by Phil McNaughton

It is legal to build a diorama without an X-Wing or the Death Star, right? I call this scene “Splitting Headache,” since the AT-AT is going to need some aspirin in the very near future. The little Jawas set the trap by balancing the rock on the ledge, and placing some explosives underneath. They are about to blow the explosives and spring the trap on the poor AT-AT. I almost modeled the rock falling, but decided the anticipation would be more interesting than the actual act. A crazy and perhaps comical scene, but my mind works in strange ways.

Construction began with the newest ERTL release of the AT-AT kit, built straight from the box. I wanted to paint it something other than gray, so I experimented until I found the yellowish shade. The story developed from there. The base comes from an awards plaque, while the mountain side is built with a mixture of plastic sheet and spackling. The rock is also made of spackling. I almost used a real rock, but feared that if it ever did fall, the AT-AT really would lose its head. The figures started as N scale railroad people, with some putty to get the Jawa shape. I don’t think it is easy to make 3 foot tall aliens in 1/100 scale. The entire diorama was painted with Tamiya acrylics.

This model marks quite a few “firsts” for me. These include:

• -my first Star Wars kit (completed one anyway)
• -my first diorama
• -my first airbrushed model
• -my first contest entry

I had a lot of fun building this. It was a great learning experience, and a stepping stone to greater modeling projects.

Image: AT-AT

Image: The trap, about to spring

Image: Jawas

Image: Overall

Image: Rear view