So, after a year of on/off work, it is nearly complete. After Lego released their pitiful version of the Carbon Freezing Chamber from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, I began work on making a model more faithful to the source material. After scavenging the internet for ideas, I could not find anything that looked nearly good enough, so I had to start from the horrible official Lego set.
Before starting I came up with a set of guidelines to prevent complacency with mediocrity:
1) Sturdy enough that it could be lifted by any section without breaking
2) Faithful to Lego’s design motifs
3) As circular as Lego bricks would allow
4) No visible holes on the exterior where they should not be holes
5) The lift must be able to stay in the upright position, be able to have a Minifigure placed on it while in the upright position without depressing or breaking, go up and down smoothly, and be able to go down far enough so the Minifigure standing on it would be below the platform
After about twenty iterations, I finally landed on this design. I am missing Lando and Lobot Minifigures at the moment, and there are a few minor tweaks I am going to make, but for the most part, it is done.
Up next is the platform section Luke and Darth Vader fight on, but that’s a project for future me.
PS: I am working on instructions, but I am unsure what channels there are for distributing them.