Oh_riginal:

I think you may have misunderstood my post. What I mean to say is, the mock-up makes the laser chamber look incomplete BUT STILL safely operational, with the 1% leftover for construction being the panels, which are not needed to fire the weapon. One could assume those would be put on last anyway.

Adding anything more to the mock-up, such as the red iron, would be overkill. The mock-up works very well just as it is. It gets the point across that the laser is not 100% finished, but can still safely fire a laser. Sorry if I wasn't clear the first time.

As for the scale, I can agree with that. Though I've often wondered if the laser shown is one of the smaller lasers that shoots out to connect to the other lasers, before shooting the huge laser.

Haha yes I did misunderstand slightly.

About the scale, though, even if it is one of the smaller lasers, there is no way those laser could be that small when you see them next to the Death Star. And seeing as they're supposed to be able to destroy a planet, I really think they need to be more substantial. So, if we can't make the laser and shaft bigger, we can definitely make the people smaller. I think that really would help sell the scale of the Death Star better, too.