Star Wars Podracer - 1

I thought the podracing sequence from Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace was pretty cool. It prompted me to scratchbuild some of my own podracers to race. These craft are not exact copies of any particular podracer from the movie, but rather based on the style of the racers and whatever bits I had on hand.

Here's my first attempt. The base is 3mm thick cardboard cut to 40mm x 40mm. I have textured it with a mixture of wood glue and fine sand. The model is painted with acrylic paints and was given a couple of spray coats of clear matt varnish for protection.

The engines are made from a couple of cut-down toy missiles. The heads of the missiles have been cut off to accept the air-intake part of the engines. The 'floating effect' of the repulsorlift engines was achieved by mounting the engines on thin wire a few millimetres off the base.

I also used thin wire to replicate the control cables. These are attached to both the engines and the control pod. Although the control pods in the movie all had open cockpits, in my world they're enclosed. Not only is this easier for me to model, but it makes more sense to me.

The air-intake section at the front of the engines are wheels off a tiny train that came in a Kinder Surprise egg. The energy binder linking the two engines was made from a thick piece of wire. The terrain in the background was all made by me as well.