Lego Star Wars Hoth Base

My Son's 9th Birthday present started off as a discussion in the midst of playing Lego with my boys (9 and 5). The iconic 1976 Star Wars Empire Strikes back movie with the full sized Hoth ice base and hangar set is a favourite of most 35-45 year olds who now have young boys! So I decided to create one for my 9 year old's next birthday based on a set of design requirements from my son of course!

The main design requirements were as follows:

1. Must be able to actively play with the set (needs to be rugged and light)
2. Had to fit under my son's bed for storage
3. Needed to be able to access all areas easily
4. Set had to be able to be added to with Lego parts as the boys imagination evolved
5. Needed some working parts (doors and Ion cannon) and LED lights
6. Finally, it needed to be representative of the Hoth main scenes from the movie:

    a. Luke in the Hoth wampa cave
    b. Luke in the medical bay and bacta tank
    c. Leia and Han in the Command centre
    d. Main hangar for snow speeders
    e. Imperial attack in the shield generator and base

The master design document!

I used 30 x 20 x 3/16 inch white foam board to construct the Hoth Base hanger. I simply taped the sections together without gluing since the later foam stages would hold everything in one piece easily. The hardest part was to create the 2 sliding blast doors inside a frame.

The entire hangar was mounted to a single 20 x 30 inch board as the base. I wired up a set of small blue LEDs in series with 1K resistors and run back to a simple push button switch and AA battery pack. The battery pack was hidden in a compartment (accessible from under the playset).

I added the shield generator from circular bits of foam board and the Ion cannon base from a cut down plastic drink cup. Cutting up a large Lego base sheet, I glued the parts into the Hoth Base using contact cement. Next I used my favourite building material - expanding foam! Any type works but I used "Great Stuff" for windows and space filling. The key is to use a little as it expands 2-3 times its volume.

After the foam dried, I took a long exacto blade and trimmed the entire set into snow banks and ice covering the Hoth Base including around the top and inside the hangar in some sections.

The foam makes natural crevasses and hollows which are perfect for snow and ice scenes. I used a large circular ice cream tub for the structure of the ice cave at the rear of the set.

The Ion cannon was made from a Lego planet that I stuck thin strips of tape around to create the look of structure and detail. Parts of Lego were used to finish the cannon muzzle and handle. Blast doors were painted various shapes of grey acrylic paint and I used blue acrylic to tint the nooks, crannies and crevasses on the foam structure. The Ion cannon base was painted with grey plastic model enamel paint to avoid chipping and flaking later on. Finally the entire foam was painted using white acrylic paint (note - acrylic paints doesn't stick well to any uncut sections of expanding foam so its key to trim everything).

The final effect with the blue LEDs, Ion cannon and shield generator.

 For the details on each side (since this was designed to be a well used play set rather than a model or diorama) I made up the Hoth command centre and radar screens. The large red button on the wall is the LED on/off switch. All of the base walls were painted with a white Beauti-Tone textured paint (Flex-Rock) normally used for interior decorating. This paint is thick and can be used to create rough rocky (or ice in this case) surfaces.

The whole base cost around $35 and took approximately 20-30 hours to build and finish.

- 3 1/2 Foam sheets (20 x 30 inch) - $3.99 each
- Flex-rock paint (1/3 tin used) - $15
- LED set and battery box - $6.50
- Old 16 x 16 inch Lego base (cut up)
- Expanding Foam (2 cans) - $4.99 each

The final base all set up with figures, imperial troops and snow speeder. Ready for a 9th Birthday.