by Eric Tetangco

The ACAT-2 was used in small numbers in the first years of the Clone Wars. These toughened combat craft were the predecessors to the ubiquitous Republic Gunships. The design was created with critical input from Jango Fett. The conventional Mandalorian ideas for war and combat were more suited to small, quick-response, commando teams, rather than large scale army tactics. Thus, the ACAT-2 was used mostly to support special Republic Commando squads, and the Republic Gunship became the primary assault transport for the regular Clonetrooper army.

The ACAT-2 is a hyperspeed -capable troop transport and support craft. The ship is heavily armored to survive hostile landing zones. A rotating blaster turret is mounted on the bottom of the ship. The large blaster cannons on the turret make up for their mediocre accuracy with pure destructive power. The top of the ship is an open-deck platform for reconnaissance and sniping. Troops can mount their sniper rifles, heavy blasters, or spotting scopes at several built-in stations on the top deck.

I tried to incorporate distinctive Star Wars vehicle elements in this design:

• - tall profile and overall structure of Slave I, with rotating anti-grav wings,
• - round wing tips like the ARC-170
• - smooth look of the Republic era, with no greeblies,
• - alfresco "conning tower" for snipers, spotters, or commanders,
• inspired by the Sand Skiff,
• - window slit for the pilots, like on the AT-AT.

The body of the craft is an epoxy putty shell molded from the inside of a Liquid Plumr bottle.

The engine housing "shoulders" of the ship were made the same way, but from contact lens solution bottle molds. I didn't want to use the bottles themselves, because it's nigh impossible to paint, and I'm a resin molding virgin. I packed the putty into the bottles then cut the bottles off when the putty had set. It was a terrible idea. There were many, many surface voids all over the molded pieces.

I dremelled out the top deck from the heavy brick of epoxy putty I had made, and used a small bit to Dremel the pilot's window slot. I joined the shoulders with JB-Weld and used Magic Sculp to clean up the joints and fill the surface voids.

The anti-grav wings are hand lotion bottles and the turret was pieced together from the knick-knack collection.

After a few sessions of wet sanding and spraying sandable primer, sanding and primer, sanding and primer, I painted the ship with craft store acrylics. I thought about leaving it in a more anime-style clean look, but I like the worn paint-chip look better.

Image: Front/right view

Image: Left/rear