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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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Most of the 3D model plans that I am using for Assault on Hoth: The Empire Strikes Back were made my Momir Farooq. You can find his excellent models on his website at http://www.momirfarooq.com/swstarfighter/index.htm. While these are great models, when I made them by first time around I noticed that there were a few spots that could be strengthened a bit. Here are some of my thoughts about possible fixes.
ATST
The ATST is a particularly fragile model. The main problem stems from the connection point between the body and the head. In the body, you fold a little cube "stem" and the head gets glued on that. Here is a picture from the model directions that helps illustrate that. The green X shows the attachment point between the body and head.
I have played around with the geometry of the model so that it is possible to add on 3 more tabs (what I have drawn in red) that would fold out and give it more surface to glue on. I think this will make the head pretty sturdy.
The other change I am going to make is with the feet. Rather than have one foot flap, I am going to have two (what I drew in in green)
ATAT
The ATAT isn't really a fragile model, but there are a few weak joins. Here is a picture from the model directions. I've numbered the "problem" areas.
1. The head attaches pretty securely to the bottom part I have highlighted in green. The problem is that the back of the head is secured only to a small triangular flap. While I was building them I was constantly having to go back and reglue that flap because any downward pressure on the head causes it to break away. It isn't a big deal because the head is still secure to the body, but it is annoying. So I am going to add 3 flaps that fold out (what I have in red) rather than the one triangle that folds in.
2. The body doesn't have very many anchor points. While I didn't have any problems with it when I was building them, it just seems weak. So one easy fix is to make the flap bigger. Before it was a small triangle. I am changing it to a larger rectangle.
3. The framework of the body consists of two long rectangular prisms. For some reason, the bottom prism has a flap for the body to glue to (what I shaded in green), but the top prism is open. I am adding a flap on this prism so that the body can be glued to it as well (what I have indicated in red).
4. Last, the feet. For the models I made before I didn't even bother making these. First, they are a pain in the neck to cut out and glue on. Second, it would never have been able to be glued to the small hexagon base. I've indicated in green the points where I could glue. It would have not have been very sturdy. The other problem is that only the middle two feet are actually attached to the base. When you do that, though, it leaves the other two feet floating above the board. I didn't like that. I am still not quite sure what I am going to do about it...
The snowspeeder models are pretty good and I don't think I need to modify them at all.
Okay, so next I am going to try to build these as a proof of concept. I'll post the results when I get that done.
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