Star Wars: Rebel Alliance at crafty Leeds school build mammoth Millennium Falcon

Ahead of tomorrow’s release of the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie, a crack team of enthusiasts from the Pudsey school have made a recycled Millennium Falcon replica.

Head of art John Hargreaves and design technician Aaron Murphy first launched a mission to raid the recyclables in the spring before aspiring Jedi Knights Ethan Newman, 12, and Jake Ellis, 13, joined in the scale cardboard construction.

Having based the spacecraft on an existing model, the team has created a five-foot wide replica fit for the Rebel Alliance itself – even piloted by Han Solo and Chewbacca action figures.

“It’s great because the kids are the same age as I was when the first Star Wars film came out,” John said. “It’s the 12-year-old boy in everybody that goes to see those films, so it’s a nice thing to share.”

Proud of their achievement, the intergalactic quartet plan to suspend the model, which will maintain its recycled look, from the ceiling in an art class for all the pupils to enjoy.

The project follows the creation of a scale Formula 1 racing car and shows that if Star Wars director JJ Abrams needs some spaceship engineers he needn’t look far, far away – there is plenty of talent here in Yorkshire.

When asked about the toughest part of the build, Ethan said: “It was probably keeping my fingers away from the hot glue gun we used, but you only make that mistake once.”

According to the 2011 Census almost 3,000 Leeds locals state their religion as Jedi Knight.