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

[skahtul]

Time for a little scratch building. I wanted to add some additional details to the ion canon so I broke out my favorite wire and some styrene. I also drilled out the gun so that I could easily remove it.

I also found some better canons online that I really liked. It's hard to tell as the resin is black but there are a lot more details on these than on the kit ones. The ones that come with the kit have decals for some of the deatil where these have it modled in which I much prefer.

 

[skahtul]

Time to address the hangar and embarrass myself with more scratch building

Nothing fancy here, just a razer blade and some files/rasps to dig it all out and add some texture.

It could be fun to do a Godzilla mashup here, giant rancor running across the planet Hoth wrecking AT-AT's

Wired up all the LED's. I plan to have the battery and wiring hidden inside of the ion canon.

Hard to tell from this picture but I applied a light grey to the hangar. I will eventually weather it up a bit and add some snow to the back walls.

 

[skahtul]

It's time to finally address the AT-ATs. First up is some black primer. When I am priming things with this many nooks and crannies I like to go black so I can actually tell what I have primed.

These are the poses I plan to use, if anything looks out of place or strange, speak up now!

 

[edge10]

I don't think any two knees should be bent at the same time.

Otherwise, good work so far!

 

[skahtul]

I don't think any two knees should be bent at the same time.

Otherwise, good work so far!

Thanks, and good call. Maybe something more like this.

 

[JediMichael]

Looking good.....
Now imagine the Empire painted these completely black and made a night raid....oh the terror.....

 

[skahtul]

Looking good.....
Now imagine the Empire painted these completely black and made a night raid....oh the terror.....

Seriously Every time I prime something or paint some other kit a non-traditional star wars color, I can't help but think, what would a black, blue and red falcon look like, or a chrome TIE fighter, or a bright yellow and grey Slave-1, or a black AT-AT... Maybe one day I will be brave enough to give it a try

 

[JediMichael]

Something about chrome is always really cool. Always fun to see those older ships painted that way, since it couldn't be done like that due to blue screen reflection messing it all up.

 

[Analyzer]

Looking good. Love the base hangar

 

[modelerdave]

This is fantastic. The hangar is gorgeous.

 

[Sym-Cha]

Nice work sofar . . . yet you still have not addressed the correct position of each of those outer cover platings, where the legs connect to the hips :

Picture courtesy Phil Tippett/ILM - Lucasfilm Ltd.

These are those outer cover platings :

... and those slots are positioned in accordance with the position of each leg movement, not at random ... see video and all research pictures

Chaïm

 

[joberg]

So far so good To remove foam fast I use a soldering iron. Careful with the fumes: mask + good aeration is a must

 

[skahtul]

Thanks,

So far so good To remove foam fast I use a soldering iron. Careful with the fumes: mask + good aeration is a must

Thanks, and agreed! I have also been looking for a good hot wire knife. The one I bought at the local 'hobby' store died on first try.

 

[skahtul]

Nice work sofar . . . yet you still have not addressed the correct position of each of those outer cover platings, where the legs connect to the hips :


Picture courtesy Phil Tippett/ILM - Lucasfilm Ltd.

These are those outer cover platings :



... and those slots are positioned in accordance with the position of each leg movement, not at random ... see video and all research pictures

Chaïm

Agreed!

I am getting closer. I think this is just about my final pose. I gathered up some of my references and ran through a few of the videos. I still need to do some triple checking but it's pretty close I think.

Also started to lay down the SP Lettering Grey. I am still undecided if I am going to glue these legs in position or not. They are pretty tight but it's going to be much harder to get everything weathered and put in place with the legs moving about.

 

[Sym-Cha]

Don't glue those legs, please ... we've been waiting for these former MPC AT-AT's with all 4 moveable legs, heck I even altered one of my MPC AT-AT's with moveable hind legs ... and once in a while that AT-AT tumbles forward when the house shakes, due to heavy traffic or mild earthquackes ... and so I have to reposition the AT-AT and hope the rubber band inside doesn't snap (again) ... lucklily these new Round2 AT-AT's have a spring inside their neck to hold their heads ... skahtul just mind those knee-caps they should be more level with the horizon, not vertical :

Picture courtesy ILM/Lucasfilm Ltd.

Chaïm

 

[skahtul]

Don't glue those legs, please ... we've been waiting for these former MPC AT-AT's with all 4 moveable legs, heck I even altered one of my MPC AT-AT's with moveable hind legs ... and once in a while that AT-AT tumbles forward when the house shakes, due to heavy traffic or mild earthquackes ... and so I have to reposition the AT-AT and hope the rubber band inside doesn't snap (again) ... lucklily these new Round2 AT-AT's have a spring inside their neck to hold their heads ... skahtul just mind those knee-caps they should be more level with the horizon, not vertical :


Picture courtesy ILM/Lucasfilm Ltd.

Chaïm

That's probably a good call, I was thinking of maybe just putting something on the bottom of the feet to anchor it a bit better into the foam.

On this particular version of the kit, the knee cap joints are fixed so you can't rotate them. Knees move of course but the 'cap' is molded into the plastic.

 

[Sym-Cha]

Ah ... I had to check my vintage MPC AT-AT's and yes those knee-caps are molded too ... You could always use double-sided tape or something sticky to anker those feet temporarily. Just do add additional foot-prints in the snow behind those AT-AT's beforehand

Chaïm

 

[skahtul]

Time for my favorite part of any build, weathering! I started with taping off some of the panels and airbrushing some hightlights.

I am not going for any particular AT-AT, just a general mixture of all the reference images that I have access to:

Starting in on the second AT-AT:

 

[skahtul]

Using one of my new favorite weathering tools, the watercolor pencils from AK Interactive to add some streaking and snow:

Here the are, pretty much finsihed up:

In a tribute to ILM, I only weathered the side you actually see

 

[skahtul]

I am still trying to wrap my head around weathering something as small as these Snowspeeders. I used some small wooden sticks to build up the back of them so that they had the right stance in the hangar (so that they were not leaning forward as the don't come with any kind of landing gear):

I decided to hollow out the Ion Canon so that I could fit all the electronics into the sphere. I also decided to add a switch on the back.