T-47 Sandspeeder
Action Fleet custom (1/42)
♦ Original design based on a Snowspeeder variant
♦ Opening air brakes
♦ Retractable landing gear (1)
♦ Elevating/rotating dual laser cannon
♦ Removable engine
♦ Detailed engine compartment
♦ Rotating sensor sphere
♦ Poseable Sandspeeder Pilot and Gunner
The Build
This was a custom I had been wanting to do for a long time. In several books (Essential Vehicles and Vessels), as well as online resources, information about the Rebel Snowspeeder often mentioned variants: swampspeeder, airspeeder, and sandspeeder. Later, I found a picture of a Rebel Assault Speeder in the Force Commander game booklet, which had a tan Snowspeeder with a half canopy. From the vague book descriptions and picture, I decided to make what I thought would most resemble a T-47 Sandspeeder.
I started with an AF Snowspeeder, which I promptly took apart. I cut off the excess canopy and added styrene strips to simulate the frames. I cut the lower air brakes away from the engine, then I cut the heatsink fins from the engine. I used styrene to cover the engine, which was made from a rubbery plastic, and did not look smooth at all. I then added an engine from a Dragon model tank to the existing engine block, and added random parts for detail. The rear dust shoots are made of a spliced-
Painting consisted of two basic colors: a custom tan/grey for the overcoat and a Medium Green for the highlights. An assortment of greys provided the gradients I wanted for the engine, turret, and cockpit. The interior engine compartment I painted an off-
Backstory
In an effort to adapt to various environments, Rebel technicians used a plethora of civilian vehicles modified for combat use. Among those was the T-
The T-
The major problem Rebel technicians faced was preventing sand and dirt from getting into the engine systems. With the large air intakes on either side of the speeder, technicians had to install several sand filters. They redesigned the air intakes to funnel air into the large cooling fans, where engineers added more filters. Technicians also removed the heatsinks from the engine and replaced it with smaller heatsinks that included sand chutes for dumping out sand and dirt gathered in the air filters. This caused the speeder to generate unique dust trails, as the sand chutes dumped the dirt immediately next to the thrust nozzles.
Unlike the other T-
Like the snowspeeder, the T-47 Sandspeeder sported two military-
Navigation systems received multiple improvements over the base T-
Final versions of the T-47 Sandspeeder saw action on many arid planets, including Tatooine. The Alliance mainly used the T-47 Sandspeeders for long-