Wooden ships and does paint exist in Star Wars?

I've been lurking a while and seldom post, but there's something that's really bugged me for a while: Valenthyne Farfalla's ship, and people complaining about how stupid it is to have a spaceship made out of wood.

So. Does paint not exist in Star Wars? Why is the first instinct to assume the ship's made out of wood and not painted to look like wood? Are the "sails" that different from the useless spoilers people slap onto their cars?

 

No idea what ship you're talking about, but I know for sure that paint does exist in Star Wars. Booster Terrik wanted to paint his personal Star Destroyer red, instead of just having it the same boring white, but couldn't find enough red paint for years (and the ship was falling apart in the meantime). I think he finally got enough red paint by the NJO though. At least I think that's the right timeframe.

 

I assumed the ship was covered in wooden coverings.

But there's already Wood as hard as steel in Star Wars.

 

Okay, I guess I could've been clearer in my sarcasm, sorry.

 

I'd also assume the sails on Farfalla's ship are something similar to Dooku's ship with the solar sails.

 

A ship with wood panelling... if that doesn't scream "goober mobile" I don't know what does.

 

Best not tell you all about that Tof ship....

 

I think it's been established in text that Farfalla had a "wooden-hulled ship," but as was mentioned above, there's wood in the Star Wars galaxy that is up to the task, so there's no real reason to complain about it.

 

But the visuals in Jedi vs Sith don't actually show a wooden ship, just one styled to look like a sailing ship.

It doesn't even have sails, it has a large window (or solar panel). It clearly has engines as well.

 

That actually seems to have been Farfeylla's whole thing.

Being a gigantic and complete dork even by Jedi standards.

 

Typical Farfalla, he's the biggest showpony in the entire EU, outdoing even Crimson Jack and his short shorts. He's the Legolas of GFFA.
[image=http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/e/e3/Farfalla.jpg]

And he dared to call Jouhun proud! As if!

And as for his ship, the Fairwind it DOES have a wooden hull.

[image=http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/d/d9/Woodenbattleship.JPG]

But if that thing showed up to give me a ride, I'd prefer a rowboat.

 

I honestly imagine its the equivalent of a gold plated and purple Limousine with neon-lights around the license plate in Star Wars.

Yes, Farfalla the Jedi Pi-mp.

 

I honestly believe I'm the only person in the whole fandom who thinks Farfalla's ride looks nifty as hell.

It's a gold-plated Napoleonic ship with solar panels and rocket boosters. What's not to love?

Then again I am also in the minority who enjoys the TOTJ/JVS "look," which I think is a fantastic visual shorthand.

 

I love Tales of the Jedi.

Jedi vs. Sith just came off as something that looked like it was a badly designed anime.

 

Yes, but in-text references to Farfalla's ship in later source (specifically I'm thinking of the New Essential Chronology, but it may also have been mentioned elsewhere) explicitly refer to it as a "wooden-hulled battleship." Which, again, isn't a problem - if wroshyr trees can support their own weight at over a mile tall, and support the weight of communities and starships to boot, they have wood with strengths easily in excess of the strongest currently known building materials. So there is precedent for wood in Star Wars suited to starship hulls, even if wroshyr wasn't specifically used.

 

I bet that the varnish used to make it air and heat tight has to be pretty expensive.

 

Well, that may be related to why we don't see more wooden-hulled ships. But to be fair, any wood strong enough to support the weight of a mile of more wood above it is probably already dense enough to be airtight (though I don't know how to do the math to be sure of that, so a varnish of some sort might indeed be warranted); and wood is already a better insulator than metal, so heat loss would be less of a problem with a wooden ship than a metal one.

 

Actually, I think that the question of sealing the hull could be used to explain exactly why there's a wooden spaceship in JvS.

Perhaps there are certain advantages to pairing particle shields with a wooden hull, rather than a metal one?

- The Imperia Ewok

 

Use petrified wood?

Let's face it folks, the concept of wood as a building material is only limited by our experience with it on earth and our imagination.

We've heard about wroshyr and it's strength...perhaps there are trees on another planet that are so tough that laser have difficulty cutting it.

It may not be durasteel plating, but it could be enough to handle the rigors of space travel in conjunction with adequate shielding.

air tight? If we can make a water tight wooden submarine, it can be done.

Personally, I despise the design...but I will defend the possibility of it's existence.

I'm just glad POD came along and made it clear that Farfalla's yacht was an exception, not the rule in ships of the day.

 

As to the question of paint, I think the buildings on Rishi had to be painted lots of bright colors for religious purposes, if I remember correctly.

 

For reference, RoT just goes with this: "Fashioned so her exterior resembled an ancient sailing barge, the vessel had an archaic elegance, a grandeur that some felt was a sign of vanity unbecoming in a Jedi."

 

Re: paint, yes it does exist; Imp Star Destroyers are painted white, and Booster repainted his a nice subtle red. This is alluded to in I, Jedi and the Hand of Thrawn duology, I think.

 

Basically, just because Voren calls it wooden doesn't mean it's wooden, because Voren is a twit.

 

With Force field technology you could make a space ship out of wood, though I imagine it would be a slight fire risk. They made a few planes out of wood in WW2 btw.

 

Oh I think KotOR should have sticked to the look of TOTJ.

It's probably supposed to be wooden-covered for style, or just steel painted gold and styled like a wooden seafaring ship.