The main body of the minelayer is a sturdy plastic bottle (clear).
ABS pipe (black) pushed through the opening gives the whole piece strength.
The "head" is made from the base of a small battery operated lantern (blue)
shoved onto the end of the pipe. Side engines are made from deoderant
containers (white), with cut down plastic easter eggs added (pink), and
detailed with keyboard keys (grey) and CPVC pipe engines in the back (tan).
Details on top include model and toy parts, Casette tape shells, and plastic
clothespin halves. The Crane arm is taken from a Matrix toy- the
large APU mech. The main engine is a plastic drain cover.
In this shot, additional detail has been added. Parts from an
old Skeleton Warriors hoverbike (red, grey) bulk out the area in front
of the side engines. Half sections of ribbed pipe from the Imex Chemical
Plant kit (silver) have been bent around the head. . Spikes around
the neck are actually small plastic trees that came from a Christmas Garland
strand. The spikes along the spine are from an old Chimera tank plow
and from the Cities of Death buildings again. The cut down playing
cards (red, white) have had rivets embossed
into them using a filed down 1/16" hole punch.
The teeth and lower jaw are cut from another plastic easter egg.
The eyes, and the "lure" above the head, are made from lamps from the Cities
of Death buildings (grey). Although one eye socket (right) is part
of the original lantern (where the switch mounted), the other is a reel
from a casette tape. The head is also detailed with strips of white
sheet styerene / plasticard, with rivets embossed into it before being
glued on.
The claw on the end of the crane came from the other large Matrix toy,
the Sentinel. You can see segments from the Sentinel's tentacle arms
used as detail elsewhere on the minelayer too. The side
engines were detailed with more parts from the Imex Chemical Plant (silver),
and wheels from plastic models and Lego toys. Sections of black
wire are wrapped around the base of the engine, and along side the upper
platform. Black pieces of plastic railroad track can be seen around
the top of the main engine too.
The diamond pattern added to the head is made from plastic shelf liner.
It also makes great glass for medieval windows... but that's another project!
The mines themselves are made from wooden balls, with holes drilled,
and bits of detail stuffed into the holes. These larger mines use
pieces from inside a computer keyboard, pieces of pipe from the chemical
plant set, and Sentinal toy tentacle segments for the base. The flight
stands were made from wire coathanger, attached to Lego radar dish pieces.
The flight stand for the minelayer (not pictured) is actually made from
a wooden dowel inserted into the top of a road reflector! The nice
curve, hefty weight and easy drillability made the reflector a perfect
choice for a base. You never know what you'll find useful out there...