Dune Sand Crawler

       

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Original Kit:
Dune Sand Crawler
Made By:
Revell (kit #1776)
Scale:
N/A
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Sand Crawler from the movie Dune
Dune Sand Crawler cockpit Dune Sand Crawler side detail Dune Sand Crawler rear

 
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I've previously joked about building models of cars that could generously be described as "having a cameo appearance" in their respective films. Revell took that concept a step further with their Dune kits released in 1984 as part of the marketing for the David Lynch film. There were three kits in the series: a sandworm, an ornithopter, and a sand crawler. The sandworm was a major plot point in the movie, the 'thopter was the setting for Paul and Jessica's escape from the Harkonnens, and the sand crawler could only be seen if you were looking for it and doesn't even warrant an entry in the Dune fan wiki. Scale was never mentioned on any of the kits, and the movie was no help since it was only seen at a distance with no reference points, but the seats of the sand crawler put it in the neighborhood of 1/24. That was good enough for me.

I picked this up several decades after its release, and while everything was there it wasn't in the best of shape. Only a few parts were still attached to the trees, the upper hull had snapped in half, and there were plenty of scuffs and dings from the parts rattling around in the box for so long. My first job was to fix the hull, which I did with a wide strip of styrene on the inside to bridge and reinforce the joint and some Bondo Glazing Putty on the outside to fill in the few remaining chips and cracks. More filler was needed to square up the sides of the craft - either it warped over time or was never perfectly straight, but regardless the panels had a distinct "lean" to them when assembled. The semi-brittle plastic was also a problem when I was trying to clean up the greeble under the nose of the craft, as that shattered when I tried to round out the holes. More Bondo took care of the damage there.

Once the main hull was together, I decided I wanted to add a little surface detail as it was looking a little plain. The box art shows the nose and sides absolutely covered in rivets, and while I liked the idea I didn't want to add quite as many (not that I could have copied the box art anyway, since the artist took a few liberties with the design of the canopy). I used some Archer rivets along the nose, canopy surround, and rear spats, plus a few white glue rivets where I just needed one- and two-offs.

Then it was time for paint. The interior was done in TS-21 Gold to recall the interior we saw in the ornithopter, with details and highlights done in complementary colors. The exterior was done in TS-33 Dull Red, followed by several passes with various "sand" colors to give it a well-used look. The wheels and paddle were done with the same layering technique, though lighter on the red and heavier on the weathering.

When it was time for final assembly, I discovered more limitations to the old plastic. First, the canopy frame would not flex enough to fit the glass, and simply cracked when I did even a light test. So I cut the glass into three pieces - top and two sides - and assembled them to the frame one at a time. The axle pins turned out to be unnecessarily fragile as well, not even holding long enough for the glue to set. I had to clean these up and then drill them out to accept stainless steel rods to give them some strength. After all this I didn't even want to try drilling out the gun barrels, so I replaced them with styrene tube in a couple of different sizes. They, the side details, and the rear suspension were painted in several metallic colors and weathered to match the rest of the craft.

 

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