by Joachim van den Heuvel

The escape from the Space Slug in the Empire Strikes Back is the subject of my diorama. It's my way to honor the rubber handpuppet that was used to such good effect in the movie. It is designed to be photographed the way it can be seen in the poorly lit picture (lit from the left side only with a daylight bulb). That way it resembles the scene from the movie somewhat.

The base is a 55 x 68 cm. piece of plywood with a hole in the middle. The core of the asteroid cliff is foam. I used a foam cutter to avoid a huge mess. The core is covered with a thick layer of plaster, with all the detail chisled out. The creature is made from a foam core covered with DAS clay. Some detailing has been done while the clay was drying, some has been added afterwards. Teeth have been made from toothpicks. For reference I have used the movie of course, as well as some internet resources and the Lucasfilm archives book.

The base and creature have been brushpainted with acrylics.

The Falcon is made from a 6mm long piece of styrene. It is not very detailed, just the basic shape and some pencil-detailing to give it a little depth. It is attached to the creatures tongue by a small brass wire painted black with blue painted accents added to create the blue light seen when Han and Chewie are accelerating.

Image: Tiny morsel

Image: Slug, right side

Image: Diorama, from left side

Image: From above