I have always loved sci fi and modelling. I grew up on Doctor Who, Blake Seven and Star Trek followed by Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Babylon 5… the list goes on. Later on video games such as Halo, Mass Effect and the Jedi Survivor series were added. I did watch the Star Wars movies as a child and I have an early memory of Dad buying us a small TV for our canal boat so I could watch Star Wars when it first came on TV in the UK. It wasn’t until much later that I really fell in love with Star Wars watching the Clone Wars and to this day, I consider the best moments in the whole franchise to be the last four episodes. Thinking years later of my sci fi city and I wanted it to feel more like a video game or TV show – immersive with arcs, well known locatons and featured characters – albeit a very long running TV show to fit it all in.
I started with model railways back in my teens. A few years later I got back into modelling and spent many happy years modelling railways or sci fi dioramas. In 2020, I changed direction in my life and became a full time content creator before settling into 3D print design. I moved to designing terrain for tabletop games – because I love sci fi and it was a good outlet to sell in with the growing home 3D printer market. Over a couple of years, I stacked up boxes and boxes of test prints, most painted for promotional videos, some not. I needed a home for them and a way to show them off. Normal bookshelves weren’t deep enough and I only had a limited space for any displays. In the end Junk Room City was born and quickly renamed Skutt City.
After a lot of thought, I settled on a steel frame with plywood shelves. There are three sets of shelves, the left hand side is 4 foot wide, the middle set 3 foot wide and the right hand side is 2 foot wide. The whole unit is 3 foot deep which gives a lot of depth for scenes but brings with it the problem of reaching. Inspired by Coruscant, I added vertical shafts – for ventilation and spaceship access into the city – and access by me in real life. Then came the fun bit – designing a whole sci fi city. Some models were already made but I had to allow for future expansion and allow for changes as time went on.
Most of the shelves have a GridForge floor. Designed by 2nd Dynasty, it is a floor system that allows you swap out tiles and therefore gave me time to design future floors using a common system. The walls and ceiling were a little more problematic as there was no ready made system.
The space was soon expanded and a nearby bookcase sacrificed to hold the Outbound Station models which are more interior. This is a slice through one building that spans all the levels…