"Fire at target with Maximum Firepower!"

- General Veers

In this Instructable I will show you how to make the All Terrain Armoured Transport (AT-AT) from the Star Wars universe! The AT-AT is a walking vehicle used in assaults. Due to its strong armour it can take many hits. In the movie Wedge takes one of them down, with help of the harpoon on the Snowspeeder. I've long wanted to build this model, but wasn't sure if I could get the walking mechanism right. Luke destroys one with a detonator.

This model is about 45 cm high, 9 cm wide and 50 cm long. It comes with motor, gears and movable Laser cannons in the head. The model took me about 1 week to build and 10 hours of video shooting and editing.

The steps are like this:

Parts Needed
Walking Mechanism
Building the Head
Adding the Head & Armour
Building & Adding the Legs

Here you can see a video of the model, together with my Snowspeeder:

Step 1: Parts Needed

Individual K'NEX pieces can be bought at:

KnexUserGroup (UK)
KnexSpares (UK)
Knex.com (USA, very limited selection)

Parts required to build this model

Rods:

110x Black rod (16 mm)
94x Silver rod (32 mm)
13x Blue rod (54 mm)
3x Dark Grey rod (86 mm)

Connectors:

1x 8-way connector Black
6x 7-way 3D connector Blue
86x 4-way 3D connector Silver
49x 5-way connector Grey
21x 3-way connector Dark Grey
7x 2-way (long shape) connector Brown
14x 2-way (V-shape) connector Grey

Clips:

54x Clip with hole end (1-way connector)
56x Clip with rod end Black (Y-clip)
9x Clip with rod end Silver (Y-clip)
6x Hinge part Black
13x Clip Ball end Black
3x Clip Socket end Black
9x Interlocking pin Tan/Bronze
14x Clip Blue

Wheels:

1x (!) Wheel open Centre Black (25 mm) (! not on Image !)
7x Hub/Pulley small (37 mm)
4x Hub Racing wheel (37 mm)
4x Hub Racing wheel (50 mm)

Gears:

3x Gear small Dark Grey
3x Gear small Blue
3x Crown gear Silver

Panels:

10x Silver tri mini
2x Silver tri small
2x Silver Square small

Other:

1x Elastic Band 1 cm / 1/4" Diameter
20x Blue Spacer (½ width)
4x Silver Spacer (1½ width)

Step 2: Walking Mechanism

In this step, you will build the Walking Mechanism of the AT-AT. You build two sides that hold the Gears within, then you attach the ex-centric rods that make the legs move and walk.

Making this thing walk isn't easy. Even after building it, it took a long tweaking time to get it right. Better walkers can be made, if theming isn't important.

In the next step, you build the head.

Step 3: Building the Head

In this step you will build the laser cannons hanging below the head, then you add the neck, sides (plus cannons), visor and the top. This can be opened

The head was the second thing I made. It was pretty hard to get that visor right, since it's iconic and looks "evil". It gives the AT-AT its fear-factor. The cannons can be swiveld by hand.

In the next step, the head will be attached to the body.

Step 4: Adding the Head and Armour

First you'll add the head to the body. I had trouble finding out how I could do this, because the space is tight because of the walking mechanism that moves in this area. Then you add the top, and side armour. I needed two iterations for that.

In the next and last step you make the legs and attach them to finish your AT-AT!

Step 5: Making & Adding the Legs

In this step, you'll build 1 foot, which you should copy 3 more times. Then you will make the lower part. These are all exact copies. The upper part has 2 versions, left and right. But there final legs are unique. Pay close attention!

If you have trouble, you can always ask me in the comment section. I'm glad to help.

Once you've finished making the legs, you attach them in a unique way that I discovered. It uses "Y-clips" and makes it possible to keep the width of the AT-AT as slim as possible. If the legs are attached, you're ready to test it! You might need to tweak the gears so that the walking pattern becomes good.

I hope you've enjoyed reading or building my model. If you do, leave a comment!

May the Force be with you!

GWorks