Seeing Double... Twice!
TWO build-ups of a Twin Pod Cloud Car
Back around 2010 I was asked to build a resin “garage kit” model of the Twin Pod Cloud Car from The Empire Strikes Back. I wanted one too, so I made a deal with the client whereby I could get one for myself as well. They were reportedly studio scale (same size as the actual filming miniatures). I built them both at the same time, assembly-line style so both models were identical. I made stands with wooden bases and aluminum rods for support.
I forget who made these resin kits but they built up fairly well, complete with figure busts. I used LED lighting for the centre engine exhaust and managed to hide the batteries in the central pod. The top of the pod could be removed to change out batteries.
The models were not weathered as neither were the studio miniatures, just some slight panel colour variations and light streaks suggesting blow-back from the nose mounted blasters. I tried to replicate the paint work of originals as closely as possible.
Below show the results. The overall quality of the kits were very well done. However, that’s not the end of the story. Keep scrolling down for the epilogue.
After I had built the models, and frankly as I was building them, I noticed a big problem with their accuracy. The twin pods had been mastered by the kit maker to be far too fat when compared to the filming miniature which was considerably more slender. This is shown in the comparison photo below. The studio miniature is on the left. My unfinished buildup on the right.
This discrepancy eventually began to bug me so I ended up posting it on Ebay a few years later and sold it off. To my knowledge, nobody to date (as I write this) has ever made a more accurate kit of this vehicle. I’d still love to get a good one but I just don’t have the time to scratch build one for myself. If you know of a really accurate kit of this model, please let me know!
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