Customer Reviews

Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

To paraphrase animator/creature designer/puppeteer Phil Tippet, this book is about how several dozen people over the course of several decades managed to create an entire make-believe world (and the ships, creatures and environments within them) with their bare hands.

To a life-long Star Wars geek (and ILM/specialmeffects enthusiast in particular) like me, "Sculpting the Galaxy" is practically spaceship-porn, what with 216 pages filled with beautifiul macrophotography exploring every nook and cranny of the models created for the Star Wars universe in almost fetishistic detail. Don't take my word for it, either - the Millenium Falcon gets it's hown centerfold, fer chrissakes.

What's even better is that all of these photos are interspersed with anecdotes from the author and many other veterans of ILM's model shope describing how the design and fabrication of each model came to be (for example, the entry regarding the Death Star model from "A New Hope"s mentions that said model accidentally wound up being accidentally thrown away during ILM's move from San Raphael to Marin County).

Regardless, this book will stand as a testament to the talent and hard work of the craftsmen and artists who laboured so long to bring George Lucas's vision of a 'galaxy far, far way' to life. Kudos to you, fellas - you've definitely earned it.

Length:: 0:39 Mins

Fans of Star Wars, particularly model collectors will love this book. This book is however not a book featuring collectibles. This is a compilation of hundreds of photos models of ships and sets that were used throughout the Star Wars movies.

There are four main chapters: 1. Starships, 2. Vehicles, 3. Creatures, droids and sculpts, 4. Environment.

The photos included are extremely high quality and many are close ups for details. The level of detail and workmanship is amazing when you're looking at it close up. I can also touch them.

Fans will find almost everything, from the Imperial Star Destroyer, Padme Amidala's Apartment, Holographic Chess Game, just to name a few.

If you've been to Star Wars exhibitions, you'll know that photography isn't allowed. Well, this book is the next best thing to the exhibition. Wait a minute -- so that's why photography isn't allowed.

This is a well constructed hard covered book with great binding and high quality semi gloss paper.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

For those who have purchased the series of "Art of Star Wars" books, as well as "Star Wars: Sketchbooks" et cetera, this tome is impressive but not novel. Many photos from those earlier books are reused here. The problem is that they have been blown up for this larger format. Consequently, the blown-up recycled photos are slightly blurry. There are some wonderful photos of star destroyer details that have not been seen before...but is that enough to merit this huge new book? That decision is up to you, but I expected heretofore unseen, crisply focused photographs.

I too, own many of the various other books detailing the creation of the Star Wars universe. Like them, this one tells a small part of the story. While some material has been seen before, I don't mind at all seeing it again along side Lorne's insightful commentary.

HOWEVER, as another reviewer mentioned, the binding leaves much to be desired. My copy started to disintegrate as soon as I opened it. A shame, as I would rate the book 5 stars if it had an intact spine. As such, it hardly gets looked at now as every turn of the page could be the last thanks to the inferior binding.

I was very disappointed in this book. I was expecting hundreds of images of models and props, and I didn't get it. Most (not all) of the images in this book can be easily found in other, and better better Star Wars reference books. Different book, same stuff.

I returned it.

Like the models depicted in the book itself, the painstaking attention to detail is amazing. As a long time fan of Star Wars and collector of memoribilia from the saga, the Lorne Peterson signed limited edition version is a must have for any fan. Aside from the hardcover book, which is very well presented and detailed, comes a plethora of other unique, such as the case itself, moulded and hand painted pieces from the original scaled model of the Millennium Falcon and Death Star. Then there's the copy of Lorne's original scaled Lanspeeder with Luke, Ben, R2 and 3PO. I thought 'Dressing a Galaxy' was fantastic, well this is even better.

If you are looking for a nicely laid out book this is it.The picture quality is real good but detail freaks beware ... This is not the book you want if you are building or super detailing a model starship from the Star Wars galaxy.It has nicely detailed photos but only from certain angles or some of the photos don't contain the whole model ie The Super Star destroyer.So if you are a fan of the Star Wars movies like me you will find the book interesting and very fascinating along with the sidebars from Lorne Peterson.A must have for the fan

In an age when CGI seems to have taken over movies, Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop is a nice tribute to ILM's Model Shop. It has some great close-up shots of the models and creatures. I was surprised to learn that even some of the later movies relied heavily on models. I don't think this book is quite as good as Star Wars Chronicles, which is much more comprehensive. Sculpting a Galaxy leaves out a few key ships and creatures, such as the Tie Bomber. Also, some of the pictures seem a bit fuzzy. However, the main reason I gave this only 3 stars is that its binding is horribly loose. There are gaps between some of the pages, which is especially annoying if the photo is a two-page spread. What a shame. Hopefully not all of the books in print are so poorly manufactured.

Sculpting a Galaxy inside the star wars model shop is a must read for all those star wars fans out there. There are a ton of fantastic pictures that captures all the items that make up the star wars galaxy. This book had special meaning to me do to my intrest in modeling. This is a very important reference to modelers so that they can make accurate replicas of there own. Two thumbs up!

I really enjoyed this book. I saw Star Wars when I was 10 years old ... and like many other kids, it changed my world. It was the movie of my imagination, with all the costumes, strange creatures, blasters ... and spaceships!

This book takes you into the models used in the original movies, and the prequels too. Was fun to learn some of their techniques, such as "model bashing" (taking pieces from existing, off-the-shelf model kits) to make some of the ships. The people who create these models are real artists. And this book lets you take a peak behind the curtain!

This book, and "The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film" are two must-have books for the Star Wars fan!