UMS "Agram" : Scratchbuilding Star Wars Crates < Articles < Hobby

Scratchbuilding Star Wars Crates

Sebastian Søgård, 12nd May 2025

In this article I’ll explain how I scratchbuild crates for the Star Wars Universe, to use on bases or in dioramas. It’s pretty simple and fun, and the required tools and barrier to entry is really low. These are the tools and materials I have at my disposal when I start the build.

My materials are two polystyrene sheets of different thicknesses. I choose the 1mm and the 0.25mm for this build, as well as square tubes of polystyrene 7.9mm X 7.9mm and a ruler. These are produced by Evergreen, and are widely available in hobby stores around the world. The tools I use are plastic cement (preferably with a brush), a hobby knife and a nail file.

I cut off a tip of the square tube, trying to make the length as equal to the width as possible, so 7.9mm. Now I have a cube.

Then I cut out smaller details for panels and parts (called greeblies in Star Wars lingo) from both the thinner and the thicker polystyrene sheets. Here I cut out as many as possible, to give myself options when assembling the crates.

An important aesthetic detail of the Star Wars universe is notches, and so I cut notches into several of my panels, like in this illustration.

Another stylistic factor of SW is that very few things are symmetrical. So I chose to make all sides of my crates different, varying the panelling and details, using both thick and thin polystyrene for variation in depth. Here are some examples of different sides of my crates.

The larger crate is created only using the polystyrene sheets, and not from the square tube. So I measured and cut out five equal sides (the bottom is open) of the 1mm thick polystyrene and glued them together to form a cube. I used the thinner polystyrene to cut out and create lids for all my crates as well. Everything is glued together using plastic cement which creates a strong bond relatively fast by melting the plastics together. Because of this I now have sturdy crates that I can then use the nail file to polish and clean up - making sure all sides of the bigger crate are flush, that all crates are flat at the bottom, and file down all the hard corners of the crates into more rounded shapes.

I test out the placement of the crates on my base, and make sure the scale works, before I finish the base.

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