Terrain Showcase: Star Wars Scrapyard, Part 2

One of my favorite details on the Star Wars: Shatterpoint scrapyard board that I made for Atomic Mass Games, is the crane that I kitbashed out of a toy truck and some other parts. Here's a look at how I made it:

 

If you refer to my concept sketch in part 1 of this series, I indicated a spot for a crane, but hadn't provided any actual design for it. After shopping around online, I found this construction vehicle– It's part of a set that came with some Matchbox-scaled construction vehicles and accessories (shown in the photo on the box). The truck itself has shelves inside to serve as a car carrier, with a launch ramp to deploy the cars out the front. It's actually a pretty neat set!

I was taken by the crane arm and the side panels of the truck, and when I got it, It turned out to have just the right amount of detail and structure to build a perfect Star Wars-themed crane.

 

 

The top deck of the truck, when turned upright, served as the front of the crane's tower (with support feet and everything!). And with the side panels removed, the hinges looked like pistons. I cut top to separate the rear portion where the crane attaches; that will be the top of the tower. And, of course, the truck's boom arm would serve as the crane itself.

 

 

To construct the crane's claw, I used a pair of Star Wars: Legion AT-ST legs, and two support braces from an electric box fan (those feet on the back that are supposed to keep the fan from tipping over). These were broken and useless for their intended function, but have the right shape for a clamp-like claw.

 

 

I fit the two feet together with a piece of metal rod through the top, and added some styrene ridges in the inside and outside for added detail. The edges were also chipped up and distressed.

 

 

I built some support with brass rod and styrene tube over it to fit between the AT-ST legs and set them at a width that would fit over the claw and onto the end of the boom arm.

 

 

For the tower, I glued the truck frame together with some foam core board for support, and added two wooden 1x2-inch blocks to the sides that could plug into the slots on the main board. (On the cutting mat, you can see the stand-alone crane that came with the set. I had primed it to see if I would be able to incorporate it into the build, but couldn't find any use for it.)

 

 

Next, I began to add the exterior paneling on the tower. I used sections of the yellow side panels for the upper portion, and some styrene sheets and L-strips to build up the top edges.

 

 

I though that I would get more use out of the yellow side panels, but I saved the rest for another project, and covered the wooden supports with thick styrene card, etched with panel lines.

 

 

I added a ton of extra detail with styrene- Extra panel detail and small squares, and I covered the hollow portion of the hinge/pistons with thick styrene tube cut in half, and topped them off with moisture vaporator tops.

 

 

I sprayed the crane arm with several layers of primer to get it to stick to the slick plastic. I played around with making the crane fully functional– elevating up and down, and extending at the front, but moving the parts caused the paint to scrape off, and the hinge at the base wasn't tight enough to support the crane with the added weight of the claw, so I glued and pinned it into a fixed elevation.

 

 

I covered the crane with more styrene paneling, moisture vaporator components, and bits from the Shatterpoint buildings.

 

 

At the tip of the crane, I attached the ST-ST legs and claw. Again, I tried to limit the amount of scraping plastic by pinning the top section of the legs in a fixed position. The bottom of the legs and the claw itself could still pivot, though.

 

 

Here's the final assembly of the crane, plugged into the board. The detail on the front of the crane tower was made from half of a vaporator and part of a radar laser cannon's mount. Under the gap between the "legs" I added the vent covers from a Shatterpoint building.

 

 

The whole thing was painted with the same technique as the large shipwreck: I primed the whole thing and sprayed it grey, with a slightly lighter grey from above. Then I washed the entire piece with brown ink and rust colors, using a light spray of isopropyl alcohol to get the wash to run into all the recesses and panel lines, and then wiping the wash off of the surface. The edges were highlighted with a drybrush of light grey, and then rust streaks were painted in and rust chips applied to the edges with a sponge.

 

 

The crane arm can rotate at the base, and the claw can be positioned in different ways.

 

 

 

The crane turned out better than I could have hoped. Everything just happened to come together for this piece– The construction truck was a very lucky find, and the AT-ST legs and parts for the claw were a perfect fit. Some of the best builds can occur almost spontaneously out of necessity and the components available.

 

'Til next time!