Terain Showcase: Star Wars Scrapyard, Part 5

One element that I absolutely had to include in the scrapyard was a huge capital ship engine. Here's a look at how I made this one out of PVC pipe and foam core:

 

Starting with the engine nozzle itself, I used a large PVC pipe fitting for the outer ring, and then glued a disc of foam core board underneath to create a "floor." This allowed me to glue a smaller PVC pipe segment in the center. I used some styrene rods and U-strips of varying sizes and depths, glued around the sides of the rings to add surface detail. The round bit in the center is a part from a dollar store bubble wand. I added the detail strips and primed everything black before gluing it all together to ensure the primer would reach every nook and cranny.

 

The next step was to build the outer engine casing. This took a bit of trial and error to get the shape and spacing right for the angles foam core panels. It's not shown here, but once the panels were in place, I covered the seam between each one with a large strip of styrene. To cover the top edge, I cut a ring of 1/4-inch foam core board and slid that over the PVC pipe. To protect the edge of the foam, I coated it with a generous layer of construction adhesive and sanded it smooth.

 

 

To allow miniatures to interact with the terrain and not have it simply be a large impassable block, I built a scaffolding ring to serve as a ramp up around the perimeter of the engine. Again, I used foam core for the ring, and covered the top surface with textured styrene sheets and rods. Around the outer and inner edges, I glued a styrene strip to create a lip. I also added a lot of sand on the surface to create some texture that miniatures' bases could catch on and prefent them from sliding down the ramp.

 

 

For the broken edges of the ramp, I extended the styrene sheet and tore and bent the edges. In the space between the layers, I set some broken styrene strips to look like the exposed and broken support structure.

 

 

The engine was detailed with more styrene panels, sand, and bits from other model kits. The whole thing was mounted on a foam core base, and primed with black and dark grey. To build the support columns for the ramp, I used segments from the Star Wars: Shatterpoint walkways.

 

 

Each support was cut to allow the ramp to sit at an angle, and in the underside of the ramp, I added U-strips that slot over the tops of the supports. The base was covered with tons of scrap, and the walkway was glued in place after everything was painted.

 

 

Here's the finished piece:

 

 

Atomic Mass Games had sent me three of the Tech Shed kits. I built one as the standard building (with some added detail) and I used the other two for kitbashing.

 

 

I cut the walls apart and used the rounded front sections to make a smokestack (and I covered that in more detail in a Shatterpoint Transmission for Atomic Mass Games, which you can see here). The square wall segments went into the incinerator that I built in part four of this series.

 

 

The rounded sections were inverted and fit together to make the top of the smokestack.

 

 

I covered the seams with styrene strips to match the vertical bands on the plastic kit, and added some technical components at the bottom with pieces of moisture vaporators. 

 

 

Yakult bottles are the perfect shape for making smokestacks, and in this case, the bottle was the perfect diameter to fit into the top of the smokestack.

 

 

The bottom was extended with a large PVC pipe fitting, and detailed with paneling cut from sheet styrene.

 

 

The finished smokestack, atop its base of scrap:

 

 

'Til next time!