Call me a bit thick but isn't the hatch for the escape pod in the nose and yet the entrance seems to be at the thruster end?

Well. I thought about that. Still the reference are not to be trusted the window seems to be at the side:

Who image to trust:P

Shouldn't it eject the other way around (it would tie in with the view the droids have of the Star Destroyer)?

I might agree that its a paradox or even we assume the pod seals with the engine section offscreen. Or they enter from the sideways and the movie never explained more on where or what is happening (too focused on the story folks?)

Again see bellow on the spaceballs shot that the door is in the correct place.

I'm not sure if there would be that much room between the pod bay door and the hull for the sort of metal work in your mock up Angel.

Well that shot is short of impossible. It supposed that camera sits in after the closed door and we assume we see some of the mechanisms of the ship behind the walls.

Plus the same treatment was given in Spaceballs with very much more detail.

When 3po and r2 enters the pod room its a pretty wide (horizontaly) so i can assume that some pipe and metal work can be seen artistically.

It would be nice if you could work out how the release mechanism sits in the ship and use that as the basis for any addition to the shot.

The shot has all shorts of problems. They walk and enter in horizontal level when the pods are on the angled section of the ship

The minimum mechanisms that release the pod are enough apart we screw the shot and remake it from scratch.

Also we never got what this back wall is. A door A hatch a passage?

Its clearly missing in the long shot with 3po before he gets blasted.

-Angel