I have a Sith Infiltrator (mine is the Hasbro toy, but the model kit I have seen has the same issue I am addressing here) I want to accurize. There is an area of exposed machinery on each side, just forward of the cockpit ball. In the film, there is never a clear view of that area. The best (only?) reference for it are a set of photos of the studio model/reference maquette, which was used in the film for the shots of the ship as landed on Tatooine. The photos in question are mostly seen here -- http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=2348. They are, best I can tell, five of the only six existing available photos of this model showing the areas in question, and as you can tell, the focus on some of them is less than ideal. The sixth photo is maybe a bit more informative -- I am virtually certain it is the same model, even if the same area in question appears to have been repainted a darker color. See it here:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Cou ... r_SWCT.png
So what I can tell from these images is that the standard approach taken by many scratchbuilders and by the toy and model kits that exist -- of some greeblies half-embedded into a more-or-less boxy surface -- is not accurate and is much less interesting to me to try to recreate. Of course I can't do it the easier way!
It appears to me that there are layers of parts here, giving an almost clockwork/steampunk effect from some angles. It looks like a person could easily lose a finger or an arm in there with a quickness (apparently, the Old Republic had no such thing as OSHA anymore than the Empire did). So what I am looking for is possible suggestions as to how to build as good an approximation of this as I can manage. I expect to use some styrene tube/rod and other styrene stock pieces, but if I use kit or toy parts, they need to exist as mirrored pairs. I don't have a lot of confidence in my ability to extensively alter several kit parts into one piece or scratch complex mirrored shapes twice that look the same. I was thinking construction equipment or maybe even farm implements for some of the pistons, attachment arms, detailed cylinders and other things they might contribute (not that I can find much in the way of model kits of such things; one bulldozer is pretty much it unless there are military versions that I have missed, but in any case I will be assassinated by my wife if I spend what would be required to obtain said kits anyway). Looking at that sixth photo above, however, makes me think that it might be worthwhile to tear apart some analog alarm clocks or something similar to find smallish metal parts that might work for an "artful pile of dangerous junk" look. Just for the record, using Lucasfilm's offical numbers for the ship as being 26.5 meters in length, the Hasbro version at 14 inches long is 1:75 scale.
What I am looking for are any brilliant suggestions for inexpensive sources of parts that might work for rebuilding this area, and any advice that might be helpful in actually building it, such as what to use as a base around which to build it in place (I am thinking a decently thick piece of sheet styrene spanning the area front to back and a little small to the outside, so as to leave room for parts to conceal said sheet). Even if the advice is just to echo one of the ideas I laid out in the above text, I'm fine with that. I've had this thing for years and want to finish it while I can still use my hands, which may, in fact, be an issue in the future thanks to this neuropathy I have, which affects my feet and hands -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charcot%E ... th_disease
Qapla'
SSB
