UCS AT-AT : Beside Myself...

Given my track record I'd be willing to bet that you weren't expecting another UCS AT-AT posting so soon; hell, it's barely 3 weeks since I posted the last update. Having moved things along nicely last time out by wrapping up the AT-AT's head, however, I had the bit between my teeth and decided to press on.

I've now built all four legs, the body, the head and the neck, so all that's left to construct is the outer shell which covers the body. This consists of left and right sides plus a roof to top it off. On the surface it sounds like I'm on the home straight, but when you consider that each side consists of over 700 pieces, I've still got the best part of 2,000 pieces to put together so I guess I shouldn't start counting my chickens quite yet.

You can see a screenshot of the LDD file for the left side of the body above; LDD has a useful feature which outlines all the bricks in a virtual build, but this capability unfortunately hasn't been available to me since I 'upgraded' to the latest version of Apple's Mac operating system - Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.2). The left side of the AT-AT thus appears as a largely homogenous, ugly and uninformative grey wall across my screen when viewed in LDD. The lack of brick outlines also extends to the building guide generated by LDD which makes it harder to see how the different pieces fit together on the building guide - not good.

LDD's building guide generator took a good few minutes to generate the instructions, ultimately spitting out more than 200 building steps after cogitating for what seemed like ages. Same old same old, however - similar to previous sections, just a few steps into the build I found myself staring at multiple sub-assemblies and loose parts floating in mid air (below). This is fine if you're building in zero G, but not so convenient if like me you're subject to the usual laws of Earthly gravity.

Thankfully it's pretty obvious where all the floating bits and pieces eventually fit when the time comes to attach them, and after 64 steps I'd finished the rear-most section of the AT-AT's left side (picture below - click to enlarge) which has a typically nice greebled look to it. It was at times a challenge to prevent it from falling apart during the build, but it all came together OK in the end. This fragility would come back to haunt me later, however, as you'll discover in due course....

Steps 65 to 95 deal with the construction of the front-most section of the left side (below - click to enlarge). It's largely an exercise in stacking plates and topping them off with tiles, in marked contrast to the completed rear-most section which is predominantly brick-built. It's a fairly quick, straightforward build and thankfully pretty stable

Next up was the structure which under-hangs the large central section; this is rapidly dispatched in just 18 building steps, and then it's on to the central section itself. With a width of 24 studs and a height of more than 19 bricks, this is a somewhat time-consuming build but not particularly difficult. The LDD-generated building guide rather blots its copybook at times with a bizarre sequencing of building steps, such that if you were to follow them to the letter you'd frequently have to back-track and remove pieces you'd already placed in order to proceed with the build. Thankfully, however, it's pretty obvious how everything fits together and hard to go too far wrong.

Once the central section is completed, the lower, under-hanging portion attaches to the bottom via nine 1 x 2 hinges; these hold it firmly in place while allowing it to be positioned at the appropriate angle relative to the body, and you can see the results below (click pictures to enlarge).

Having completed the three different sections making up the left side of the body shell, and with only the job of joining them together remaining, I figured I was moments away from finishing this bit of the job. How wrong I was.... The first inkling I had that things wouldn't be quite so straightforward was while building the two structures below (click to enlarge). These are part of the central section, and it's to these 'linking structures' that the front and rear sections attach, thus knitting everything together. They're pretty simple, basically just consisting of a bunch of 3 x 2 slopes mounted on a couple of plates, and topped off with a load of hinge bases.

Anyway, for reasons I couldn't quite fathom, placing the slopes on the plates caused them to warp, so much so that the linking structures bore more than a passing resemblance to a couple of light bluish grey bananas. Even aside from any aesthetic concerns, this meant that I couldn't get them to attach securely on either side of the central section, which in turn meant that they were unable to support the weight of the front and rear sections. The problem was compounded by the connections between the central section and these linking structures being quite weak anyway, and this was particularly and infuriatingly evident when trying to attach the fragile rear section. Cue about an hour of cursing and frustration, characterised by the following cycle : (1) carefully and painstakingly attach the fragile rear section to the central section via the relevant linking structure, (2) fragile rear section immediately falls off and smashes, (3) rebuild fragile rear section, (4) apply pressure in order to try and re-attach rear section to central section more securely than before, (5) application of pressure causes fragile rear section to break apart in my hands, (6) rebuild fragile rear section again, (7) jump back to step (1) and repeat ad infinitum..... Gradually I was forced into making a few modifications which somewhat reduced the warping of the rear linking structure at least and also increased the clutch between the central section and the linking structures.

Eventually, and with a massive sigh of relief, I successfully attached the front and rear sections to the central section, and they stayed put. I was even able to move the whole completed build across the room and on to a black sheet so I could photograph it (picture below - click to enlarge). You don't have to look particularly hard to see that the join between the front section and central section in particular is not as tight as it should be, but I didn't dare apply any more pressure for fear of triggering the above cycle again, albeit at the front rather than the back....

So that's left side finished, and thank God for that. I'll obviously be able to apply what I've learned when I build the right side, so that should be polished off a lot quicker, and then the only section I'll have left to build is the roof. At this stage I don't even dare to think about what it'll be like trying to join all the sections together into the final completed AT-AT, but I know it's possible - I've seen the completed model "in the flesh" - and it's that which sustains me through all the trials and tribulations. Well, that, and also the knowledge that having spent hundreds and hundreds of pounds on this project, not to mention countless hours, if I fail you'll all give me tons of grief and wind me up mercilessly. That's also pretty motivating...

For the record, that's another 720 pieces down, meaning that I've now used up 5,149 of the pieces. Which means I have only a little over a thousand pieces left to go.

Before I go, just a reminder that if anyone wants a copy of the LDD files for this beast, please get in touch and I'll forward your details on to the AT-AT's designer Pete (cavegod).

< -- Building the AT-AT : Part 7                                    Building the AT-AT : Part 9 -- >

UCS AT-AT : Heady Days

Can it really be two months since I last posted about the UCS AT-AT ? Amazing how times flies. Anyway, having been distracted by a bunch of stuff, not least the small matter of Christmas, it was time to dust off the AT-AT and dive back in.

Those who've been following along will hopefully recall that last time I posted an update (here) I was already well into the build. I'd finished building the legs, body and neck of the beast, and had embarked upon the head, which I'd rather rashly assumed would be pretty straightforward. The head is made up of a number of sub-assemblies (LDD screen grab below - click to enlarge) which are knitted together at the end.

I'd got as far as completing the left side of the head prior to taking my vacation from the Kuat Drive Yards, and I was soon back into the swing of things, quickly polishing off the right side of the head, complete with lateral cannon. Externally, the left and right sides of the head are mirror images of each other (picture below - click to enlarge), but there are some differences on their inner surfaces; I initially assumed that the differences were deliberate, but having checked with AT-AT designer Pete it appears that there are a few pieces missed off the LDD rendition of the left side of the head. Furthermore, it turns out that some of the omissions are more than just cosmetic - their absence causes problems when it's time to join up all the sections to complete the head - so if you're building your own AT-AT (and I know that a few of you are) then you'll need to bear this in mind. It's thankfully pretty obvious which parts you need, but if you're having trouble figuring it out then get in touch and I'll provide the details.

Once the sides of the head were complete it was time to build the floor section (picture below). The sides of the head attach to this structure via a pair of heavy-duty brick-built brackets which pivot by way of a combination of axles and hinges in order to produce the correct angles. In addition, the two main forward-facing guns and a bunch of interesting greebled sections (more of which later) are slung underneath; the front and roof also attach to this section, as eventually will the AT-AT's previously-completed neck section, so this really is a key part of the build.

The last piece of the jigsaw is the front and roof section (below - click to enlarge). The front is deceptively complex and quite fragile; the AT-AT's windscreen is comprised of seven trans red cheese slopes mounted on hinges and sandwiched above and below by tiled sections which are themselves also mounted on hinges. Quite a bit of tweaking is required to get all the angles right, and God forbid you press too hard on the structures while adjusting them or else the whole windscreen section has a tendency to collapse on you and it's back to the start....

Combining the various sub-assemblies to create the AT-AT's head was a lot more challenging than I had expected, and it required some texts to Pete plus a bunch of coaxing, tweaking and adjusting to get it right. At the most basic level, all you have to do is attach the left and right sides to the brick-built brackets, adjust the brackets so that the sides are angled correctly to recreate the AT-AT head's geometry, drop in the front and roof section, and finally join the sides together inside the head by way of an elastic band which helps to ensure that the sides don't sag outwards under their own weight. It sounds fairly straightforward, but the job of positioning the sides, front and roof correctly to avoid leaving gaping gaps between the sections while simultaneously trying not to dislodge or destroy anything had me cursing in frustration. All that having been said, you can see the final result below (click to enlarge) and I reckon it was well worth the effort....

You can take a peek inside the AT-AT's head below; of note, you can see the attachment of the elastic band mentioned previously which runs inside the head from one side to the other and firmly holds the sides at the correct angle. It's not an official LEGO elastic band, but should I have an attack of guilt at some point and feel an irresistible urge to use only 100% official LEGO parts in the model I believe that there's a suitable LEGO-manufactured alternative available...

The underside of the head (below) is definitely worth a closer look. I think it's almost insectile in appearance with its multitude of striations, projections and structures, and I love the way that parts are used in unusual ways to create the desired effects; the main guns, for instance, are made up of a mish-mash of Technic gears and connectors, cones, barrels and the like. It's testament to Pete's attention to detail that what you can see in the picture below is in fact almost hidden from view in the finished AT-AT unless you're willing to lie on your back, shimmy underneath the model and stare upwards....

You can see the head from above in the picture below. The front and roof section attaches to the rest of the head via just four studs right at the front which means it needs careful handling once installed or else it can become detached quite easily; the roof simply rests on the upper surfaces of the sides of the head. One of the most impressive aspects is how snugly the different sections fit together, leaving minimal gaps between them.

So that's the head done, then, meaning that I'm now a total of 4,429 pieces into the build and have less than 1,800 to go. All I've got left to do now is put some skin over the bare bones of the AT-AT's body, so the end is definitely in sight. I'll crack on with the final sections and post an update when I've made further progress.

< -- Building the AT-AT : Part 6                                       Building the AT-AT : Part 8 -->