Star Wars ship unveiled not so far, far away...

Any Star Wars fan will remember Obi-Wan Kenobi sagely telling the young Luke: “Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them” but visitors to the Victoria Shopping Centre in Southend this weekend will find their eyes’s are right on the money, when an almost life size X -Wing fighter ship is unveiled in front of them.

The three quarter scale X-Wing fighter is set to ‘crash land’ at the centre on Saturday as part of a day of events for the shopping centre’s ‘Feel the Force’ event.

And the fighter is all thanks to the handy skills of self-employed prop maker Dave Taylor from Westcliff who has been commissioned to recreate the iconic Star Wars spaceship 40 years after its first appearance in the original Star Wars film, a New Hope.

Dave is building the ship - which will have an awesome 30ft wingspan- one bit at a time like a huge 3D jigsaw.

The action is taking place in his workshop which measures a cosy15 foot by 15 foot. The former sculptor and lecturer has drawn some diagrams of the creation but admits much of the plans are still in his head.

He said: “Making the X-Wing is possibly one of the most ambitious projects I’ve event taken on.

“I don’t often tackle single pieces this large.

“I’ve made large sets but not a single prop or sculpture this size.

“But it’s not too complicated as it’s simply a matter of breaking the form down into a series of geometric shapes which can then be assembled.”

Size clearly matters with this intergalactic installation.

He added: “I think that is one of my strengths as an artist, I can go from something very tiny to very large and it doesn’t faze me. In fact they both present very different challenges.

“Small is easier, you look very closely at it but on a very large object you stand back to look at it and all the little things you are concerned about kind of disappear, it’s all about the bigger picture when you are stood 10 feet away from it. I like switching from one to the other.”

The three week project has been something of a blast seeing as Dave is a huge Star Wars fan, and has been since he was a child.

Dave, like many Star Wars fans, still has memorabilia- including spaceships - in the loft.

He said: “I’ve still got my vehicles and bigger items such as Jabba’s Palace, an X-Wing fighter and the Millennium Falcon.

“Alas, figures wise I’d bagged figures up in one bag and guns and capes in another. When my mum and dad moved only the figures bag came with them.”

Dave admits that one of the fondest childhood memories was of him standing in line for hours to watch Return of the Jedi (1983) at the State cinema in Grays.

Dave trained as a fine art sculptor at Loughborough University and knew early on that he wanted to work in film.

When he was 17 he actually rang up Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop as a young student.

He said: “I just picked up the phone. I basically said I wanted to work for them when I was older, what do I do?

“At the time, I thought I was going to have to go and do a model making but they said a lot of people they work with are trained sculptors, so I went and did a degree in that on the basis of my phone call to the Jim Henson Creature Workshop.

“That was my decision making process for my entire future.”

After teaching degree students for several years, Dave is now quite literally carving, mould making, vesting, wood working and welding out a niche for himself as a self-employed prop maker.

This may be the first thing he has worked on from the Star Wars universe but he’s had experience of another huge franchise, Lord of the Rings, which saw him create intricate 3D maps of Middle Earth and sculptures of masks, orcs and goblins.

Of course Star Wars fans can be pretty full on and it’s safe to say they will be scouring the attention to detail when it comes to Dave’s X -Wing fighter.

Dave said: “I’m confident of meeting people’s expectations.

“The client wanted something big, to make a big impact - a Star Wars statement and that is what I think people will get.”

Dennis Baldry, centre manager at the Victoria Shopping Centre in Southend said: “We are very excited to see the finished X-Wing masterpiece which has been commissioned by the centre as part of our Star Wars themed event this Saturday, September 30.

“We’ve been aware of Dave’s artistic brilliance for many years and are delighted to be welcoming a piece of his work to the Victoria.”

This is all great kid, but don’t get cocky. There are actually a few life size X-Wings around- but not in this country.

One is suspended from the ceiling at the Star Trader gift shop in Disneyland, California, another can be found at Disneyland Paris, while a life-size X-wing made from Lego blocks once appeared in Times Square, New York.

Just two weeks ago the Jedi Master himself -Luke Skywalker -( actor Mark Hamill) paid a visit to Southend Pier to film for Jamie Oliver’s latest TV cookery show. The actor, who will appear in the forthcoming Star Wars movie The Last Jedi when it hits cinemas this Christmas, spent time chatting with fans and posing for photographs.

The Victoria Shopping Centre is hosting the ‘Feel the Force’ event from 12pm-4pm on Saturday. As well as Dave’s model X Wing it will feature little Jedi workshops, balloon modelling and Star Wars characters.

*Dean Newman is chief writer at The Daily Jaws and writes his own film blog. He is charting the progress of Dave’s X-Wing creation as the project goes along. Keep updated via http://bit.ly/XWing01