Sonata's AT-AT

[Sonata]

I've always loved AT-ATs. Ever since I first saw The Empire Strikes Back when I was little. As a result, I got this crazy idea - how cool would it be to have a little AT-AT running around the house? I harbored this idea for a while, but decided to pursue it a) when I had more time, and b) when I had a better grasp on how to engineer a robotic walker.

Requirements a and b have been fulfilled, so I just dove right in!

A company called fascinations has a line of tiny sheet metal Star Wars figures, one of which being an AT-AT. I had already bought one and assembled it for my father (and it now sits proudly with his clone trooper and R2), so I decided to buy another one, scan it, enlarge it, and then base the simple frame off of it. Other than a few mistakes made on my part in enlarging, changing, and improving the blueprints to be fabricated in styrene (rather than metal), it's worked fantastically.

I decided to start with the head, so I pulled the pieces of the metal model I needed, broke them apart, worked some photoshop magic to turn them into blueprints, and voila! I was able to cut all of the base pieces of the head:

[Sonata]

Moving on from cutting the head base, I taped it together to see how the pieces fit:



The pieces fit pretty tightly together, and due to the trapezoids of various sides there's a fair bit of tension on the side panels, which want to spring out or collapse inward, depending on the corner you're looking at.

I'm holding off on gluing until I can get the bigger head details made and mounted, and work out what panel(s) will need to be removable to put electronics in there.

[kresty]

I've always loved AT-ATs. Ever since I first saw The Empire Strikes Back when I was little. As a result, I got this crazy idea - how cool would it be to have a little AT-AT running around the house?

Seems like a cool idea

[pakrat77]

I'm holding off on gluing until I can get the bigger head details made and mounted, and work out what panel(s) will need to be removable to put electronics in there.

I've got the back of K9's head screwed on...
I drilled holes in a couple 1/8" styrene squares and glued nuts to them, then glued those just inside where the back plate attaches. I'll post some pics later if you think it would help.

[kresty]

Any updates? This project got started, but is it "headed" anywhere?