This little diorama began as a simple project to keep myself occupied while I was undergoing chemotherapy. In the days after each treatment, I would start to get up and around a bit, but was not strong enough to get out or go into work for a few days. Well, there is only so much daytime tv one can take, even if you work at a tv station like I do. So I would slowly work on an X-Wing and the TIE fighters.

It began as just a normal build with the only unusual thing being the markings on the X-Wing. I just get so tired of every X-Wing being marked as Red/Rogue Squadron. There have to be more X-Wing squadrons in the rebellion right? Well, I got the idea that I would just put all three fighters together, and a friend suggested I have the TIE's taking out the X-Wing. I thought it was a great idea.

I began to dammage the X-Wing with a combination of pastels, my hobby knife and a lighter. The explosion was made with expanding insulation foam, and after finishing it I was told about a way to make it look much better, but after six months of working on this I was ready to be done and will just carry that knowledge on to a future project. I also put in a couple of painted pieces of clear rod held up with a wire to simulate another shot comming in from the pursuing TIE. Just so things arent totally one-sided, I did put a scortch mark on the underside of one of the TIEs, so the X-Wing did mannage to get in a grazing shot.

Looking at how things ended up, I can picture the exact situation this diorama captures. An X-Wing pilot gets cut off from the rest of his squadron and is pursued by a pair of TIEs. The Rebel attempts to loose the Imperial fighters by skimming the surface of their Star Destroyer, but the Imperial pilots are just too good. They manage to hit him with more than a few glancing shots and just as he pulls up to try to make a break for open space, they get in the kill shot. Empire-1 Rebellion-0.

Image: From above

Image: TIE fighters

Image: X-Wing left side

Image: Laser bolts