Tuesday 5 June 2012

Hutt Pod Racer

Folk have started to put up progress shots of their Pod Racers on the SFMUK site, and its really got me all inspired to really crack on with mine. I think i've said before that i decided to go the large route for a pilot as, in TPM, the Pod Racers were either human size or smaller. So, a big fella then - but who? My son said Wampa, but they hardly seem technically adept. Rancor is about the biggest you could go i guess but, unless you put him in it and launch it like a rocket, he's out. That left a Hutt then. Straight away, i had the idea of a piddly-squat cockpit to take his bulk, which would accentuate the whacking great engine i'd be using to get him up in the air. Right away i knew that i'd be having just the one engine, which is this big rounded shape, given to me by my friend Ian and i'd wrapped in Plasticard around the middle ready for a project yonks ago that i never got round to. Into the hole at the front i plan on putting a huge great propeller thingy. That was the engine, but what about the cockpit? First of all, i thought i'd take the design of it from Jabba's palace, and have it all curves and rounded bits, maybe with a concrete-like surface. But the bits box turned up zilch and a trawl round the shops for a suitable container proved fruitless. So fell back on plan 2, have something harking to Jabba's sail barge. Again, the bits box turned up nowt so, this morning all fired up, off we went to Asda. On the way i was thinking how the hull of the sail barge looked like an upturned boat. I want to crack on with this, so i didn't want to waste time looking out for kits of suitable ships - besides, i want a featureless surface to work on. And at Asda i found what i wanted - a toy boat for a quid. Figure, turned upside down like this, the now lower detail removed, gives me a short, squat shape i'm after. All i have to do is make a hole up top for the cockpit, detail it, and add some sail fins to tie it in visually with the sail barge.

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