The Rebel Blockade Runner

So here's this final screen-used model. This is the finished Rebel Blockade Runner miniature, boasting its final "hammerhead" front end, with the narrow cockpit window implying a very large vessel.

This was Princess Leia's ship, later named the Tantive IV CR-90 Corellian corvette by the forces of marketing. (note that Tantive was pronounced “TAN-tivvy” and not “tahn-TEEV.”) The vessel, though essentially disposable, was nonetheless the first craft to appear on-screen in the movie. A second, smaller, model was also made. (in fact, technically the small version was the first model to appear on-screen in the movie)

The large model was revised for 1983’s Return of the Jedi, gaining some windows and paint job alterations, but was returned to its mostly original look at some point thereafter. There are thus differences in paintwork between photos taken in the 1970s and photos taken more recently.

The explosion that disabled the ship was filmed upside-down. This is so that the smoke and sparks would go downwards, simulating how it'd look in space. An explosion filmed right-side up would have been obviously affected by Earth gravity, and would have looked Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon phoney.

One of these photos is not like the others. Most of the photos above were taken during filming the original Star Wars movie. The last shot, however, was taken during the filming of Return of the Jedi. This is because the Blockade Runner model was reused and repurposed as a number of different Corellian corvettes during the final space battle sequence.

The black and white photos below appear to be from the ROTJ era as well. The upper ridge has a row of rectangular windows, and the lower cylinder is missing the four conical projections. These were modifications done for the third movie .

Somewhat infamously the cockpit interior contains a Star Wars poster and a miniaturized pinup centerfold. Apparently she's Deborah Borkman, aka Miss July 1976.

A tiny Blockade Runner model was also built. One might think this was meant for the scene in which the ship was hauled into the Star Destroyer’s docking bay. However, the shot from the final film, shown above, shows an optical composite of the full-sized Blockade Runner placed over the Star Destroyer underside.

Instead, it seems the smaller, and far less detailed, model was used for the very opening scene of the film, since the ship had to be shown receding far into the distance as the Star Destroyer loomed overhead. The apparent motion of the moving vehicle is dependent on the actual sizes of the model and of the studio being used, since the camera has to be moved physically from the stationary miniature, when using ILM's motion control technology. So if you want to depict a spaceship flying a great distance away from the camera, you either shoot in a gigantic space or use a small model.

If you look at the Tatooine screenshot above you'll see that there's virtually no detail on the ship's cockpit cones, suggesting it was the small Blockade Runner that was used. Also, the small model shown with lit engines has both the central opening and the outer ring lit up on each engine (they used the same circular grilles as the X-wing models, it seems). By contrast the large model has just the central opening lit for each engine, so far as I can tell.

So it seems the very opening shot used the small model, whereas the shots of the ship approaching the camera (with the Star Destroyer behind it) and the explosion shot were done using the large model.

A photograph of the Blockade Runner was combined with a photograph of the Star Destroyer to create the flat photo-composite above. (the small blockade runner would not have fit within the ANH Star Destroyer model) This picture was used to film the “the damage doesn’t look so bad from out here” scene inside the escape pod. The Blockade Runner is barely visible, making C-3PO's comment make little sense. But it was actually there - located off-centre and closer to the back (aft end) of the docking bay. Maybe C-3PO is equipped with incredible telescopic vision.