Dune Spice Harvester Scratchbuild

Photon

Active Member
Hi everyone. This is my first post.

My hobby for the past 10 years has been building analog synthesizers and I’ve become a bit burnt out and need something new and exciting to take its place.
I was obsessed as a kid growing up in the 70s/80s with movie special effects and read everything I could find. So in the spirit of a much younger me, I’ve decided to try and scratchbuild something.
Flipping through some of my old movie magazines, I found some images of the Spice Harvester from Dune and I knew I had found my subject. I thought, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone attempt this before", which of course should have registered as a huge red flag. :lol
mags.jpg


DuneSpiceHarvester6.jpg



So follow along if you’d like…sort of like slowing down to gawk at a car accident. well, hopefully not.

The original was carved from plaster and cast in fiberglass. I’m going to be using styrene, so I’m going to need to vacuum-form a lot of these compound curved parts.

I haven’t finished building my vac-former yet, but that didn't stop me from getting started on the bucks for the two side pods and main hull.

I have some good reference material, but no true orthographic views. I imported a “nearly front view” and an “ almost side view” into a CAD program and used them as an underlay. I corrected for lens distortion and perspective the best I could and I think I have a pretty good basis to work from. It should be pretty close. If you’re here to count bolts, then move along, move along. Nothing to see here folks…

I took a number of sections through the side “pod” and pasted them onto bass wood and cut them out.
podribs.jpg


glueup.jpg


podframes.jpg

Then I filled the spaces with foam and sanded.
eggs.jpg


The foam was coated with a decent layer of Durhams Water Putty.
durhams.jpg


podsshell.jpg



Here's the first shot of primer
podprimer.jpg



More soon
Peter
 

Attachments

  • mags.jpg
    mags.jpg
    188.5 KB · Views: 216
  • DuneSpiceHarvester6.jpg
    DuneSpiceHarvester6.jpg
    226.5 KB · Views: 576
  • podribs.jpg
    podribs.jpg
    105.9 KB · Views: 208
  • podframes.jpg
    podframes.jpg
    121.4 KB · Views: 199
  • eggs.jpg
    eggs.jpg
    121 KB · Views: 165
  • durhams.jpg
    durhams.jpg
    179.6 KB · Views: 198
  • glueup.jpg
    glueup.jpg
    204 KB · Views: 173
  • podsshell.jpg
    podsshell.jpg
    139.2 KB · Views: 170
  • podprimer.jpg
    podprimer.jpg
    156.9 KB · Views: 206
  • hotwire.jpg
    hotwire.jpg
    165.6 KB · Views: 184
Last edited:
That is a great start. Thanks for showing the build process.
What are you using to glue the foam to the basswood? Contact cement?
How thick of a layer of Durhams are you putting on?
Do you have any worries about it chipping or cracking?
I have some and that stuff is rock hard.
I just don't know how well it will hold up over a long period of time.
I thought about using Durhams to make a master and then do a resin cast from it.
Looking forward to the rest of your progress.
 
Hey, thanks for looking.
I used Titebond wood glue to glue foam to basswood. I'm not too worried about the Durhams holding up over time. These are simply forms to vacuum form over. The main purpose of the Durhams here is to protect the foam from the perils of vacuum forming. I built up a layer of about 1mm or so, I'd guess. I'm sure if I dropped one it would crack or dent. I could have used Bondo, but I hate the smell. It also eats the foam and costs $$. The Durhams is only $1.79 for a pound (that's 450 grams to everyone else in the world)
 
Yup, Durhams is a great modeling material. Does fantastic ground work, buildings, etc., too.

I look forward to your results. What scale are you building it at?

R/ Robert
 
This is great Peter, and something I'd love to do too, along with the Atreides transport ship and Guild Navigator. I recall being underwhelmed largely by the ship/vehicle designs when I saw Dune at the cinema as a youngun' but over the years have become obsessed with how unorthodox and great they actually are. Your progress looks promising and inspiring. Consider me hooked.
 
Thanks guys. I really appreciate it.

the original was supposed to be 120 meters x 40 meters, so it looks like mine is 1/250 scale.
 
I recall being underwhelmed largely by the ship/vehicle designs when I saw Dune at the cinema as a youngun' but over the years have become obsessed with how unorthodox and great they actually are.

Thanks. Yes I agree. I really like the way the craft are adorned with ornamental elements that serve no purpose other than to make them beautiful. It's something that really hasn't been done much since the turn of the century & Art Nouveau.
 
Ok, Here's a bit more progress. More Lofting ...this time the main hull.

basswood sections
bodyribs.jpg


foam filled & sanded
bodyshaped.jpg


Plastered
hulldurham.jpg


Geidi Primed
filledhull.jpg



Ok, that it's for today. I'm off to reintroduce myself to my family

Peter
 

Attachments

  • bodyribs.jpg
    bodyribs.jpg
    103.8 KB · Views: 183
  • bodyshaped.jpg
    bodyshaped.jpg
    119.7 KB · Views: 186
  • 1stlayer.jpg
    1stlayer.jpg
    155.2 KB · Views: 160
  • hulldurham.jpg
    hulldurham.jpg
    139.4 KB · Views: 147
  • filledhull.jpg
    filledhull.jpg
    162 KB · Views: 185
Last edited:
big fan of dune.looking forward to your build.
i wonder if the wheels from the revell dune sandcrawler kit would be suitable for your project.depends on scale and you only get 2 wheels but you could make moulds and cast the rest.

13.jpg
 
Thanks for posting that. I completely forgot about this. Those wheels look pretty much identical to the harvester, including the the oblong ribbed one in the back. I don't know about the scale though. I'll most likely be building a wheel and casting the other 7 in resin.
 
Nice start and a great subject. I love the look of the Dune vehicles/ships and will be following this one for sure.
 
Fantastic subject--Revell was actually going to do a huge kit of the harvester back in the day but cancelled it--breaking my heart--when the movie tanked. I'd still love to see a garage kit of it some day...
 
Thanks for your comments everybody. I'm really glad people are interested and stopping by.

So now that I have the main body parts and can hold them together and compare them to the (somewhat limited) reference photos, I think it's not quite 100% right.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around these forms. I think I may have to remake the side pods. It's not a big deal, we're talking about $5 worth of materials and a couple of afternoons. I really want to get this right.

Peter
 
And as soon as I post them, I realize that any Google image search will return many better pictures...

There's a 'Making of' book for Dune: The Making of Dune by Ed Naha, in case you'd like to look that up. It has a few B&W pics of the harvesters, but the text may have some details that Cinefex doesn't. Maybe.


-MJ
 
This thread is more than 6 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top