1/12 Scale At-At, I need your help!

[JackTheYack]

Hello everyone, just wanted to share a project I started a little while ago by myself, my goal was to develop a base model of a 1/12 scale At-At, and then vacuum form plastic around each piece to make more of the At-Ats, and the create a battle on hoth scene. However my 3D modelling skills aren't that great so any help with the project as far as designing a 3D model to base it off of would be much appreciated, I can supply the reference pictures, they are linked within this post, anyways ill be working to the best of my ability on the model, and any help like a specific part of the walker like, head, body, legs,etc would be appreciated, even if I've already attempted it myself, your attempt will probably be better than mine. Thanks a lot! Email me at:jarchambault9@yahoo.com or you can post it here on the thread


Update 1: 2/23 Hello everyone, I've decided to use wood for the legs of the master build, the legs will be the first part that I am building and should have an update by Friday, or over the weekend. I am also probably going to use a 3D printer for all of the small details, but a lot of the structural parts will end up being metal in the end, like the legs.

 

[cavx]

An AT-AT at 1/12 scale would be 4 feet tall? And having 6 of them would be epic!

Vacuum forming the parts would be cool. However, you essentially need to build the master first and then break it down into the all the parts you want to make and duplicate.

IMO, some parts would be best molded and cast like the main parts of the legs. Question here is, do you make, machine or 3D print these parts first?

The feet and even the parts of the body would be cool to vacuum form.

Of then there is the discussion for which process works the best - standard male tool vacuum forming Vs female tooled vacuum forming Vs thermo-forming.

I am in the process of building a very large vacuum forming system. Whilst it is aimed at female tooled vacuum forming, it will also be capable of male tooled vacuum forming and thermo-forming (which really excites me due to the ability to make thicker parts).

 

[epoxinator]

Given the thinness of the legs from the front angle I wonder if you might want to make the legs of metal? I wonder if 3D print media, or for that matter other cast media, would be able to hold up the mass of a 4' tall Walker?

 

[JackTheYack]

An AT-AT at 1/12 scale would be 4 feet tall? And having 6 of them would be epic!

Vacuum forming the parts would be cool. However, you essentially need to build the master first and then break it down into the all the parts you want to make and duplicate.

IMO, some parts would be best molded and cast like the main parts of the legs. Question here is, do you make, machine or 3D print these parts first?

The feet and even the parts of the body would be cool to vacuum form.

Of then there is the discussion for which process works the best - standard male tool vacuum forming Vs female tooled vacuum forming Vs thermo-forming.

I am in the process of building a very large vacuum forming system. Whilst it is aimed at female tooled vacuum forming, it will also be capable of male tooled vacuum forming and thermo-forming (which really excites me due to the ability to make thicker parts).

Well, there are a couple of different measurements circulating about how tall it is, but the most popular one is 22.5 meters( or about 74 feet) so the walker would be around 6 feet. I was thinking on vacuum forming the main body as it would be best to have the body lightweight and hollow to keep its weight down, and then I would cast the legs because they need to be stronger and have to hold everything up. As for how I make the first master copy, I have access to 3D printers, a cnc machine, and any tool I would need to hand make it, however I might need different methods for different parts, for example detailed parts vs structural parts.

 

[JackTheYack]

Given the thinness of the legs from the front angle I wonder if you might want to make the legs of metal? I wonder if 3D print media, or for that matter other cast media, would be able to hold up the mass of a 4' tall Walker?

Im going to try to keep the weight down on the main body, however metal sounds like a good option, if I had the money for all of the metal I would need, I'd make the whole thing out of metal! Metal for the legs would also be good if I wanted to put a motor system in the walker, metal legs would help with the legs actually hitting the ground and getting stable traction, which would truly make it an "All-Terrain Armored-Transport"

 

[epoxinator]

If you were planning on making it walk than get used to the idea of spending thousands of dollars, at the very least. In ESB the machines were animated by stop frame, and in later uses were CGI. I would think you would have to do some major redesign to the legs to integrate any sort of physical power source.

 

[JackTheYack]

If you were planning on making it walk than get used to the idea of spending thousands of dollars, at the very least. In ESB the machines were animated by stop frame, and in later uses were CGI. I would think you would have to to some major redesign to the legs to integrate any sort of physical power source.

Nah it was just a thought, but damn would that be cool.

 

[rbeach84]

Wot, no fiberglass components?

R/ Robert

 

[batguy]

3-dimensional objects start getting A LOT heavier as the size scales up. Going from a 1-2ft tall ILM model to a 6ft tall version is a big difference.



My two cents:

For a 6ft tall AT-AT you're basically talking about a body section the size of a trash can (turned horizonal). Pretty much anything other than low-density styrofoam or a hollow foam-board construction will be heavy at that size.

I assume you would be making the legs/feet/hips movable (by hand) so the whole thing is pose-able.

You should use metal for the legs & leg joints. Make them decidedly strong/heavy at the bottom and then start lightening things as it goes up. Make the head & body as light as practical. Plan on using high-quality tight pivots for the feet/legs/hips. The lower the joint, the more weight it's gonna be holding and the more important it is for the pivots not to wobble. This whole creation (well, at least the detailed exterior) will be fragile enough that you won't want to take any chances of it toppling over by accident.


If it's really gonna be this big, you might wanna build in a quick-release method for taking the legs off. Storing & transporting the thing, repairs, etc. (Remember the lower legs & feet will be heavy compared to the body.) The release point doesn't necessarily need to be right at any of the crucial pivot points. Each pair of legs (front/rear) could be mounted on its own "truck" (think: skateboard wheels) with the 2 trucks being removable from the main body.


Another thought: You might wanna put hard "stops" on the joints and limit their range of motion to only where they should be able to go. Stability, ease of set up, etc.

 

[JackTheYack]

Wot, no fiberglass components?

R/ Robert

Nothings really set in stone at the moment, im just getting information and suggestions from people, im not even sure if I want to do a 3d model of It, so fiberglass would be an option

 

[JackTheYack]

3-dimensional objects start getting A LOT heavier as the size scales up. Going from a 1-2ft tall ILM model to a 6ft tall version is a big difference.



My two cents:

For a 6ft tall AT-AT you're basically talking about a body section the size of a trash can (turned horizonal). Pretty much anything other than low-density styrofoam or a hollow foam-board construction will be heavy at that size.

I assume you would be making the legs/feet/hips movable (by hand) so the whole thing is pose-able.

You should use metal for the legs & leg joints. Make them decidedly strong/heavy at the bottom and then start lightening things as it goes up. Make the head & body as light as practical. Plan on using high-quality tight pivots for the feet/legs/hips. The lower the joint, the more weight it's gonna be holding and the more important it is for the pivots not to wobble. This whole creation (well, at least the detailed exterior) will be fragile enough that you won't want to take any chances of it toppling over by accident.


If it's really gonna be this big, you might wanna build in a quick-release method for taking the legs off. Storing & transporting the thing, repairs, etc. (Remember the lower legs & feet will be heavy compared to the body.) The release point doesn't necessarily need to be right at any of the crucial pivot points. Each pair of legs (front/rear) could be mounted on its own "truck" (think: skateboard wheels) with the 2 trucks being removable from the main body.


Another thought: You might wanna put hard "stops" on the joints and limit their range of motion to only where they should be able to go. Stability, ease of set up, etc.

Thanks for the input! I like the idea of having a quick release system and having the wheels for mobility, im definitely going try to keep the weight of the body as light as possible.