Empire Strikes Back Diorama (Battle of Hoth) **Completed**

[skahtul]

The holiday season is upon me and I am always lucky enough to have a good amount of time off, what better to spend it than build one of three large diorama projects I have had in my head for some time?

I plan to do one from each of the movies, the Battle of Hoth is the project I plan to start with. The others will involve my yet to be built Bandai PFG Falcon and one of my favorite scenes from Return of the Jedi, more on those later.

First up is a quick look at my first-ever 'diorama'. Not much detail so hopefully I can improve on this first attempt This was painted years ago when I first got back into modeling so lots of room for improvement.

Starting off with two of the recently released MPC AT-AT kits. It's not a bad kit, but it's not awesome. Flashing is pretty minimal but some of the assembly is fiddly. Once build though, it's a great size, much larger than the Bandai kit. I also have the even larger Revell kit, not sure yet what I am doing with that one.

I think we all know where this is going

 

[skahtul]

The Ion Canon and Shield Generator were 3D printed on my Saturn. I make zero claims to accuracy or the correct scale. I researched the scale for about 2 minutes and then threw a percentage into the printer and went for it.

Doing a little research to get the pose right:

 

[skahtul]

I am not normally one to modify kits too much other than adding the occasional after market Photo Etch or 3D-printed part since I pretty much have no idea what I am doing, but I really had to address this plain hole in the back. I make zero claims to accuracy, what follows is 100% random

These are the two offending sections:

These are the victims I found in my leftover sprue collection (mix of Tamiya and bandai parts):

After a bit of hacking:

I ended up with this

 

[Sym-Cha]

You're on your way to a great display skahtul ... you will need to reposition each hip by means of those screws through the hip joints into the body parts :

... in order to get the same stance as seen in this frame :

Also take a closer look on the position of the outer cover platings where the legs connect to the hips ... you have those correct on your Bandai AT-AT

Here's an illustration of the positioning of the hips as well as the cover plating :

Picture courtesy Jun Austria from his Revell AT-AT upgrade W.I.P. blog

Chaïm

 

[Analyzer]

I love the MPC/AMT AT-AT

It may not be as accurate as the Bandai one, but it was one of the best models from the old Star Wars line and still remains one of my favorites

As a side note, I find the Bandai 1/144 Snowspeeders actually look quite good with it.

I think it technically scales out to something like 1/110, but the Bandai Speeders are actually a bit oversized for 1/144 so they are close enough to use for my purposes.

In many ways I kind of prefer the relative size of the Bandai speeders with the MPC AT-AT over their size compared to the Bandai 1/144 AT-AT

In addition, they wind up nearly the exact same size as the Speeders in the AT-At kit, if not slightly bigger. And of course they have much better details

 

[skahtul]

You're on your way to a great display skahtul ... you will need to reposition each hip by means of those screws through the hip joints into the body parts :



... in order to get the same stance as seen in this frame :



Also take a closer look on the position of the outer cover platings where the legs connect to the hips ... you have those correct on your Bandai AT-AT

Here's an illustration of the positioning of the hips as well as the cover plating :


Picture courtesy Jun Austria from his Revell AT-AT upgrade W.I.P. blog

Chaïm

Thanks! good points for sure!

 

[skahtul]

I love the MPC/AMT AT-AT

It may not be as accurate as the Bandai one, but it was one of the best models from the old Star Wars line and still remains one of my favorites

As a side note, I find the Bandai 1/144 Snowspeeders actually look quite good with it.

I think it technically scales out to something like 1/110, but the Bandai Speeders are actually a bit oversized for 1/144 so they are close enough to use for my purposes.

In many ways I kind of prefer the relative size of the Bandai speeders with the MPC AT-AT over their size compared to the Bandai 1/144 AT-AT

In addition, they wind up nearly the exact same size as the Speeders in the AT-At kit, if not slightly bigger. And of course they have much better details

Agreed! I actually have a few of the Bandai Snowspeeders, the third pic in shows the Bandai one next to the one which shipped with this kit in the background. As you said, a bit larger for sure but they look so much better! And yes, I also think the Bandai AT-AT next to the Bandai Snowspeeder looks a bit out of scale.

I started in on this with the intention of knocking out over the holidays but my motivation just has not been awesome for doing much of anything the last little bit. But, I am working on this today and hope to post a few updates. Thanks for looking!

 

[skahtul]

A tiny bit of scratch building, a few clamps to keep it all straight, and now there are two:

*yes, the leg is inside out, it's okay, no leg parts have been glued at this point.

 

[skahtul]

Time to grab some insulation and see what can be done here.

 

[skahtul]

Playing around with a few layouts:

I think we have a winner:

 

[skahtul]

Also, if anyone has thoughts on what I can use for the snow, please chime in. I have some AK and Tamiya Snow Diorama medium and I will use that for the AT-AT's and some of the hights, but it would be way too expensive to cover the entire thing like that.

I normally use mod podge to cover this foam and I was thinking about using that mixed with a bit of sand. I was then going to spray that with slightly textured paint but even that was $16 a can at the local hardware store. Not really that expensive but this type of foam does not usually like spray paint...

Also, I usually use spray adhesive for the foam but even that tends to eat into it. Does anyone ever use constructive adhesive on this foam?

 

[Sym-Cha]

Perhaps you could try Acrylic Gesso or Gesso Primer over your mod podge mix with sand? It should be available in the Art/Hobby department and can be used for all kinds of surfaces . . .

Or why don't you just use plain textured white paint that you brush on ... available in any DIY store?

As for the snow perhaps this:

Chaïm

 

[skahtul]

Perhaps you could try Acrylic Gesso or Gesso Primer over your mod podge mix with sand? It should be available in the Art/Hobby department and can be used for all kinds of surfaces . . .


Or why don't you just use plain textured white paint that you brush on ... available in any DIY store?

As for the snow perhaps this:



Chaïm

Thanks for the great suggestions!

I had actually just read about the brush on textured paint while flipping through one of my modeling magazines today, and they mentioned picking it up at any DIY store also. I went to Home Depot (one of the DIY stores in my area) to get the foam and look for the textured paint. I was not able to find it (other than the spray stuff), I will take a second look as I think that's probably the easiest method.

 

[skahtul]

After sitting down to watch Empire Stikes back tonight, I decided to add a few details and make some changes. I am going to add a small hangar bay with a few snow speeders. Initially, I was going to also put a 1/144 x-wing I have on hand but there is not enough room. I also might go with the kit snow speeders as I can fit a few more in there and you will not really see them anyway. If I put one outside the base, I will use the bandai one.

 

[skahtul]

I have also been struggling to get the 'crashed' AT-AT to look right. It kind of get's lost in the background no matter how I position him. After watching the movie tonight, I think I am going with them both upright. I think it looks much better and adds more depth to the diorama.

 

[JediMichael]

Are they using the same molds feom back in the day?
I have the Return of the Jedi AT-AT where it uses rubberband in the neck.
I believe I ended up finally building it late 2001, or sometime 2002.
Rubber band is very worn out now, so I put some wire on it, but it needs better fixings one of these days.
I also messed up the front left foot/leg and put it on backwards....oops.

 

[Analyzer]

Yeah, the rubber bands were great for the play factor early on, but not a very long term solution as both of mine have broken after a few years

I have also been struggling to get the 'crashed' AT-AT to look right. It kind of get's lost in the background no matter how I position him. After watching the movie tonight, I think I am going with them both upright. I think it looks much better and adds more depth to the diorama.

View attachment 1654052

View attachment 1654053

Composition looks good. It is always a tough choice between getting everything in there and yet leaving enough space to represent the scale of the battle.

It is often a compromise of both that is hardest to come up with

 

[skahtul]

I am not sure if they are the same molds, it does look very similar. I think one of the biggest issues with this and the Revell kit are the panel lines. Would really have liked to see them inset instead...

The neck does use a metal spring now which is one upgrade.

 

[Sym-Cha]

If you'd like some inspiration to upgrade these AT-AT's to become even more screen-used then here are 2 suggestions to explore :

Look for member Moska his thread : Fully improved AT-AT (MPC-ERTL) ... sorry I can't seem to copy/paste a direct link somehow

www.starshipmodeler.com/starwars/jb_atat.htm

Chaïm

 

[skahtul]

If you'd like some inspiration to upgrade these AT-AT's to become even more screen-used then here are 2 suggestions to explore :

Look for member Moska his thread : Fully improved AT-AT (MPC-ERTL) ... sorry I can't seem to copy/paste a direct link somehow


www.starshipmodeler.com/starwars/jb_atat.htm


Chaïm

Thanks, these are some awesome references! I have the larger Revell that I plan to take some more time and maybe add some more accurate details, for these two it's already taking too long

I did 'upgrade' the side guns. The ones in the kit just did not look good. I took some files from another project I plan to print someday and used those guns. Also, since they are brittle I wanted to make it so I could easily remove them.

Yes, one of these is upside down, it's okay as they are only pressure fit.

Decided to mount the shield generator to some styrene to make it a bit more stable when fully assembled.