75153 AT-ST modification

[PaulPrime]

On 10/10/2016 at 5:39 PM, Forresto said:

How close do the cheeks stay to the face plate because you moved the hinge from the front to the back? Does the regular gap remain or is it looser?

The hinge is not moved, it is still at the back of the head. We only moved back the support to hold the side plates up. The gap is esentially the same, unless you place two 2x1 tiles and place the wedge plates one stud lower in the face, which reduces the original gap to almost nothing.

I have worked a bit on the top plate while I wait some orders to arrive. Better gap filling and some detailing aded. We have a special guest in the pictures today as she just decided not to move and pose along with the AT-ST.

Look down you two!

The 2x1 tile between the eyes will be substituted by an ingot as soon as I receive it.

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

Your cat seems to be loving these updates as well, that it has to get in on the action (and attention as well)!

[PaulPrime]

She's a true CFOL (Cat Fan Of Lego). Her favorite pieces are the rubber wheels. She loves to get a wheel from the compartiment in my box and take it to play through the corridor. Last time she came back after playing with the wheel in the mouth, climbed to the top of the table and drop the wheel in its correct compartiment (my box has 12 different compartiments). It's good to share this hobby but it's bad to find cat hairs all over my buildings.

[Forresto]

Awww kitty  

Anyways I plan on modifying the neck, chassis, and leg's of my AT-ST to be more accurate. Besides the double seats I feel the head is pretty spot on! No one has shortened the legs yet so I plan on being the first!

Edited October 12, 2016 by Forresto

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

2 hours ago, Forresto said:

No one has shortened the legs yet so I plan on being the first!

The legs are easy to modify for height (even if a complete redesign would be better). I've just taken a full two studs of height out of them merely by connecting the click hinge hip joints lower down on the technic brick they connect to.

Actually, two studs of reduction looks a bit too short. One stud may be better.

Edited October 13, 2016 by BrickMonkeyMOCs

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

7 hours ago, PaulPrime said:

She's a true CFOL (Cat Fan Of Lego). Her favorite pieces are the rubber wheels. She loves to get a wheel from the compartiment in my box and take it to play through the corridor. Last time she came back after playing with the wheel in the mouth, climbed to the top of the table and drop the wheel in its correct compartiment (my box has 12 different compartiments). It's good to share this hobby but it's bad to find cat hairs all over my buildings.

That is one smart kitty 

3 hours ago, Forresto said:

Awww kitty  

Anyways I plan on modifying the neck, chassis, and leg's of my AT-ST to be more accurate. Besides the double seats I feel the head is pretty spot on! No one has shortened the legs yet so I plan on being the first!

 

38 minutes ago, BrickMonkeyMOCs said:

The legs are easy to modify for height (even if a complete redesign would be better). I've just taken a full two studs of height out of them merely by connecting the click hinge hip joints lower down on the technic brick they connect to.

Actually, two studs of reduction looks a bit too short. One stud may be better.

I also suggest that the legs be reposition a smidgen farther from the body; and maybe go even further with implement the inter-leg joint.  In my perspective of the set, it seems the legs are dwarfed by the big head, but placing them further apart would enhance the aesthetics.

[Richpepperell]

The new Rogue One trailer feature a shot of the At St advancing down a street on Jedha. From the looks of the trailer breakdown shots on jedinews.com, the back portion of the hips seem to really oscillate up and down as the AT ST walks.  I'd love to see someone try and work this feature in.  I'll be trying a little leg shortening tonight to see how it looks.

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

2 hours ago, Richpepperell said:

The new Rogue One trailer feature a shot of the At St advancing down a street on Jedha. From the looks of the trailer breakdown shots on jedinews.com, the back portion of the hips seem to really oscillate up and down as the AT ST walks.  I'd love to see someone try and work this feature in.  I'll be trying a little leg shortening tonight to see how it looks.

Achieving that will not only require the inter-leg joint as I mentioned above, but 3-dimensional articulation for the joint thereof, to where they connect to the leg, and at the ankles.  The neck would also need similar articulation to pull off the pose from the trailer. 

[anothergol]

From what I saw it's the whole body that oscillates, thus you really need a ball-joint for the head (which is what the "real one" has)

[Surox]

Looks way better,maybe the at-st looks like that in rogue one

[Richpepperell]

20 hours ago, BrickMonkeyMOCs said:

The legs are easy to modify for height (even if a complete redesign would be better). I've just taken a full two studs of height out of them merely by connecting the click hinge hip joints lower down on the technic brick they connect to.

Actually, two studs of reduction looks a bit too short. One stud may be better.

I've just moved mine one technic hole lower on the brick and I think it makes a big difference to the look of the legs,  The whole thing feels more in proportion now.

 

[strider117]

Great mods all around, thanks Lilme for the Larry Lars link, I will definitely implement that as well as all the others when I get my hands on one of these. Or five... I really love this as a set but honestly a bit confused as to why this was so much more open to modification than the others in the Rogue One line. 

[LiLmeFromDaFuture]

2 hours ago, strider117 said:

Great mods all around, thanks Lilme for the Larry Lars link, I will definitely implement that as well as all the others when I get my hands on one of these. Or five... I really love this as a set but honestly a bit confused as to why this was so much more open to modification than the others in the Rogue One line. 

Well, the AT-ST, unlike the other vehicles in the line, is from the original trilogy (episode 6 ROTJ specifically), which most fans have seen and familiar with.  LEGO has made some dramatic improvements in this installment, but still has their limitations, and as much of the walker's appearance we have in mind, the inaccuracies become easily noticeable.

Also, you are welcome for the links.

On October 10, 2016 at 2:07 PM, PaulPrime said:

Glad to help!

Whoa, a compliment from one of the best builders around. Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.

You are welcome!  It is amazing to witness tremendous ingenuity from many individuals come out of modding the same set!

Edited October 14, 2016 by LiLmeFromDaFuture

[PaulPrime]

On 13/10/2016 at 10:38 PM, Richpepperell said:

I've just moved mine one technic hole lower on the brick and I think it makes a big difference to the look of the legs,  The whole thing feels more in proportion now.

Yes, it's about time to do something with the lower half of the chicken. I have moved the foot one stud back, and shortened the legs two studs. Some other aesthetic changes were made on the ankles and other parts.

Still waiting for my BL orders to arrive to make more updates.

 

[Forresto]

I've finally gotten around to extensively modifying my chicken walker using several of the techniques shown on this thread, largely two pilots and lifting the eyes, as well as some of my own. The under chin of the gun, the saucers, are borrowed from Anothergol's model. My goal was to try and get the model closer to the screen model but also stay true to TLG's model. 

Some of my modifications: (Thinner neck, replacing dark blue grey with light blue grey for the most part, four railings around the hatch, changing the chassis, and rounded feet)

More pictures:

 

 

Edited October 15, 2016 by Forresto

[PaulPrime]

5 hours ago, Forresto said:

I've finally gotten around to extensively modifying my chicken walker using several of the techniques shown on this thread, largely two pilots and lifting the eyes, as well as some of my own. The under chin of the gun, the saucers, are borrowed from Anothergol's model. My goal was to try and get the model closer to the screen model but also stay true to TLG's model. 

Some of my modifications: (Thinner neck, replacing dark blue grey with light blue grey for the most part, four railings around the hatch, changing the chassis, and rounded feet)

I love the rounded feet! I have to do that mod on mine.

[INDYcec]

Wait, so the legs should be shorter?  Does anyone else think they need to be thinner when seen from the front/back?

[PaulPrime]

5 hours ago, INDYcec said:

Wait, so the legs should be shorter?  Does anyone else think they need to be thinner when seen from the front/back?

Of course they should be much thinner to be accurate. I think it will require a complete rebuild of the legs due the way the two ratcheted joints are implemented, much like the MOCs from anothergol and LiLmeFromDaFuture.

At least they don't look bad when seen from the sides.

[anothergol]

I was sure they would go for double ratchet joints for the legs again, since they did it for the AT-DP. But I wonder why they do that. Certainly not because of the ratchet itself, it's more than strong enough. I suspect it has to do with the 3 pins to connect the beams, maybe they think it's not a good connection if it's just a ratchet and a beam on one side.

[Forresto]

So fun fact, I think one of the best ways of scaling height for Star Wars vehicles is to use the rancor big fig. In the canon rancors supposedly are an average height of 5 meters. The AT-ST is 8.6 meters. Now I haven't measured the height variance between the bigfig and the model scientifically, I will and post here eventually. Now AT-STs between Hoth and Endor seem to have variance in height, perhaps they are capable of extending and retracting legs depending on terrain, so for the sake of easiness let us round the AT-ST model to 9 meters.   

That would mean that the AT-ST from it's base unmodified height should be slightly shorter then two rancor bigfigs. From what I can reckon with my eyes and loose measurement the legs need to be three studs shorter then they are for more accurate height. I could be wrong and it's two again I have to do some measurements.  

[PaulPrime]

4 hours ago, anothergol said:

I was sure they would go for double ratchet joints for the legs again, since they did it for the AT-DP. But I wonder why they do that. Certainly not because of the ratchet itself, it's more than strong enough. I suspect it has to do with the 3 pins to connect the beams, maybe they think it's not a good connection if it's just a ratchet and a beam on one side.

I had to try and I can say the ratches and everything else hold the weight perfectly. It is not as stable as with the two ratchets per joint, if you push it by one side it wobbles a bit. But that is even more accurate as the poor thing stumbles and fall very easily in the movies. Some quick and dirty pictures to illustrate this last mod. Many thanks to anothergol for the indication.

[woodat]

8 hours ago, Forresto said:

So fun fact, I think one of the best ways of scaling height for Star Wars vehicles is to use the rancor big fig. In the canon rancors supposedly are an average height of 5 meters. The AT-ST is 8.6 meters. Now I haven't measured the height variance between the bigfig and the model scientifically, I will and post here eventually. Now AT-STs between Hoth and Endor seem to have variance in height, perhaps they are capable of extending and retracting legs depending on terrain, so for the sake of easiness let us round the AT-ST model to 9 meters.   

That would mean that the AT-ST from it's base unmodified height should be slightly shorter then two rancor bigfigs. From what I can reckon with my eyes and loose measurement the legs need to be three studs shorter then they are for more accurate height. I could be wrong and it's two again I have to do some measurements.  

If it helps, 9 metres is 5 minifigs tall at minifig scale (assuming all minifigs are an impressive 1.8 metres/6ft tall).  8.6 metres would be 5 minifigs but with one having child legs. You know I'll be stacking minifigs to measure mine tonight now. :)  

Oh, and I've had a little luck making the legs thinner simply by removing that 2x4 tile and rearranging the straights a bit.  I want to see if I can make a decent/low-new-parts mod before taking any photos though.  I do love the more rounded feet on the previous page and need to do that first too

[Sucram]

Has anyone managed to add another joint in the legs yet, as that is what is holding me back from getting the set.

[Leewan]

11 hours ago, LEGODrongo01 said:

Has anyone managed to add another joint in the legs yet, as that is what is holding me back from getting the set.

I've made this :

 

 

It adds three points of articulation at the ankle. If anyone's interested, you can get the lxf file here. 

(Note : my design actually uses this part, which doesn't exist in LDD, so I used a regular connector instead. It's attached to the Technic brick with a axle/pin with friction.)

[LaPasnaille]

I love Forresto's mods!!