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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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Had a productive weekend on the old papercraft front. I managed to get the AT-ATs and AT-STs done... well, mostly. I promised that I would take some pictures as I built them, so here is the progression of my build. (sorry for the quality of the photos)
I began with the AT-ATs. The body consists of two long rectangular prisms, This serves as the frame for the body, so this is a good place to start. Here is the top portion.
I've been using my new embossing stylus for making the folds. I really like this tool! If you are unfamiliar with it, it is basically a "pen" that has a ball on the end of it. This crimps the paper and allows you to fold it on that line. You can also do this by scoring it lightly with your cutter, but it leaves behind a white score mark. Here is a picture of it in action
Just fold along the lines and apply glue to the tabs. I usually do all the edging before I apply any glue. I think this gives cleaner results. For this part of the model, most of it is hidden inside the body, the only visible part is the neck. So I didn't bother edging the whole thing.
The bottom frame is much like this. Folds up like a box
Note on glue. I mentioned in a prior post that I was worried about the glue that I bought. So far, I am happy with it. It seems to set pretty quickly. The key is to not put on too much. After I apply glue, I always use a toothpick to scrape excess away, leaving a light film. This allow it to set much faster. I've heard really good things about Zip-Dry glue, but I think I am going to stick with this stuff because it is non-toxic.
Next step, legs. This consists of the main leg support, and the back sides of the legs. You just need to glue the backs on and fold it up.
The feet get folded out and done. This actually highlights another benefit of the embossing stylus, if I were to use my knife to make the fold lines on the feet, I would actually need to score it on the back. The problem, of course, is that you can't see the fold line. The the embossing stylus, you can fold it in either direction.
Next I folded up the body sections. I generally took an assembly line approach here and folded up all the like parts before moving on to the next part.
The heads come next. Basically just folds up like another box.
At this point, I took a break for the day and left everything to set good and strong before I put the parts together. The following day I started the assembly. First, attach the bottom "frame" to the leg support.
Then do the same for the top "frame" that has the neck and head support.
At this point I did the body. I think it is wiser to put the body on before the head, because you will need to get your fingers in there to hold it while the glue sets, and this can accidentally dislodge the head. The body assembly is a two part process. First, there is a tab on the front that gets glued to the frame.
I did that for each of the bodies and waited a bit because you want this bond to be set before you move on. The last step is to glue on the back of the body to the back flaps of the two frames.
The last step is the head. This glues at two places, the bottom and to the flaps that I created on the back.
Done!
Now the AT-ST. This one is a bit more fiddly because some of the flaps are much smaller. I begin with the body section. This basically folds up like a box
The little flap sticking up is the neck. I am leaving this for now and moving on to the head. I want the body to be good and set before I mess with the neck. The head is just another box:
Now the neck, by far the hardest part of this model. The sections are small. I find that toothpicks are helpful in getting the parts to fold properly. Essentially, it is just another box that has some additional flaps hanging off.
(hmm guess I didn't take a picture of it finished)
Now put the head on:
At this point I am stopping because I am going to go back am fiddle with the legs a bit. The legs on this model are bent at almost 90 degrees. I would prefer that that angle was larger. I think that it will not only make it more stable, but it is more accurate to how the AT-ST actually stands
So, for now at least, these guys are going to have to be ankle biters.
Here are all the forces assembled
Next step: Rebel Snowspeeders!
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