Construction: AT-AT, part 8

The weather was slightly annoying today.

Set up and pack up time has been taking big chunks out of building time, so anything that can be done to reduce that is welcomed. Plus there's a slight worry that if I'm taking screws in and out repeatedly, it's only a matter of time before things start to become a bit loose and eventually no longer hold together.

To save taking the legs on and off all the time, I decided to...well, leave them on. This creates a bit of a problem (beyond the assault course that now exists to use the washing machine) in that getting it outside to work on requires two people. It's also not a particularly quick thing to do. Faster than taking all the bits out individually and assembling each time, but still not exactly speedy.

So when the weather spends all day alternating between brilliant sunshine and downpours, decisions have to be made about where exactly is the best place to work on it: outside with the constant threat of having to move it in quickly, or inside which requires climbing over, under and around.

What I'm saying is: the photos aren't brilliant.

First quick job for the day: the sort-of undercarriage bit aka 'where the legs are supposed to attach'. It Two circles, joined together. Make two. Ta da!

Screw onto side of AT-AT...

Next was starting work on the leg coverings, to fatten them up a little and make them look a bit more 'AT-AT leg' like.

Not having any cardboard long enough to do the entire leg, I had to do it in two sections and then glue them together.

Top:

Bottom (including circular 'knee' and flaps to wrap around the sides of the leg):

Combined:

Since they have to slot around the existing legs, I used the undercarriage bits as a guide - drawing on them where the woods comes, removing them from the AT-AT and copying it onto cardboard. You can see the resulting slot on the picture above.

Next was lots of climbing over and under attaching velcro to the fence post legs and the cardboard coverings to make one stick to the other. I'll get some photos of how exactly I've done this once I can get the thing outside.