by James D Farrow

This scene represents my interpretation of the story of the Three Wise Men who followed the Star of Bethlehem to the place Jesus was born, if it had taken place in the Star Wars universe. The only changes really are that the Three Wise Men are riding in AT-ATs instead of on camels and it takes place on a Mars-like planet.

I constructed the base using styrofoam and plaster. It is 36" wide by 18" deep by 24" high. It was more or less done by just making rocks and rock formations and cracks using the plaster and gluing it to the styrofoan sheets. Didn't have a plan really, just went with the flow and stopped when it looked realatively good to me.

The base was painted using Delta Ceramcoat acrylic paint. It was all painted "Flat Black" as the base coat. For the backdrop stars I used the old "toothbrush trick" (ie, spattering paint by running a finger across the top of an old toothbrush) with white and a little green, yellow, etc… The main star was done with a stencil I cut out of cardboard. The rest of the backdrop and base was then given a wetbrushing of "Red Iron Oxide". Then I wetbrushed "Fire Red" on top of that. Then I added some white to the "Fire Red" to lighten it and gave it a final drybrushing.

The AT-ATs were built OOB and were not difficult. Actually, I had one old MPC kit which went together better than the other two AMT/Ertl newer repops. I guess the molds are starting to really wear out and it shows in the fit of the parts. All painting was done with Delta Ceramcoat acrylic paint. The first base coat was done with "Storm Grey". Then I wetbrushed "Dolphin Grey" on top of that, followed by wet/drybrushed ""Drizzle Grey" on top of that. Then I drybrushed "White" as the final highlighting coat. The gun barrels were painted "Gun Metal".

Image: Larger view

Image: Stage right

Image: Stage left