The first gift idea that I had for my parents this year didn’t work out – there were a few crucial parts that I ordered from a supplier that didn’t come in until after the holidays. (Which was not the fault of the supplier, but rather on me for cutting things way too close.) With time running out and with my family having decided by democratic/dumbocratic election that we were going to be making each other gifts this year, I improvised. My parents introduced me to Star Wars when I was younger and I have a lot of fond memories of watching the original trilogy with them, and listening to their old vinyl record of A New Hope’s soundtrack, so that felt like a good place to start.

I thank my lucky stars that I had a backlog of Star Wars Legion models in my pile of shame, because that made this easy to narrow down and tackle from there. I broke open the “Crashed Escape Pod” kit, along with C-3PO and R2-D2, and transformed them and the pod into a little makeshift diorama that my parents could display with their Christmas village – there’s already a TARDIS and other geekery there, so it felt like fair game. I also had an old Imperial Assault Jawa that fit way too well, and I painted that up so that it could be passed on to my sister, who is actually a Jawa in the 501st Legion costuming group.

I have some mixed feelings on the results. First, this was definitely a rushed job more than some of my other models and I feel like it shows it, especially when looking at the pod and at the desert “base” of the escape pod itself. That being said, I’m extremely happy with how R2-D2 turned out, and how C-3PO turned out as well, and I feel like with them in the foreground it takes some of the attention off of missteps I made on the terrain.

If I’d had my time back, I think I would have tried something a little more inventive over the 6-inch wooden base that I mounted everything on; maybe a krayt dragon skeleton, maybe some desert basing, maybe more Jawas. But as a model that was a speed-paint by necessity, I think this turned out alright, and I think there’s lots of lessons learned here that I can apply to the next one. And since I do want to add at least one astromech to my Star Wars: Legion army, there will be a next one. More on that to follow someday, I hope.