I have always wanted to build a city street type of environment for one of our Halloween houses, and this year I decided to do it. I decided to utilize our often not-used driveway for this and began to envision what it would look like to turn it into a street from the Mandalorian.

A lot of action happens on the streets of Nevarro City and I thought that would be a good one to have as part of our scene. I sketched ideas of how we could fit the city architecture on to our driveway area to help me envision how it could work.

Nevarro City has some distinctive architectural elements. I think (and this is me just trying to give meaning to something that just may have been an artist’s choice) that because Nevarro is a volcanic planet, with hardened lava flows coming just up to the edges of the buildings, they need tower-type structures (large pillars with their front surfaces at an angle) to help the walls of the building from being pushed over by the lava rock. Regardless of the reason, these pillars appear at regular intervals along the walls of the city. Here is an example:

I decided to start with these as anchor points for the structure, and chose to use 1.5 in. thick insulation foam (available at your local Lowe’s or Home Depot) as the main building material. This would allow the pillars to be sturdy, lightweight and weatherproof. I wanted to make the city tall, so I decided to get several 4’X8′ sheets (good thing our minivan can hold 4’X8′ sheets of plywood!) and have the height of the pillars be 8 ft. high.

Once I got the sheets home, I had to remove their outer protective films. One side is a thin plastic, and the other side is a foil-like material. I had to remove the films from both sides as I would be using an electric hot knife to cut the foam.

From there, I measured my angles and used a long piece of wood as my straight edge. I then used my electric hot knife, using the piece of wood as the guide, to cut the pieces into the angled sides of the pillars.

Then it was time to glue them together. I learned this technique from my friend Cary Ross who creates large sets with insulation foam. The idea is to use expanding foam (i.e., Great Stuff) as the glue. It creates a strong bond between the foam pieces. I sprayed the foam and quickly joined the pieces together. To keep the joints secure (and not expand as the Great Stuff expanded), I inserted kebob skewers at angles into the joint to hold it in place as it set (it takes about 15 minutes).

I built the pillar shells and added some strengthening supports midway up the pillar and at the top to give the structure rigidity.

During our Community Painting Day, Bich and Brian took on the task of painting the six pillars I built. They masterfully plowed through the painting work, getting all of the 8 ft. tall pillars painted in a few hours.

Once those were dry, I began placing them roughly where they will stand on the street.

These pillars are the first parts of the Nevarro street, and I will detail the build of the rest of the street in future posts.