by Brad Guy

I've had the idea for a snowspeeder diorama bouncing around in my skull for a long time now, and the announcement of Starship Modeler's Star Wars contest moved it to the top of the To-Do pile. Originally I just wanted to build an old Ertl kit I've had in the pile for several years and display it in a simple trench setting. About the time this contest was announced, Ertl re-released a number of kits, including the Incom T-47 Air Speeder. I glanced at it and said to myself, "Eh, what would I do with two snowspeeders?" The answer immediately leaped to mind. The rebellion is running on old, used up, surplus equipment. The T-47's had to be modified to operate in Hoth's frigid environment. I'll bet they had a lot of trouble keeping them running at all. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see one of them, stalled behind the lines with a dead battery, needing a jump start. The result is what you see.

I started with the turbolaser cannon. The Art of Empire Strikes Back has an excellent set of drawings, which were used to make the full sized set piece. There were enough dimensions visible on the drawings to allow me to scale them to 1:24th. The entire gun is made from sheet styrene, some PVC pipe, and aluminum tube.

This was actually the part of the diorama I spent the most time on, and I'm very happy with the way it turned out. It was painted with Testors enamel flat black, and drybrushed with gunship grey and light ghost grey. There is an open access panel on the right side, with a detailed interior, but I couldn't get any of the pictures to turn out, so I left them out. You'll see it at Wonderfest.

The snowspeeders were both heavily modified, starting with the cockpits. The kit's instrument panels had the right shape, but the details were all wrong. I sanded off all the details and replaced them with different inaccurate detail. At least they're more accurate than the originals. I resculpted the seats, and added harnesses and buckles. I watched the battle of Hoth scene over and over again in slo-mo, pausing frequently. This allowed me to make drawings of the side panels and other interior details, which I then scratchbuilt. The left side panels and gunner's station are a lot more accurate than the kit parts, but the right side panels are still pretty much guess work. Oddly, you never see how the pilots steer the air speeders. All you can tell is that they are holding some kind of yoke, below camera level. So I built a generic looking steering yoke. The interiors were painted and drybrushed with acrylics, to give them a dusty, well worn feel.

The Lucasfilm Archives book has a picture of one of the hero filming miniatures with a couple of the panels taken off on the right side. I chose to replicate this miniature as closely as I could for the broken down speeder. The guts of the speeder were built from sheet styrene, some scale perf stock I made, some wire and solder, and little greeblies off old tank models. I made the support girders from Evergreen stock and sheet styrene, and a ton of dry-fitting. I also had to find a place for the "12 volt car batteries", and under the front hood seemed like as good an idea as any. So I cut away the front panel, and built up a nice looking interior. I made new hoods from sheet styrene, and the grills are made from H.O. scale photoetched venetian blinds. The jumper cables are 22 gauge wire, with bits of Evergreen strip stock for the clips.

All the panel lines were sanded off and re-scribed to match one of several different filming miniatures. The step revetments were hollowed out and boxed in, and holes were drilled into the one open airbrake armature. The plastic around the open panel areas was too thick, so I cut the openings too wide, and boxed in around them with .010" sheet styrene. The guns were detailed with evergreen strip, and the gun barrels were replaced with aluminum tube. The front panels for the gun placements were entirely rebuilt. I scratchbuilt the canopy hinges based on drawings from The Art Of Empire Strikes Back, and glazed the canopies with .010 clear plastic.

Both models were painted with Model Master enamels, mostly camouflage grey, with different shades of ghost grey and flat white for various panels. The heat exchangers were painted with dark anodonic grey and buffed shiny. The orange stripes and interior panels were painted by mixing red and yellow Testors until I thought it looked right. I did not clear coat the model before giving it an oil wash, because I wanted the oil paint to stain the surface and give it a well worn look. This was a big risk, and I'm glad it turned out like I'd hoped. Decals were added from the old kit, the new one didn't have any. Paint scratches and blaster marks were made by scraping the surface with an X-acto blade, my fingernail, sandpaper, lifting paint with scotch tape, and drybrushing with enamels and pastel chalks. A final coat of clear flat lacquer, and the kits were done.

The dio base was made from high density pink insulation foam, coated with drywall spackle. The walls of the trench were made from used kitchen matches I've been saving for six months for just this purpose. The drywall spackle was painted with Krylon white primer while it was still wet, and Woodland Scenics snow was sprinkled on while the paint was still wet. The pictures were taken before the dio base had dried, using a Sony Mavica in direct sunlight. I know you're supposed to use indirect sunlight, but I wanted to capture the same look that the battle of Hoth had, a cold, sunny day.

Image: Turbolaser tower

Image: Detail on left side speeder

Image: Battery compartment

Image: Ride side detail

Image: Cockpit