by Jonathon Adams

This diorama began life as a snap-tight, pre-painted Revell ARC starfighter model. The model was originally a putty/maroon combination paint scheme and included a few gray/white clone pilots.

For the purposes of this contest I wanted to make a diorama that depicted the ARC fighter in its later years in service of the empire. The Imperial forces utilized a much more intimidating color scheme and I wanted to show this fighter after years of service fresh from a mission in it's maintenance bay aboard the star destroyer.

There are a handful of websites with illustrations of the paint scheme, the rest was the best I could find to complement the overall Empire scheme. The base coat is all white gloss, with the gray accents handpainted in "light gray". The engines are three coats of grays with black/silver/blue drybrushing to give a good "deep" appearance. The pilot has been repainted in the typical empire all-black flightsuit.

The rest of the diorama is scratchbuilt. The observation tower is based off PVC pipe with windows and fittings applied with my handy dremel. The landing gear is from another SW kit, modified to fit this model, complete with opened gear doors. I added an open maintenance hatch on the nose with some exposed wiring and hoses. The canopy was modified to display in the "open" fashion and (as there was nothing to begin with) the cockpit is all scratch. I added the support-hover-craft with the right wing cannon mounted to show the ARC undergoing a refit and repairs. The electric generator on the right is also scratch from the parts bin.

After finishing the bay floor, I carved a recessed maintenance bay under the fuselage and coated the floor with some gloss black. The text on the floor says... well I'll let the fans figure that out. Finally I added the overhead spotlights, maintenance bay worklight and a red light for the observation tower.

After completing the build up, I weathered with several mediums from oil wash to eye-shadow to pencil and even some gel ink. All in all, this was a load of fun.

Image: Pilot

Image: Cockpit

Image: Top view

Image: Tower

Image: Left/rear view