The Death Star, from the movie Star Wars, can be considered a hybrid "pumpkin carve/pumpkin sculpt". Pumpkin carving involves using the pumpkin almost as a surface for an image that is carved into the pumpkin. This is pretty much a 2D image.  A pumpkin sculpt uses the pumpkin itself as a 3D object.  Because the pumpkin itself is the object and not a pattern on a pumpkin, we can probably call it a sculpture. But unlike most sculptures, the way you carve it is exactly how you might do a pattern. So lets get started.  If you have questions, please post them in the carvingpumpkins.com forum thread where the tutorial is posted. If its during pumpkin carving season, I will be looking at this regularly (but I might be carving, so wait a few hours for a response!).

How Long Does it Take, and Is it Worth It? In all, if you start with a large pumpkin, you can expect to spend anywhere from 4 - 10 hours in making your Death Star.  If you've never spent this long on a pumpkin, I can only tell you that if you're hoping for an awesome reaction, you will have a very hard time beating the Death Star.  This thing is a HUGE hit with everyone.  Even jaded teenagers are blown away.  Even online, check out last year's Wired.com's contest for the geekiest pumpkin carves, and you'll see the Death Star sitting HIGH atop some absolutely terrific competition.

What Skills Do I Need?: This tutorial assumes you have done pumpkin carving before.  Specifically, I am not going through the details of how to do a skinned pumpkin carve, where you can either cut all the way through, cut just the skin off or leave the pumpkin skin on to have a 3-color pumpkin.  If you're even mildly fluent with this type of pumpkin carving, you should find that Carving the Death Star is quite easy, if time consuming.  If you need to learn the basics, I highly recommend going to the CarvingPumpkins.com Instructions section, and then to visit the Q&A board for questions.

Personally, I like to get large sized pumpkins for the death star - somewhere between 70 and 120 pounds, but this is not required. What IS necessary is that you find as round a pumpkin as possible. For large pumpkins, this is very different from your normal "pattern friendly" pumpkin, where you are looking for a nice flat side with which to do a pattern.

Larger pumpkins will often be flat on one side, which is absolutely fine - this is the side you put to the back wall. Round pumpkins will usually have  If you're doing a smaller pumpkin, you can probably carve the death star "pattern" all the way around.

This is truly a messy chore if you do a large sized pumpkin. You need to clean out the ENTIRE inside for the parts you plan to carve (which is the entire front and sides). Chances are, the larger pumpkins will have rounded ridges, which means in cleaning it out, you'll need to be careful to not scrap everything evenly - you need to scrape out the areas between the veins deeper than the veins themselves.

You may want to leave a large chunk where you intend to make your laser hole. This will allow you to have some depth to the hole instead of leaving it only on the outside.

In taking off the top, try to cut out as little of the front as possible. Generally, you can cut out large hunks from the back, but try to stay just on the other side of the top vine area when cutting the front side.

This is truly a messy chore if you do a large sized pumpkin.  On the larger pumpkins, the pumpkin goop will be around 5 inches deep. You'll eventually want to get this to around 1/2 inch thick. You need to clean out the ENTIRE inside for the parts you plan to carve (which is the entire front and sides).

Chances are, the larger pumpkins will have rounded or bowed humps coming out of the pumpkin.  This means when cleaning it out, you'll need to be careful to not scrap everything evenly - you need to scrape out the areas between the veins deeper than the veins themselves. If you get a large pumpkin, you'll find that you need to put pretty much your entire arm inside the pumpkin to scrape it out.  Also, the goop is far more acidic and stinky on larger pumpkins.

You may want to leave a large chunk in the back where you intend to make your laser hole to shoot through the front of the pumpkin laser area (see later down for details). This will allow you to have some depth to the hole instead of leaving it only on the outside.

Important Tip: In cutting off the top, try to cut out as little of the front as possible. You will be using the top area as part of your Death Star.  Generally, you can cut out large hunks from the back, but try to stay just on the other side of the top vine area when cutting the front side.

For the most part, you need basic pumpkin carving tools, including a speedball set (you can get this at most craft stores, or can get it online here) and clay loop tools (also at craft stores or at the previous link) for shaving and smoothing the surface. There are a few extras though:

Sewing Tape Measure

You'll need a Sewing tape measure to get the initial pattern down.

Lite Brites for Pumpkins
If you want to make clear, visible circle holes similar to the lights eminating from the Deathstar in the Star Wars movie, also consider getting a cheap Fright Light kit. These things are basically lite brites for pumpkins, that work directly off the emitted candle light. They have both clear lights (I used these last year) and colored lights (I tried them this year).

The first, most important step in carving the Death Star is creating a realistic looking "middle" line that goes across the entire pumpkin front. Because the pumpkin will not be even, you need to spend a little time figuring out exactly where the best, most "sellable" place to cut will be.

To do this, lie the pumpkin down on its backside, and use the sewing measuring tape to figure out the place that looks "right".  In other words, you use the sewing tape similar to a belt that goes around "what looks like" the middle of the pumpkin. I do stress that it might not be the exact middle, because if the pumpkin isn't completely round, one side of your pumpkin might be a bit higher than the other. It is more important to make the center line "look like" its in the middle - meaning the perspective looks right.

While attempting to find the right place, I will tape the measuring tape down where I think it looks right, and then step back to look at it.  I will then slowly adjust it as I look at it from all levels. Again, it should be somewhere in the middle, but you'll need to make sure you leave enough space on the upper-end for a decent sized laser hole.

For large pumpkins I cut the groove about the width of the measuring tape - this is perhaps slightly less than a half-inch. In practice, once I have the sewing tape measure in the place that looks best, I then take a pen and trace both sides of the tape, and then "skin out" the groove.

Here's where the tape measure is dynamite. To make the Death Star "work" you need to have proportional horizontal lines going across the entire Death Star. Because the pumpkin isn't always even, this case pose a problem. The solution? Make specific measurements up and down from the center grove along the veins.

Here's how I did this: For my 77 pound pumpkin (shown above), I first did a 2 1/2 inch mark above and below the groove, followed by 2 inches after that. For a 120 pound pumpkin I did last year, I made the first measurement 3 inches above and below the edge of the groove, and then 2 inches, and then 3 inches, and then 2 inches for every line after that.

Its important to do these marks along the pumpkin veins, as the veins will help you work around the uneven aspects of your pumpkin. So make these measurements in all the veins above and below the middle groove.

Ideally, you will want 5 lines above and below the center line. If your pumpkin is either larger or smaller, adjust accordingly. For small pumpkins (under 30 pounds), you may only want three lines in total. You'll always want the closest line to the groove to be a bit larger than the subsequent line though. For the fourth line above and below, you will eventually be making slightly deeper and wider than the rest.

Now you need to find a space between the veins on the upper part of the pumpkin that is most suitable for your laser hole. Ideally you want something around 5" wide. But again, my rule of thumb is basically to take up the bulk of the space between one area  of the veins - this seems to work. Adjust this if your pumpkin is smaller or larger.

Get a sense of about where you want to put your circle. It should be at least an inch above your horizontal line, but not too much higher.

A good way to do this is to use a tea cup base, or perhaps even a large mug.  Basically, find a nice circle object that is about the size of the thing you want.

Find some round object that seems to be about the size of the circle you are envisioning. In my case, I used a small bowl. Trace out the circle and then carve the outline with your speedball set.

Then put a hole in the center of the circle. Ultimately, this is where your laser hole will be.  You can start carving out the laser area now, but I tend to want to draw the horizontal lines before going further.

Also if you look closely, you can see the dot markings along the pumpkin veins. This is where I'll be carving next.

Here's where your Death Star starts to take shape. Following the dots you made along the veins, carve our horizontal lines with a medium sized speedball V line cutter.

Again, because your pumpkin will not really be round, do your best to make the lines work as you go between the veins. This becomes especially important as you go closer to the top and bottom of the pumpkin. As long as you follow your inch markers along the veins, even if its not straight, it WILL be proportional, which is the best you can get with an uneven pumpkin. If its proportional, it will end up "looking" right.

Make sure you don't cut into the laser circle. You'll want that to be a clean circle without lines going into it.

Now is a good time to go back and smooth out the center grove with a flat clay loop tool. As much as possible, you want it deep and smooth. The walls should be as straight down as you can make them.

Important Tip: As you begin to cut out the detailed skinned areas, its a really good practice to smooth the areas out as you go along. If you wait till the end, you might find yourself missing a bunch of these, or worse, not caring as much because you already spent so much time on it. Do it as you go, and you'll end up with a far better pumpkin at the end.

Again, assuming you have a large pumpkin, you'll want to increase the size of the fourth horizontal lines above and below the middle groove. This is assuming you have 5 lines above and below the middle groove. Depending on your pumpkin, you may only have 4 lines either above or below (or 6). Generally you want the larger line to be at the apex of the curve on the top and bottom of the pumpkin - hopefully with at least one more line past it.

While most lines on your pumpkin are one "V" line wide, make the larger ones 3 or 4 "V" lines wide, depending on the size of your pumpkin.

Now the fun part comes in. Starting with the area above and below the center groove, make verticle cuts between the lines approximately every 2 inches. Do this all the way around the pumpkin till you get to the end.

RULE OF THUMB:  When in doubt, always follow the pumpkin veins. Part of the concern you'll have in carving up and down is what exactly does "up" constitute?  Answer: Whatever way the vein is going. Make your vertical lines parallel to the vein lines and you'll be fine.The pumpkin is round so going up is akin to going up on a world globe.

Once you've carved the boxes in the first row (again, avoiding the laser circle), you can do the subsequent rows. You really don't need to measure these - just make sure that you make lines in between the ones below (or above if you are working on the bottom half) the ones you just made. You might not want them all to be exactly in the center, either. Making some of them "close" the lines below allow you to do cool rectangles spanning three horizontal lines, for instance.

Once you've done the first row (again, avoiding the laser circle), you can do the subsequent rows. You really don't need to measure these - just make sure that you make lines in between the ones below (or above if you are working on the bottom half) the ones you just made. You might not want them all to be exactly in the center, either. Making some of them "close" the lines below allow you to do cool rectangles spanning three horizontal lines, for instance.

Carve all the way to the top most cut-out, and pretty much most of the bottom as well.  Again, the size of your "pattern" encompasses the entire front of your pumpkin. 

If you do decide to do a small, but perfectly round pumpkin, you would of course do this all the way around the pumpkin.

Now the fun begins! Start customizing your Death Star by working with each of your block areas (or rectangle areas, if you left a couple of them really long). There are numerous ways to do this. The only rule of thumbs are those posted earlier - use straight lines, and smooth out all skinned areas. There are really no other rules, but here's a number of shots to get you started.

HELP!!! I CUT THE MIDDLE LINE TOO DEEP!!! If you look closely at this picture, you'll notice that in the middle line, I actually tried to cut a deeper groove for Luck Skywalker's ship to go down.  This was a baaaaad idea.  The entire pumpkin actually split in half!  The solution to this?  Easy - Super Glue!

Every veteran pumpkin carver has Super Glue on hand, preferably the one with the brush.  When you use Super Glue on a pumpkin, it literally sizzles as it fuses the two pieces together.  In the picture to the right, you can see some white crud in the middle line - that's the super glue where the pumpkin split in half!

FDepending on whether you completely cleaned out the inside area or left a big chunk underneath the circle, you will sculpt your circle differently.

In my case, both times I've carved the Death Star, I ended up scraping the inside out to a half-inch, so I didn't have the opportunity to do a "deep" cut. This wasn't by choice though - believe it or not, for both death stars, I was under INTENSE pressure to get them done, as I stupidly waited till the last day to carve them. My 2006 Death Star took 8-9 hours. I fully intended to take this long on the second one, but since I had done this before, I thought I could really get into some of the customization aspects. Unfortunately, I had between 5-6 hours from beginning till Halloween "showtime" when everyone showed up. In both years, I literally got done with the Death Star 10-15 minutes before the Trick or Treaters showed up.

In scraping the pumpkin, they left a good chunk of meat around the laser, which allowed them to cut deep into the Death Star. This is a FAR more believable laser circle. I will definitely be doing something similar next year.

Use of the Laser Pointer: But if you don't do this, a flat circle still works. In 2006, I also took out a chunk from the back (this is necessary anyways for the candle to get enough air) and had my son shoot a green laser pointer though the opening. This went over wonderfully.

Finish Your Inside Scraping: As an obvious aside, if you haven't stuck a light or candle in it by this point to check your inside scrape job, now's the time (obviously you want to do this in a darkened area to see the problems). The goal is to get an even color shining throughout the pumpkin. I generally use 3 candles in the Death Star while displaying it - one large and two smaller candle pods (all pumpkin spice, of course!). Be careful if your pumpkin has deep ridges - don't cut too far into the veins. You need to dig deeper between the veins. If you use smaller candles, you can do the finishing scraping with the candles on in a dark room.

Lite Brites Now you can stick in your lite brights. Generally, I stick them in places where there are relatively mute square areas, but sometimes I do more fancy things with them. I also put one in the middle groove. This is where Luke Skywalker shoots the bombs that blow the Death Star up. This year, I made the groove one red - this went over well.

Cut a Hole in the Back Because there are virtually no cut-throughs, you need to cut a hole in the back to give the pumpkin enough air.

From there, take your pumpkin out and display it somewhere relatively high up (not on the ground, in other words). And thats it folks! Your good to go!

Make sure you take pictures though - I wanna see'em!

For me, the display is critical.  You want the Death Star to be at least 2-3 feet off the ground, preferably sitting on a hill, or up on a porch.  This, along with a large sized pumpkin will give those approaching it an absolute sense of awe.  My house sits at the top of a long hill, so in the picture below, the Death Star is positioned such that those coming up the street will see this from far away.  For positioning, I have it up on a chair, sitting small stone ledge.

I've done the Death Star two years in a row, and at this point cannot imagine not doing it.  This is a HUGE hit.  Pretty much everyone is blow away by it.

If you do carve this, I would very much like to get a picture from you, so please email me if you could.  I love to see others carve my patterns, but seeing Death Star carves would be even better!