long Doomsday Machine out of plastic from Red Solo cups, and secured it to AMT/Ertl's Death Star model with an anti-proton beam (depicted here by an acrylic pilsner mug.) After drilling lots of windows/ports, I added decals I designed on CorelDraw to detail the Death Star's raised panels. Battle damage for both vessels was made by slinging hot solder on a plate, then gluing the "splats" to the models over painted scorch marks. For the Death Star, I drilled holes through the solder and put stripped scaffolding inserts inside. Since Trek's planet killer had a solid neutronium hull, I left the solder as-is for "dents." I installed a Soaiy aurora nightlight for the beam lighting effects; which project a variety of patterns in different colors. The red glow around the beam isn't photoshop. The Soaiy light was reflecting off the black background. For the Death Star's "exit wound," I cut up strips of .003 thick Dura-lar plastic sheets for the torn decking on either side of the hole, spaced with 1/16" thick plastic scrap. I scattered more of those scrap pieces around the bottom to depict damaged and dislodged compartments.
Looking at the in-progress Death Star interior pic, you'll note one of the most important parts is an empty solder wire spool. The slots cut into one end hold four sections of the model together. A portion cut out of the other end holds the Soaiy mechanism in place. And the hole in the middle of the spool is just the right size for the aluminum bar from the stand to support the weight of the Doomsday Machine and its beam. So anytime a loved one asks why you save all that useless crap, show them that picture.
