ColeHorton
Well-Known Member
I wanted to finally share with the community a project we took on for Star Wars Celebration V. Myself and another R2 Builder, Daren Murrer, were looking for a prop to build for the Echo Base-themed Droid room. After watching the movie looking for ideas, I finally noticed a little-known Star Wars vechicle that had been hiding in plain sight: The Rebel Troop Carrier.
The troop carrier can be seen in most of the Echo Base scenes in ESB, as well as one scene in ROTJ. You can see (and hear) the vehicle at the 18 sec point of this video: YouTube - 1 - Han Enters Echo Base
Because of the relative obscurity of the prop, we had to start from scratch: taking our own screen grabs and determining dimensions from there. The final prop is 12 feet long, six feet wide. The cart was built with over 220 individual pieces of cabinet-grade plywood cut on a CNC router table. It's fully mobile thanks to the Taylor Dunn utility cart that it is built on and has a range ~22 miles. It has front, rear, and interior lights as well as a four speaker stereo system with CD and iPod input.
After we got back from Celebration V, we took the Troop Carrier in for a photo shoot. (Photos by Christian Dohn)
The interior was designed and dressed by Star Wars artist Chris Reiff. The dash utilizes such Star Wars staples as Visible V8 engine parts and a real Viscount Reading light. The two video screens are for the front and rear facing driving cameras to help with visibility.
From Left to Right: Cole Horton, Chris Reiff, Daren Murrer
Many more progress photos are available at http://astromech.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4614
The troop carrier can be seen in most of the Echo Base scenes in ESB, as well as one scene in ROTJ. You can see (and hear) the vehicle at the 18 sec point of this video: YouTube - 1 - Han Enters Echo Base
Because of the relative obscurity of the prop, we had to start from scratch: taking our own screen grabs and determining dimensions from there. The final prop is 12 feet long, six feet wide. The cart was built with over 220 individual pieces of cabinet-grade plywood cut on a CNC router table. It's fully mobile thanks to the Taylor Dunn utility cart that it is built on and has a range ~22 miles. It has front, rear, and interior lights as well as a four speaker stereo system with CD and iPod input.
After we got back from Celebration V, we took the Troop Carrier in for a photo shoot. (Photos by Christian Dohn)
The interior was designed and dressed by Star Wars artist Chris Reiff. The dash utilizes such Star Wars staples as Visible V8 engine parts and a real Viscount Reading light. The two video screens are for the front and rear facing driving cameras to help with visibility.
From Left to Right: Cole Horton, Chris Reiff, Daren Murrer
Many more progress photos are available at http://astromech.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4614
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