Space …

While a large box of parts can produce some very impressive models, not every SF model has to be huge. When I was putting together a collection of models for a diorama to be shown at the UK’s National Space Centre in Leicester in November 2011 I made this model of a Scout Walker quite quickly. Otherwise known as an AT-ST, Wikipedia says that

Star Wars guidebooks describe the AT-ST as a “reconnaissance or defensive vehicle [that] is lightweight and built for speed.” Other people simply knew it as a mechanical chicken!

It was of course one of the small and fast personnel transports used by the Empire’s forces.

No, it didn’t walk! That would have been quite a challenge in that scale. But a great addition (I actually built two versions) to the diorama.

Of course, I’m not the only person to make “Star Wars” vehicles in Meccano!

Laurent Chaté, a French modeller from Brittany in France has produced this excellent model of a “Sandcrawler”  (large, slow, tracked vehicles, used as self-propelled bases for mining squads. Most notable example of usage of these vessels, later adapted by Jawas for their mobile homes, was on Tatooine, where bulky sandcrawlers climbing the dunes were a common sight. – from http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sandcrawler)

More details of this great model can be found at:
http://www.la-roue-tourne.fr/index.php/le-meccano/mes-modeles/9-meccano/mes-modeles/185-star-wars-sandcrawler

Of course, some models just have to be large to do them justice. One of my friends from the Sheffield Meccano Guild built a model of the AT AT walker, the elephant-like Imperial Troop Carrier some years ago, so I just had to have a go at that.

He kindly loaned my his photos, and I set to work. This is my version: then it seemed only right to build one of the Snow Speeders that bravely fought these behemoths on behalf of the Rebel Alliance, and then a gun turret cropped up as well.

Put these all together in front of a poster-sized print of the Jungfrauglacier on a base of

polystyrene “snow” and you have yourself a Star Wars diorama!

Of course, it wouldn’t be Star Wars without the space ships, so here are a couple of suitably menacing TIE Fighters – one in standard mode and the other a streamlined fighter.

Will there be more? almost certainly. I’ve got to try an X-Wing, maybe a Y-Wing – and then there’s the Imperial Star Destroyer …

Assuming a TIE Fighter (which they carried) is 1″ Across (which is about as small as I can manage) then it will be about 15 feet long – transport may be a problem!