BCK's Thread of Stuff: Super Heavy

[Daemon2027]

I’m glad our going to keep going with the Vostys as you really have a good grasp on them. The super heavy recovery tank project sounds interesting, how many tanks have you got in the works at the moment though?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Aside from the TD, no other tanks in the works right now. 

[Daemon2027]

Aside from the TD, no other tanks in the works right now.

Hmmm I must have missed some, time to read back me thinks.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I did a test paint job on a Russ with my new Vostroyan vehicle color but I'm not actively working any tanks other than the TD right now

[shandwen]

Superheavy recovery vehicles would be exceedingly rare, most armoured regiments are said to have maybe one or two superheavies, so to keep a recovery one would be only practical for a recently equipped super heavy regiment.

I will love to see how obe would turn out, as to how it's tow system would work to actually function with something so wide (two arms rather than one?).

Also, being 40k sponsons would probably still be included on a recovery-blade hahahaha

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The way I imagine it is that super heavies are already rare and very expensive to produce with a lot of that investment in the form of titan-sized weapons, so the recovery of such a resource would be paramount, whether the tank in question was simply stuck in the mud or was knocked out in combat. Keep in mind that the other super heavies aside from the Baneblade variants that might also need recovery (even if not as difficult or expensive to produce) like the Macharius line, Crassus, Dominus, Gorgon, Minotaur, etc, so there would be more need for a recovery vehicle than you might initially think. 

 

I think I will go with a crane instead of boom because I saw this picture of an M51 model earlier tonight and the idea clicked into place. 

 

 

The basic shape is somewhat similar to a Shadowsword if you imagine the front of this thing is actually the rear of the Shadowsword with the crane arm sitting in the notch of the casemate where the gun is normally mounted and facing toward the front of the tank. It would drive to the vehicle that needed recovery in the normal way and then once hooked up, it would drive 'backwards' to tow the wreck back to base. 

 

 

[Sagentus]

That would work well i think. Like you say the basic shape of the shadowsword is there so itll make it easier for converting :) 

[Lord_Ikka]

It might work well to make it a Rapid Response Super-Heavy Combat Recovery vehicle- designed to recover damaged super-heavy tanks for mid-battle repairs during active combat. Rather than an AdMech transport that comes and recovers after a battle is over, this vehicle is purpose-built to go into the fury of battle and help mainline super-heavies. Maybe even keeping two of the side sponson las/heavy bolters to give the recovery vehicle its own built-in fire support. Not a lot of firepower, as it is still supposed to be a recovery vehicle, but one that actually can be used in the thick of battle.

Edited November 23, 2017 by Ikka

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

This thing will definitely be a combat vehicle and keep pretty much everything but the main weapon. Now I have to start planning out how to scratch build a crane and other stuff and I suck at scratch building. Why do I do this to myself? >_>

[The Traitor]

Have you though about using the crane GW recently released as scenery as a base? You would need to redo the whole "hook" thing it has, but you could use the arm's shape and structure. Edited November 23, 2017 by The Traitor

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I had looked at that crane but it's not quite what I'm wanting. However, I think the Emperor was smiling upon me today. I was looking for something in the garage after the turkey feast and found an old printer of mine that didn't work anymore and I decided to take it apart to see if I could find any interesting bits that I could use for models. Among other things, there were these two folding arms that you could prop the lid up with that looked like they might be the right size to use as a base for my crane arm. 

 

 

And here they are lightly glued together and posing with my half-completed Stormblade. 

 

 

Ave Imperator. 

[The Traitor]

The size seems to be right, though maybe I would try to make it a bit more angular with plasticard to bring it in line with Astra Militarum tanks

[Daemon2027]

The printer arms fit nicely, although I agree with the Traitor about trying to dive it a slightly more angular profile if possible.

 

Are you going to make some Recovery Mechanics or maybe a specialised tech priest and servitors to go with the tank?

[Slave to Darkness]

 

 

 

No one in my house drinks hot liquids on a regular basis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heresy!!!

 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The printer arms fit nicely, although I agree with the Traitor about trying to dive it a slightly more angular profile if possible.

 

Are you going to make some Recovery Mechanics or maybe a specialised tech priest and servitors to go with the tank?

 

The crane will definitely be more angular, as I mentioned in the post it's going to be a good base for it and will get some work done to it.

 

For the crew, that's something I've been ruminating on for the past few days and I think it would probably be a little bit of both. Super heavies are a big deal and I'd think they'd require a tech priest at the minimum to see to the needs of the machine spirit and a few servitors for handling the grunt work that the human would be incapable of. Am I going to make figures of any such crew? I dunno yet. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Tentative assembly on the body has started but there's a lot of problems I had to correct from when I was trying to convert the shadowsword. The upside us it's giving me more time to think on features to add to it and what to call this beast. Any suggestions on a name? I have no idea what to call it.

[Torvak Kyre]

How about and Achaean Super Heavy Recovery Tank.

 

Calls upon historical Mediterranean in provinces like the Spartan and Trojan. Or maybe Mycenaean

[Walter Payton]

How about "Bahamut"-class superheavy recovery tank?  A bit outside the usual Classical 40k influences, but I think it has a nice ring.  From medieval Islamic cosmography, Bahamut is a giant fish on whose back stands an ox, Kuyutha, who carries the world on his back.  It's a thematic fit to the smaller "Atlas"-class recovery tank in Forge World's range.

 

DIT: Forgot to add, love the thread!  Looking forward to the finished article.

Edited November 25, 2017 by Brother-Captain Alecto

[sparrow2z]

Great idea; love the thought of a super-heavy recovery vehicle. I second the suggestion for “Bahamut” class. Are you thinking a different style colour scheme to mark it as a recovery tank rather than a front line tank?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I like both the Mediterranean and the Bahamut suggestions, good stuff. I was wondering earlier today if it might be something thematically Russian for the Vostroyans. 

 

Anyway, an early progress shot of the Stormblade next to the SHRV and it will illustrate just how different it will be from a standard Shadowsword/Stormblade chassis. 

 

 

Back in the day when I was working on this as a Shadowsword, I'd wanted it to resemble the WWII German Elefant tank destroyer a little more. 

 

http://i.imgur.com/ZJCupFb.png

 

To that end, I chopped off the the little tabs from the inner track section walls where the casemate normally locks into so I could push it further back onto the chassis and it strangely worked out with the SHRV concept. Since what would normally be the rear of the vehicle will now be the front of it when towing something, the engine is going to be moved to a central location. You can also see that I have converted the SHRV to have the drive sprocket moved inside the armor instead of sticking out of the front of the track sections the same as the Stormblade.

 

And I have no memory of why I circled the casemate detail with a Sharpie back then. 

Edited November 27, 2017 by Brother Chaplain Kage

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I owed a friend a conversion and I'm going to try to get this done before Christmas. Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka in his right propa glory. 

 

 

That's his normal body next to the Helbrute. On a base. 

 

So it begins. 

[Grotsmasha]

Ammaazzzinggg  :tu:

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Ghazghkull looks promising. Using a Chaos Helbrute as his body, is an imaginative touch.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I'm not the first person to use a Helbrute for a Ghaz conversion but I had one from the DV box (or whichever it was) and I imagined Da Prophet to be somewhere around dreadnought sized so it seems to be working out. I've seen some ridiculous Ghaz conversions where he's the size of a knight titan or just a bit smaller and that's ridiculous. 

[DaBoiKyknos]

I owed a friend a conversion and I'm going to try to get this done before Christmas. Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka in his right propa glory. 

(...)

So it begins. 

 

Well, this looks interesting.