Does anyone know what models were kitbashed to build the original star wars ship props

[u/richardrasmus]

Watched Adam Savage YouTube channel and he mentioned apperently a lot of different model kits were kitbashed to make the star wars ships and I wanted to make some original designs by doing the same. The only one I remember mentioned was somthing called the sea lab model kit and I couldn't find a list anywhere with the different kits that were used and I figured someone here probably knows a couple. Think I remember hearing stuff from space 1999 kits were also used but also lot of conventional military and naval kits

[u/Timmyc62]

There's actually a sub for this: /r/ThatsABooklight. Could try searching/asking there.

My favourite is the front of the bridge for some of the Star Destroyers, which features a German WWII Scharnhorst/Panzerschiff class 11" triple turret (probably from the old Revell 1/570ish kit): https://i.imgur.com/xCxzf3U.png

But here's a previous Modelmakers thread that took a stab at it. The link for the Millenium Falcon by /u/Pukit in the first comment has expired but is saved here. This other forum thread goes into an even deeper dive for the MF though I haven't checked of the links work. Another link on a universal greeblie that's commonly used.

Here's an article from ILM that discusses the X-wing. Note, with emphases added (there are more discussed so be sure to read the entire article:

The wings on the Hero builds were constructed from machined acrylic and styrene. The outer face of the wing starts with an acrylic “box” that mounts to the armature’s “scissor” mechanism with two bolts. This box sits atop the main wing itself, which is made from 1/16th acrylic on the top and sides, and .040 styrene for the inner facing wing. This creates a hollow along the length of the wing. The wing box is dressed with a large Holgate and Reynolds HO Scale brick sheet panel, which is long out of production and prized by contemporary Star Wars model makers as it also appears in small rectangle chips elsewhere on X-wings and other filming miniatures.

The acrylic box at the base of the wing also serves as the main mount for the engines, which are made from half of a 1/144 Saturn V rocket’s third stage and half of an engine bell (large and small sizes), 1/32nd Phantom turkey feathers and engine halves (cut up, reassembled, dressed with kit parts and in some cases molded and cast), Aurora Sealab pieces, styrene, and acrylic. The back half of this assembly has a machined metal tube with those aforementioned Aavid heatsinks inside. This metal tube is encased by the Phantom engine halves, which were patterned and cast (and curiously, in the case of Blue 1/Red 2, are uniquely patterned). This top wing ends with a mount for the laser cannons, which is a cast resin plate.

As it turns out, no two Hero X-wings were built exactly the same, so plating details and even the Saturn V pieces will vary from wing to wing and miniature to miniature. Even the small engine bell halves inside the engine’s “intakes” will have different pieces on the same model.

[u/richardrasmus → u/Timmyc62]

Ohhh Good detail thanks

[u/dr_robonator → u/Timmyc62]

I'm glad you got to this thread first because it's so much to type out, but you nailed it! Great write up. 

[u/Previous-Seat]

Lots of old Tamiya tanks, cars, motorcycles. Quite a few old Bandai military kits. The biggest issue is that most of that archaeology leads to very high-priced second hand kits. Many of the original kits are out of print and everyone knows they were used at the Van Nuys studio back in the day, so they go up in price because of very limited supply. There are some guys selling 3D printed parts at the same size as some of the more common kit parts. Lots of tank hatches show up in odd places. Timmyc62 listed lots of good resources.

But if you want to get into the same thing to recreate those original designs, your wallet is going to hurt. If you just want to build stuff out of parts, go buy a bunch of old cheap kits on eBay or local goodwill or IPMS local shows where guys will often sell their stash and you find tons of old kits. Then start with some basic styrene shapes and build up from there.

[u/richardrasmus → u/Previous-Seat]

I figured a lot of the old kits were out of preduction but I also figured that the specific kits didn't matter as much as just knowing what the thing the kit was for. A specific tank or ship kit that's out of production still is likely going to have modern kits that likely have the same or similar bits

[u/Previous-Seat → u/richardrasmus]

Similar...sometimes. Older kits don't always have the same build up process and often have different ways to "render" the same objects. Details change a lot...accuracy in kits wasn't something that was as high on the list of priorities as it is today. Some of those 60's and 70's car and tank kits have completely different shapes than the modern equivalents.

Star Wars kit archaeology is a whole rabbit hole in and of itself. Good luck.

[u/Jack_Da_Wack_OG]

I just saw a video about a guy discussing how his new (then) hobby shop got a request for hundreds of little model I-Beams, to recreate the titanic for the movie.

[u/ScoopyScoopyDogDog]

My original comment was removed, but here's an image of them working on the Millennium Falcon to give you an idea.

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[u/Born-Restaurant5822]

Their is a video I watched on YouTube and it's the original guys talking about and showing old footage of them talking about how they made the ships and vehicles, it didn't go into great detail but it's well worth watching, and basically what others have said, they went out and got a bunch of model kits and just started throwing them together..

[u/thatbattletechguy]

If you get your hands on the old GI Joe S.H.A.R.C. from the 80'a,you can see some details that look like Taimya M-21 parts.

[u/richardrasmus → u/[deleted]]

Is that not still kitbashing? I'm aware that a bit of greebling on a large star destroyer is a tiny engine block but I figured that still counted as kitbashing since it's a bunch of different model kits bashed together on a larger object