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Any recommendations for cheap donor kits for Star Wars-esque greebles?


ChrisL

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What would people suggest as effective donor kits for Star Wars appropriate greebles for a scratch build project I am thinking about? I was wondering about an Airfix Tiger tank or similar as they're cheap, all the wheels should be useful and there's a decent amount of gubbins on the back of the hull that could be useful too. Has anyone got any other suggestions?

Edited by ChrisL
Corrected a typo in the title.
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Good call, I hadn't thought about ships. A quick look at a selection of ship kits suggest that Revell do some cheap ones but they're 1/1200 scale and the detail is a bit limited. Once the kits reach 1/700 or so the details start to look promising.

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I remember reading a comment by/about a particular props modeller - can't remember who, but he may have been connected with Industrial Light and Magic - who used to start a project with a trip to a model shop, where he'd get an armload of whatever; ships, AFV, cars, aircraft - the lot - in various scales.  These would then go into a plastic bin which was dipped into as the build progressed.

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Nothing ruins a good model than parts you can spot the source of easily- there are parts of the Falcon and the 1999 Eagle I really have to avoid looking at.

Tank and ship model kits are good sources if you take a razor saw and cut up the pieces a bit. 

Doug Trumbull used a lot of Railroad engine parts on the CE3K models- good technical greebly which is not very recognizable. Out local hobby shop has model kits of locomotives in HO scale which are wonderful for detailing.

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I've had great success with older Trumpeter AFV and ship kits. They tend to be cheap but full of nice parts.

 

Look for sales. I'm still using a German AA gun and Stryker I bought online for a song.

 

For specific parts like engine bells the Bandai Gundam accessories are cheap and extremely good quality.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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So far I've got the Airfix Tiger kit. It's cheap, though I imagine that a Trumpeter kit would have a better selection of decent bits. I reckon I may find a use for the Tiger's deck grills. The road wheels look like they shouldn't look too out of place as access hatches and I think that if I modify the barrel it may work as a laser cannon.

 

My project isn't a Millennium Falcon sort of ship and I'm not planning to cover every available surface with greebly bits. That should keep me safe from the risk of bits of detail being obviously a ship's crane, bits of engines, the Batmobile, etc. Hopefully some of the detail I want can be created from non-model sources too. I think that some old hard drive ribbon cables and some cheap wires may work as a source of pipes and cables. I've also bought some nylon bolts that may be useful for ribbed pipes, though it sounds like Nylon can be difficult to paint so I'll need to check that out before I use them.

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The ILM used lots of Tamiya kits. When you look closely you can spot a lot of Tank parts (Tiger, Sherman,...) on the probs and many parts appear on several SW vehicles. On my AMT Darth Vader TIE I used a part of a Hobby Boss Sherman tank to improve a kit part. The Hobby Boss Sherman has many problems and I guess can be found cheap but it has many small parts which can be used on SW like scratch builds.

Space 1999 and other SciFi (Alien - Nostromo interior - but it was cut from the movie) of the time used Airfix Saturn V quite often.

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Lower down in the forum you will find a company called kits for cash.

He sells off kits with bits missing at reasonable prices. Postage may be high though.

I've had a few from him and used the bits in Sci fi builds.

The Tamiya panzer II can be had quite cheaply in 1/35th. Try Amazon.

On the Hannants site in special offers search for this- Airwaves (etched) AEC35032

It's a 1/35th detail set for an M8 artillery tractor and has some nice grills. Only a quid!

I got three sets when I was there earlier this week.

Have a look on car boot sales or the bay for cheap kits.

Try an old radio/desktop computer for transistors and wiring etc.

Never throw anything 'techie' away without wondering if you could use it.

Plastic stirrers, the handle from a plastic razor, the list is endless.

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Lots of great suggestions, thanks for pointing out that Airwaves kit! The Big Boy looks interesting too, but there's a risk with cool looking kits like that... I may end up wanting to build it instead of scavenge from it so it'll end up stashed rather than used! I'm a bit of a hoarder so I do have some bits and bobs lying around that may work well for a build. I found a surprising number of ribbon cables last week and I reckon they'll be a good source for scale cabling or ribbing.

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If you don’t mind other people’s cast offs, then searching eBay for ‘scrapyard’ or ‘junkyard’ or ‘spares or repair’ titled listings for models can be a goldmine. I have bought a few listings where people were getting rid of old or broken and incomplete models that they no longer needed so that I could cannibalize them for bits and bobs. Tanks, helicopters, warships, static railway models, cars, trucks, motorbikes all are good.

Ok, so you may have to wash the dust off what you buy and do a bit of disassemby to harvest what you need, but if it saves you money then the effort is worth it.

A trip to your local DIY superstore can be useful too, I have built several models featuring various bits of hardware - screwcups, fuses etc. to add detail. Must get round to posting pics of a Warhammer 4K themed model that I built entirely from scrap kits, greeblies from the bits box and RC tank tracks.

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