Scratch Build Sandcrawler Mod

[nagyizom]

Greetings for all bit.tech users!
Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Gábor, I'm from Hungary and I'm 23 years old.
I've been occupied with modding since 2003, I have some modded case at home, but this is my first CaseCon! I Presented it at the Win7 mod-tech Hall 2009, Hungary's biggest modding event!

http://modtechhall.radikalmod.hu/

Some finished photo:



It was the second place in the competition, so I'm proud about it

From the case:
As you can see, this is the Jawa Sandcrawler from Star Wars, this is the one of my favorite vehicle. As far as I start modding, I want to bulid it, and put the PC into it.
In 2008, the time has come to make my dream come true
Firstly, I had to find some informations about the vehicle. Fortunately, the internet helped me, I fond a lot of pictures, descriptions.
I want to put the motherboard, the drives into the middle, the power supply goes into the back. I created a cardboard mock-up of the case to see how it all went together:

I put the motherboard into a special position, you can use the I/O panel from the bottom.





I used the cardboard sections as templates for made a mobo tray:


Made a lower section by plywood:

I marked up and cut out the holes for the I/O panel both on the tray and the plywood:

Put it all together:

With the mobo:

I fix the parts together with self-tapping screw:



The next step: How to fix the power supply to the vehicle' s body?
Firstly, I marked up and cut out the hole for the supply:



Think I use two-side tape, but its not strong enough, maybe made a alu-frame, but finally I use some screw:


That's all for today! See you soon!

[Picarro]

Uhh, I love the sandcrawlers. Nice mod

[Roboduck]

Very cool! I love the rust effect paint

[The_Beast]

Very cool mod

[nagyizom]

Thank you guys!
Next update will appears tomorrow!

[nagyizom]

Hello Guys!
Here's the next update!
Today I'll show you, how to make a caterpillar and a chassis like an original

The core of the caterpillars are made by pulpwood.
Firstly, I cut out theese trapezoidal shaped items.

Drilled two holes into them, and every second item were fixed together with glue and dowel:



As you can see, two of them constitutes the core of one caterpillar

The cores with the lower section:

I made consoles for the drives, theese were made by plexy:


The chassis:
Here's some picture I found in the internet. I made a sandcrawler about them, in particular, there were a great help to the chassis construction. In these pictures can be seen in the original modell, which were used in the film.



In this picture you can see the true extent of the modell

The original chassis was made by plywood, with stirol covering.
I use PVC sheets. I used cardboard to make mock-ups, and if it passed, I cut out the final item from PVC.







Finally I glued together the items:



And that's for today.....I hope, I come back soon!

[nagyizom]

No comments?

[nagyizom]

Hy Guys!
I haven't got enough time to update this blog for a while.
I show you in the last updte, how to build a chassis. Today I' ll read about the details!

Armor plate

After that I glued together the pieces of the chassis, I decided to made the armor plate.
it was made by 1mm thick stirofoam.
I cut out the plate

Marked up the lines:

And I made notches with my scalpel. I think it seems to be an armor plate.


I glued up this panels to the chassis. I think it seems to be an armor plate.


Thats all for today, I hope you like it!

See you soon!

The details

The modders are very often used to provide materials that others throw away. I also put away a lot of garbage, which I still see fantasy. I made the details from this materials on the top, and also on the rear.



Here is the result of my work:



Front door

The next thing what I made, was the front door:

As you can see, it made from PVC and stirofoam.
I put the switches and the opening of the DVD:


Caterpillars

Continue the work with the caterpillars.
Fit them to the chassis with this L shaped clamps and srews:


I went to the biggest Salvage Yard in the city. I searched for ribbed belt. I found some of them, and it was free

I cut the fan belt ang glues them onto the core of the caterpillars. Because of the rigidity, I incisioned them with my scalpel. After that, the belts were fit perfectly


After that I made the details of the caterpillars:
Cut out a right shaped stirofoam.

I used washers to make driving wheels:

[Colossous]

Good work - looking forward to seeing it finished

[Neji]

Love fun projects like this. This one is shaping up very nicely.

[dakota67]

I love Star Wars...this is awesome.

[artoodeeto]

Looks good! I've been working on one of these myself for the past several years, I've got a worklog going over at TBCS that you might enjoy looking at. It's rather long, but the newest pictures are on the last few pages.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ad.php?t=21039
Congrats on the contest results too!

[maRiio]

That's amazing handcraft you show us here. Respect and keep on the good work.

[nagyizom]

Thank you guys!
I hope to enjoy the last chapter of the latest update, which 'll presented for you in the next few days. If everything works out as I planed, I'll show you some unique pictures from the sandcrawler

Artooo: Awesome work, what you've done! I'm so jealous of you for your patience, for being such a precision could make the reactor!

[legoman666]

Hah, that's awesome.

[artoodeeto]

Originally Posted by nagyizom

Artooo: Awesome work, what you've done! I'm so jealous of you for your patience, for being such a precision could make the reactor!

Thanks! I do have to say though, you've only built one of these...I've done it 3 times. My first two didn't look even remotely as good as yours, so definitely you should be proud of it. Heck, if I'd made either of the first two as well as yours, I probably wouldn't have made mine for a 3rd time. Good job! I also find it amazing that we did the same mod completely independently of each other - I started my first one 9 years ago, and you began yours about a year before I put anything online about mine. I can understand lots of R2D2 cases and such, but the sandcrawler isn't quite as prominent in the films. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your worklog pictures!

[nagyizom]

Hello guys!
Sorry to be late, a lot of things were in high school, we had to work, but now I make it up for lost time, That is Update time


Artoo:
When I came up with to build a sandcrawler, I began to search, to whom he has had to construct
this vehicle. I found many beautiful model pictures, but curiously, i found only one sandcrawler, which used for computer case. After I saw your project log on TBCS forum, I realized, it was your work!
I agree, not so prominent, but we see through the world with modder's eyes, and I think the vehicle gives the shape itself to put a PC into it, if you know what I mean..

So, in this update, you will see, how I made a real sandcrawler look for this "thing"
Let' begin to paint!

The paint is a very important session on this case.I tried to replicate the surface as closely as possible I can. A specific procedure is used to imitate rust.
The first thing I did was that the whole vehicle painted black:


Sandcrawler: Balck Edition!



I polished up the mobo tray, and put it into the case:


While the black paint dried, I made the right shade of mixture, which gives the color of rust.
It looked like Caterpillar equipment


The next movement was to prepare the final surface, with a dark brown paint, I used a sponge for painting, for the more rustic surface.




I made some soldering work on the DVD player:


And I sleeved all cables:




As you can see, not much work remains, the last finishing touches are done. In the next post you can see the final images.

Any comments are welcomed!
Bye!

[nagyizom]

Hello All!
This is the time, when I show you the final pictures from the Sandcrawler. Some of them made on the Mod Tech Hall 2009 competition at Budapest, most of the pictures made at home, in my room.








We made a little video about the competition, I hope you like it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsTMDG3rOj8

After the competition, I presented my work to the the big world on the TV. There' s a link, where you can watch this episode:

http://radikalmod.hu/index.php?p=5&x...c-9b5257240f7b

Some pictures





And some funny shoot



Thanks for watching, I hope You like it!

[BLUEHORSESTUDIOS]

Great job, I love your patience and skill,I work with this product quite a bit and know the time you put into your build.

[nagyizom]

Originally Posted by BLUEHORSESTUDIOS

Great job, I love your patience and skill,I work with this product quite a bit and know the time you put into your build.

Thank you, Sir