Thursday, October 22, 2015

Metal Earth: AT-AT - WIP 3 (Final)

Good to have spares

With the completion of the partial lower parts of the AT-AT in WIP 2, we will now work on completing the lower sections and attaching the main body to the kit.
 
The first thing to do is another set of reps. This time is the base of the foot. The instructions states that 4 nos are required.

Pieces for the base of the feet 
 
You will have to bend 2 circular  pieces together 4 times. I'm not good at making things circular so all the foot base have different shapes to it. I guess no one will be able to notice it unless they look at it real close.
 
Top view of the completed foot base

Side view of the completed foot base

By the time I reached the last foot base, I was getting over confident and made a serious mistake. If you look at the instructions in the first picture closely, you will notice that there are 2 slits in the middle for piece 28 and grooves for piece 27. What I failed to notice is to make sure that the 2 slits on 28 are the same direction as the grooves on piece 27.

I only noticed my mistake when I was trying to attach the fourth leg to the base. I was wondering why the other 3 pieces attaches so easily but having a hard time with this. When I noticed my mistake, I tried to untwist the pegs hoping that I might be able to remove them and correct the mistake. I twisted the tabs both counter clockwise and clockwise but it did not want to be undone. The more I twist, the tighter it becomes. Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

What I did was broke the 4 tabs to remove piece 27. Fortunately for me, Metal Earth was kind enough to provide me with spare piece 27. It is like they knew this was going to happen. The bad news is they only gave 1 extra piece. If I screw this up again, I might have to do a battle damage AT-AT.
 
Spare piece 27
 
After remove the spare piece 27 and bending it into shape, I paid extra care to make sure that I did not make the same mistake. With they done, the bottom part of the AT-AT is finally complete.

Close-up view of the feet

Completed bottom half of the kit

With the bottom half done, I now have 2 different completed parts of the kit.

Completed head (WIP 1)  and bottom half (WIP 2)
 
Now for the main piece to tie the 2 parts together:

Piece for the body
 
This is by far the largest piece for the entire kit. The first thing I did (which will be another major mistake) is to attach the head piece first. I thought it would be easier if I were to do this first because after the body bends, it will be harder for the pliers to enter the small space.
 

Head piece attached to the body
 
This is also the hardest part of the kit to bend and attach to the lower section. Because the instruction did not state how much to bend each section, I assumed the front and back will have to be 90° but I when I did that, the tabs at the bottom section did not align with the holes on the body.
 
I had to slowly check, pull the section lightly and when the tabs and holes align, secure it into place before moving to another section of the body. While doing this, I didn't notice that the attached head was moving up and down and soon it became too heavy and......this happened.

Head section broke off
 
I was shocked and when I cursed, the missus was nearby and asked "Why? You broke a piece?". So sad I was that the AT-AT is now a Sleepy Hollow. I didn't think about how to rectify the problem but instead concentrated on attaching the body to the bottom section.
 
Here is a look at both runners when all the pieces are removed:
 
Empty metal runners
 
With the body done, this is how the completed kit looks like:

Right and left view

Back and front view

Top view

How did I fix the head? I can tell you the solution is not as hard as you might think. There is a tab at bottom of the head section. All I did was attach and secure the tab and positioned the head between the side flaps. When it is in the position I want, just slightly bend the both sides to sandwich the head in place.
 
Granted that the head is not securely fasten and any major movement to the kit and you will see the head coming out and hanging by the tabs. Good thing this kit will be in the same display case as the Royal Selangor Boba Fett so the head is well protected.
 
As usual, below is a list of all the pros and cons and the conclusion of what I think about the both the kits according to my personal experience.
 
Pros:
- Nice display kit
- Tons of details
- Require some thoughts before assembling

Cons:
- Fragile pieces
- No indication of which part to assemble first
- Leaving finger prints

Conclusions:
Overall, it is an interesting piece and I'm glad I bought it. Mentioned before, building this kit really requires one to think before following the instructions. The pieces are very fragile and they do break easily especially pieces near the bend. This kit loves to collect fingerprints so make sure a cloth is ready nearby. It makes a great display kit next to the Royal Selangor Boba Fett and is a must get for Star Wars fans. It also serves as a good distraction to rest and refresh your mind from your everyday build.

All WIPs for the Metal Earth AT-AT 3D puzzle:
WIP 1 - Something new
WIP 2 - Reps is the way to go
WIP 3 - Good to have spares

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