I finally got my hands on an AAT and I will probably only get one, so I would like it to be versatile.

Has anyone magnetized or made alterations to the hatch so it can open and close and the B1 driver removed or added as desired?

If so, how did you do it?

I could only think of 2 ways to make the doors of the hatch open and close.
1. Use a thin wire to hold the hatch’s bar onto the piece where it normally rests by glueing the ends of a wire to either side (or even drill holes on either side for the wire to be glued into) of the bracket the hatch door’s bar usually rests on. This would create a hoop for the round bar of the hatch to be held in, but it would make the hatch doors somewhat floppy and when open, the hatch doors would just lay against the side of the tank.

2. Drill a holes and place a magnets in the center of the brackets that hold the hatch doors making sure each side has a different polarity. Then drill a hole straight through the hatch door bar and place a small magnet in that hole so that it fills the entire hole one side to the other and make sure each door has a different polarity. If you wanted the hatch open, place it in contact with one side of the tank’s hatch opening that would correspond with the open hatch magnet’s polarity, and if you want the hatch closed, place the hatch on the opposite side in contact with the opposing polarity. The problem is, I’m not sure if the round bar on the hatch door can handle a hole big enough for a magnet without just breaking. Also finding the right size and strength of magnet might be a challenge. This also may not hold the doors closed well, so I’m not sure how well this would work, and also you would need to rotate your doors from one side to the other if you want to open or close them.

I hope someone else has a better sure fire way. I hope I explained my ideas well too. It’s hard to explain without a diagram.

Let me know what you have tried.

I also just noticed there is a difference between The Phantom Menace version (two door hatch) and the animated shows (one hatch with a hinge on the back). I think the one hatch would have been easier. Cest la vie.

20 minutes ago, JediPartisan said:

I also just noticed there is a difference between The Phantom Menace version (two door hatch) and the animated shows (one hatch with a hinge on the back). I think the one hatch would have been easier. Cest la vie.

I bought a model kit to use as a crashed AAT terrain piece. It has the single back hinge hatch, that would have been easier I agree. For me I plan to use sticky putty to have the hatch open and closed. Was thinking of magnets, but it will be tricky. Maybe I just decide to keep the hatch closed.

I just glued it open and will add/remove the droid as needed. That's just the easy way as far as I see it. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do the Saber Tank now because I want that hatch to be able to be open or closed based on taking turrets or not.

45 minutes ago, Crawfskeezen said:

I just glued it open and will add/remove the droid as needed. That's just the easy way as far as I see it. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do the Saber Tank now because I want that hatch to be able to be open or closed based on taking turrets or not.

Yeah, that’ll be my next task. Finally got everything cleaned up on the AAT pieces, now I need to glue, then I’ll move on to the Saber. I move slowly though, not necessarily carefully, but definitely slowly.

I made my hatch doors able to open and close, it's not too hard.

I used a pin vice (or twist drill) to drill through the hinges, then used a sewing needle with a flat head inserted through as a hinge pin. Trim the end of the needle so it just barely sticks out the back side, then apply one small dab of super glue on the back side where the tip of the needle protrudes.

I still need to add stops to prevent the hatch from flopping all the way over to the side. I'm just going to glue small plastic beeds to the hinge so it bumps against the hull when it rotates as far as I want it to.