Ever heard of a Michelin Star? It’s a system of rating restaurants. If they have three stars, it means it’s worth traveling to the country just to experience that restaurant.
The Orpheum Theatre in Hillsboro (pop 4,000) should definitely get some sort of super awesome, gold star or something crazy for what they’ve been pulling off. Once or twice a year the Eisentraut family take a major movie premiere and turn it into a full on Hollywood style, memory making, street filling, party, with costumes, props, and skits. This year, locals Aaron Ruppert, Isaac Reynolds, and friends put in about 700 man hours and a lot of talent to build a half scale x-wing fighter. The premier of “Star Wars; the force awakens” should be the coolest yet…
Going big for the Eisentraut family is nothing new. This family loves movies, fun, and showmanship. “Deathly Hallows II”, “The Dark Knight”, and now “The Force Awakens”, are among the family’s favorite events they’ve put on so far and they are putting Hillsboro on the map for it.
Escorting “Bain” (local, Rick Calvert) through the premier crowd.
Serving butter beer in the lobby of the theatre, for “Deathly Hallows II”, .
Maybe it’s the fact that the town is so close knit that everybody gets involved, or maybe that it’s every guys’ dream to build a space ship. I’m not sure, but somehow about a month ago friends Aaron and Isaac decided to build a half scale x-wing for “The Force Awakens”. I think now the Eisentrauts may be able to out do themselves again..
Isaac is a carpenter, artist, and coffee roaster. Aaron is a computer programmer, and grew up in a farm family, learning metal working along the way.
Burning the midnight oil and drinking Black Rabbit coffee, Isaac and Bailey (Eisentraut) Reynolds’ roasting company.
More than half way in to the project, Aaron adds some supportive welding before the body gets closed in.
Caulking, painting and detailing getting underway.
“Aaron, when you’re done, I think it’s gonna fly.”
Me, (Brian Lee) not missing my chance to pitch in.
Isaac working on the three day long paint job. The Astromech (by Alexandra Eisentraut) added on top, starting to look real…
The Back end of the ship ready for transport.
Waiting for the back..
Cinching the two back together…
Coming around the corner in one piece… (yes, I’m on a crane taking the picture!)
And, ready for the big day-
So come, make the trip to The Orpheum Theatre in Hillsboro, IL and be a part of the theatre that Small Town Cool gives “Three super awesome” gold stars.
Ticket availability, directions, etc available at The Orpheum Theatre or Best Movie Deal.com
-Small Town Cool-
Living vibrantly in a growing small town. Hillsboro, IL
Small Town Cool. 
Hi there, I am not sure if I have the right person or not, I built an x-wing fighter a number of years ago for a Halloween display, each year we come up with something different, I have built the HogWarts Express, the Black Pearl to mention a few, I am currently building Poe Dameron’s X-wing fighter, it is currently planned to be 28′ long with about the same size wing span, I have current cut four spar’s for the body and have them installed in a jig. I would certainly enjoy hearing back from you regarding your X-wing fighter project.
Best regards
Dave
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Hey Dave! That sounds awesome! I’d love to see pictures! Feel free to put a link to them here so other fans can check them out!
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https://www.instagram.com/davidkillin/
Hi there, here is a start of the pictures, as you can see it is a big project and at the current time I am still trying to figure out a lot of the different angles which has been difficult due to the lack of pictures that are available, as I progress along you will be able to see the pictures through Instagram.
Best regards
Dave
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The pictures of it are currently on Instagram, they are under David Killin, my Instagram picture is the Ti Fighter in the sunset, the build is going slow due to the lack of dimentional information on the vehical, I have taken various pictures and scaled them. The hardest thing so far has been to get the body’s curvature correct but I think so far it looks generally good, see what you think.
Dave
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This is awesome! Is there any way we can contact Aaron Ruppert or Isaac Reynolds to see if they would have any interest in partnering with Illinois State University on a Star Wars event?
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