Revell AT-AT Easy-Kit WIP

danikin72

Just wanted to share my progress on my AT-AT's.
I'm currently doing 2 of them and I plan on doing a scene from the Hoth battle.
I don't normally show WIP because it takes so long between updates but I figured with all of the mods that I'm putting into these things there will be plenty to show and talk about.
This is also alot of firsts for me, scratching parts and casting, so please don't be too harsh.
I just want the kits to look as best a possible, not 100% accurate but as close as I can get.
Anyways, on to the pics...


Head progress



Rebuilt D-rings for the feet. I casted this part for both AT-AT's.



Neck Mod
I used a mini slinky and trimmed up the rings so that it would fit, the original kit part is far too horrible.






The head is almost complete for the major surgery...for one of them anyways.
Next is all of the details, side guns, under chin guns and back wall rebuild.
You can see how bad the original kit is compaired to the modded one.

It's still allitle rough but it's getting there.

Well that's all I have for now, Thanks for looking and let me know what you think.

blakeh1

Excellent work! Can't wait to see how this progresses

danikin72

Thanks for the comment.
It's alot of work but i'm excited to get them finished and on display.
After all that is going into these I may just try to build my first scratch built model from the ground up.
I need to get these finished first though.

danikin72

Took a pic of the main hull.
I rescribed all panel lines for both at-at's.
This took forever it seemed like, not as long as scribing all the feet.



Just need to remove and rebuild all of the hull details for both.
They are just too soft and not detailed enough, kind of looks like a toy.
I guess that's the "easy-kit" part of it.

Junk Pilot

Very nice. What did you use as a guide for scribing the feet? This area has always been seen as next to impossible for me to do.

Also, there is an upgrade set in the works that has replacements for those Flakverlieng details on the body.

danikin72

I actually bought the flak kit, so I have those.
For the feet I just made a template to use as a guide.
I needed it to be the same for all sides.
I just used a piece of paper to get the curvature and then cut out a piece of stock plastic.
Worked well.

danikin72

Well, here is a small update...



Finished scribing the feet, it's a little rough but as you can see I am cutting out the toes to make them movable.

On to the toes and the underside of the foot. I plan on filling the foot with plaster to help with stability.

Thanks for looking.

Scratchy

Revell should be sued for "False Advertising" ..... Easy-Kit, yeah right.

I really like the idea of using the mini slinky for the neck, I was stumped on what I was going to put on mine, now that's solved. Thank you.

I also picked up the 1/48 Flak kit, I also picked up the 1/48 Sturmgeschutz III Ausf. G (Sd.Kfz.142/1) kit# 32525*1700 for the main guns.

You did a vast improvement on the head Danikin, very nice! She's coming along great, I'll be looking forward to your updates.

danikin72

Thank You!
I thought about picking up some of the other kits needed but didn't have the budget at the time. Maybe I'll still do it but I'm wondering what parts are in the 1/48 Sturmgeschutz III Ausf. G. Is it just the barrels or the whole assembly? If it's the whole assembly then I'll definately pick it up. I just haven't seen any reference from that kit.
Save some time in building up the guns.

Thanks for the comment about the head. I'm doing 2 kits at once so it's pretty slow going. and I'm working up the second head now.

This is not an "Easy Kit" if you want something decent. It's almost a total rebuild. I almost wonder if it would have been easier to just scratch build the whole thing.

I wasn't going to start these for a while but a friend of mine challenged me to do it so here I am.

Oh well, it's fun and a good challenge to build up the scratching skills.

blakeh1

I just saw a listing in the Starship Modeler Store that is Revell AT-AT Easy kit upgrade set 1. No details as to what is in the kit or pictures yet, just the listing, but after a long wait it looks like one is finally here.

danikin72

I just looked at that, I will problably pick up a couple of those, I haven't made the toes or the bottom of the feet yet. Most of the parts in the set are things I haven't tackled yet.
I'm glad it doesn't have the head yet cuz I've spent way too much time on that part. I would just be mad if I had wasted all that time.

Next thing I know Fine Molds will come out with a 1/48 AT-AT and really **** me off.

I wonder what the upgrade kit #2 is going to have in it. Problably the head and guns.

Hotshot

Wokring on one of these too, but stalled. THink i'm going back to it

That slinky is damn near genius

darth_daniel

Awesome work so far!

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a "mini slinky"? I´ve searched high and low to find a good replacement for the neck but nothing so far. What you´ve got there looks perfect (except for the colors... ). Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Junk Pilot

Great to finally see the upgrade kit has come to fruition, DD. Well done.

Junk Pilot

A "Slinky" is a kids toy that was first made many many years ago. It's just a flat coiled spring that you could make "walk" down stairs using its own momentum to make it move. A "Mini-Slinky" is just a smaller version.

Both should still be readily available in toy shops.

blakeh1

If my search is correct I believe you can find it under Slinky Jr

http://www.amazon.com/ToySmith-Metal...4429532&sr=8-1

I will definitely be picking up a couple. That was an excellent find for the neck.

Did you have to reduce the diameter or only cut off links to trim the length?

Pretty amazing coincidence that it just happens to be the right diameter if so!

danikin72

I did have to grind out the neck rings because the plastic was too thick.
it was a pain but once you cut out the ribbed portion the walls are just too thick, I would have thinned it out anyways just too keep the sense of scale right.
I struggled with what to do for the neck for quite a while and eventually thought about a slinky, when I was at toys r us the last time I found some and figured what the heck, I'll give it go. They were about a dollar a piece. They are the perfect size both in diameter and in length. I didn't have to touch the slinky itself, other then having to paint them.

darth_daniel

That´s a great help thanks so much!!!

danikin72

You are very welcome.
Since the release for the upgrade set is soon, I've decided to concentrate on the head and legs portion of the kit. I am going to work up the things that I know are not in the upgrade set to save time and effort.

Started the work week now and with the holidays coming up I'll try to keep everyone updated but it may be slow going with time constrants.

Please be patient.

Also If anyone has questions or comments please feel free. They are always welcomed and very helpfull.
I'm stretching my skill set a bit on these and learning tons so far, so please keep that in mind.
I may have missed something or if I can help in any way with other projects just let me know. Sounds like alot of people are working on this kit at one stage or another.

darth_daniel

The upgrade set already has been released, the first ten sets sold out within 2 days though. If you want one I recommend preordering it. (I was the guy who mastered it.)
I just wonder why SSM called it "Upgrade Set No.1", there won´t be another mastered by me. There´s a replacement head supposed to be released by RetroSF though, but it´s been ages since Julien told me they bought the head he made.

Scratchy

Just out of curiosity, what's the outer diameter of the mini slinky?

danikin72

Here are a couple of pics with a ruler showing both length and diameter...






Hope this helps.

danikin72

Minor update...
Just wanted to show some progress on the legs, still need a little cleanup.
Let me know what you think.





Thanks for looking.

Scratchy

Thanks, that size is perfect, the one I bought is 0.025" too large on the length and diameter.

danikin72

Another update...
While I've been waiting for the upgrade set I've been working on other areas of the AT-AT's that won't be affected by the replacement parts.
Mostly the legs and head are not included on the set, so instead of shelving the modeles until they arrive I have been keeping busy with other stuff.
Trust me there is plenty more to do.
First off the lower legs, pretty much finished with these, just need to clean up a bit. Putty and primer are my friends.







I am building these as a hybrid between several references between studio models and the incredible cross sections book. There are differences between all of them and some I like better then others. If there is something that I'm missing or something not right then that's problably why.
I'm still trying to decide how far I want to take these with accuracy, it'll never be 100% but where do you draw the line?
Well that's it for now.
On to the upper legs...
Thanks for looking.