it begins. (DIY Halo-style vehicles - FLYER)

[Nostromo]

I have no idea if i will ever play that army... but since i scratch-built my first tank, i knew that one day i would build a tank company.
I know that there will be almost no GW-parts in that army. Maybe a few weapons, but the infantry will consist of Dreamforge Eisenkern and Mantic GCPS Marines. How does that fit together? I already have a background story in my head that would suffice for a small novel. Maybe i will write it down here some day.
The first three infantry squads already wait in a box.
But what i wanted in the first place was TANKS!

Such a pity that i have no love for the WW1 aesthetics of the Empire. With modern looking marines and futuristic Wehrmacht-like troopers i want something that matches the degree of futurstic design. Eventually, i stumbled upon Ben Wottons design for a Halo scorpion tank for a movie that was never produced.


With a few minor adjustments, this is going to be a counts-as Macharius.
Even if i do not like the original GW-design, i like the concept of a shared platform and tied-in design of a vehicle range.
Though, i am simplifying it a bit more. Leman Russ and Chimera share the same chassis.

You may have realized by now, that i am designing the whole vehicle range from scratch based on the image above.
No kit-bashing, no existing parts. Everything made from cardboard, plasticard and whatever materials i come across.

So far, i have a 90% finished LemanRuss/chimera chassis with magnetised sponsons and a LR turret with a Punisher cannon.
The chimera turret turned out not so well and will be remade.
In addition, i also have a 50% finished Artillery tank. Obviously, this is a Armageddon pattern Basilisk. A Medusa cannon will follow.
So far, all secondary weapons are scratch built as well..
Alas, my thread in the WIP section did not raise much interest. This is a Space Marine forum after all...
So, a few fotos of the current state (click to enlarge):

actually not a current shot, secondary turret weapons, smoke launchers and a few details are done, but still missing on the foto.

The heavy weapons so far.

an older shot so you get an impression of the tank tracks

Edited July 5, 2019 by Nostromo

[Stercus]

Those look pretty cool. There must be hundreds of hours of build time in there.

[Major_Gilbear]

They look very good, but yes - a lot of build time!

 

Are going to paint these?

 

You might also get a bit more interest if you also show how they scale to other vehicles and troops too, to give people a bit more of an idea of how your force will look overall.

[Spyboy]

I must say, very impressive.

[Nostromo]

Thanks :-)

They will definitely get painted, though i am yet unsure about the color scheme .

Fotos for size comparism will follow!

I assume a Vindicator will do... i do not have a single Original GW IG vehicle.

 

As for the time... there are dozens of hours of drawing the templates- and the Leman Russ is the fourth attempt. The previous iterations have been a continuous process of try&error with countless changes to the templates. Still far from perfect, but almost good enough.

In total, it may well have added up to one hundred hours.

But the parts of the Basilisk that are recycled from the LemanRuss Template did not take that much time to build.

The wheels and Tracks are truly time-eating monsters - i estimate that these take more time than all other parts together.

Especially with the second version of the wheels, which is much more massive.

 

But when finished, it will be a truly unique army.

[duz_]

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! :tu:

 

I think its safe to say this thread will get plenty of love and attention here!

 

Now give us moar! :D

[Nostromo]

what did i say about wheels? Right. Time eating monster.

I made a prototype of a new type of wheel (stolen from Blackadder)

 

And, as suggested, size comparism shots. If i remember the numbers correctly, those small tanks are a little longer than chimeras - 15 cm

 

The large one (almost just like the scorpion foto looks like) will have the size of a macharius. 20 cm long and about 12 cm wide.

No fotos of that yet - i am still drawing.

[Nostromo]

Since i am still in the middle of wheel-making abd could take fotos of different stages of a wheel... would anybody be interested in a tutorial on that?

 

13 done, at least 9 more to do.

[Nostromo]

well, no tutorial then

only 3 wheels missing - thinking that i plan to build that tank 7 more times plus a larger one is a bit discouraging... so about 170 more of those wheels

Maybe a way to reduce the workload per wheel with other materials is advisable.

 

Anyway, i did something else to reduce te risk to loose sanity.

Thinking twice... doing 300 rivets was maybe not the best to work against madness.

Besides the rivets on the basilisk (80% done, the sloppy look comes from not yet dry watered PVA i applied over each rivet) i added extra armour to the front of both tanks. At first, i thought about that just to cover a warped surface and repairs... but now, it actually looks much better, so i will do it for all.

 

And the Basilisks turret is closed and sits on the hull (pivotable and removeable).

Again, i miscalculated material strength. So once again i will need to amend the template.

So many hours, so little visible progress...

[duz_]

Thats dedication! 

[Hathis]

Keep it up, your tanks look really bloody nice, 300 rivets for one tank? that would have driven me insane 

[Nostromo]

i need to make photos again...

Wheels and tracks are not only finished parts-wise, but also glued to the hull. i will regret that when it comes to painting.

Ladder steps and handles are done as well.

 

but i also have something to show - even if it is still in the design-state.

i gave FreeCAD another try and made a draft for the chimera turret. Up in the thread you saw the heavy weapons - those find their place in the rectangular hole with a magnet.

On the other side - indicated by the cylinder - i will add machine gun and HK.

On the front of the center piece i will add smoke launchers and a sensor array.

Let's see how it turns out after a treatment with pepakura for unfolding.

 

[Nostromo]

a couple of small details in addition to what i mentioned yesterday.

Hinges on doors, improved hatches and ... tools.

The chimera turret will take a while longer. I am back to illustrator for reworking the output FreeCAD and later pepakura produced.

[duz_]

That is a giant barrel!

 

Look great! :tu:

[Nostromo]

Giant barrel?

Well, for 40k it is. But since it is supposed to remind of modern artillery and especially the german PZH-2000, it is just right. Don‘t ask how strong the magnet needs to be to hold it in place...

I am almost done with building. Some cleaning of surfaces and filling gaps...

Oh, and the secondary turret weapons for the Basilisk, though not necessary. Even legal? And of course the chimera turret.

Then surface treatment- in will give future a try.

Painting will need to wait some time - it is way to cold outside for spray-painting the base coat.

 

But anyway, i have enough other things to work on - and hopefully to show- until then. The Macharius Template is 50% done and i plan to make the Tauros/Sentinel Buggy (based on Atenocities Warthog) in FreeCAD like the Chimera turret.

 

Next fotos:

Railing on Basilisk and Leman Russ with Stowage.

 

Maybe i find more Details i can add...

[duz_]

I think a second barrel would be fine as long as you dont say it gets double shots! :lol:

 

In fact you could say the second barrel is why it gets its shooting bonuses! :D ;)

[Nostromo]

By secondary weapons i meant stubber & hunter killer missile. Oh, i just realized that i also forgot the smoke launchers... but do those make sense at all? At least those will cover a few less spectacular areas. Hm... does the PZH-2000 have smoke launchers? I think it has...

Actually, I WILL make another barrel- but an alternative instead of an additional one -> Medusa

 

Sidenote: i have found the most wonderful source for autocannon ammunition! Ball-pens!

[barek]

Spectacular work!

[Nostromo]

previously mentioned progress on stowage and railing.

First, a WIP-Shot of stowage:

 

And another size comparism shot with my DIY Keiler-Pattern Vindicator:

also scratch built, but sufficient for size comparism. I also have a few GW-Rhinos, but do me a favour and forget that immediately

 

Finally, detail shots of stowage in the railings. I hope photos will get better after painting.

 

 

 

[Nostromo]

"too big, too small... size does matter after all" (Rammstein)

here is an intermediate stage of the chimera turret. It does not really look bad... but especially with the mounted weapon, it looks way too large for me.

 

This is an early stage of the first test build of some of the "counts-as-Macharius"-components.

Enough to get an impression of the size compared to the "counts-as-LemanRuss" in the background. The LR is 1-2 cm larger than a chimera.

That is about what i have in mind. What i am NOT that happy with, is the size of the doors. I am still playing with the angles and i think i will be able to place the sponson weapons over the doors. But... the doors are quite small. Just enough to get through and nobody says, that you need to get through with a totally straight back. The width is also just enough for not getting stuck with equipment.

But... what do you say?

[Tyr13]

Keep in mind, tanks arent built for comfort. On transports, large doors are necessary so you dont get stuck while under fire. But in a main battle tank... you only really want to leave after things go bad anyway, so large doors are generally unnecessary (and can be a liability even).

Edited March 2, 2018 by WarriorFish
Swear filter dodge edited

[Nostromo]

Update!

The "chimera"-turret finally looks like i want it to - and now also has a size that i am happy with.

Reducing the size turned out more troublesome than i expected - and modifying the 3d-model did not work at all, so i had to do it all in illustrator again.

The stubber needs some minor work... i will do that once i make the stubbers for the Macharius

 

The counts-as-macharius makes progress as well - but only on my computer since i am still working on the templates.

Drawing of the basic structure is 90% done, i am working on the turret now. Round parts will drive me mad... but they are the main reason i make the tanks from paper after all

Edited May 11, 2019 by Nostromo

[Nostromo]

Long drawing and test-building pause.

unfortunately, the steps since my last post produced nothing really worth showing.

At the moment i have a mockup of some half-finished parts of the larger counts-as-macharius tank.

 

You get an impression of the size compared to the chimera-style tank. On the first photo the two tanks line up at the back, so you see that the macharius is much longer - as it should be, of course.

 

The side is similar to an earlier post - it is a build with several more details (hardly visible yet) and more sturdy paper since this is supposed to becaome the real model.

Edited April 11, 2018 by Nostromo

[Nostromo]

The past weeks showed some progress... and then a drawback.

I made ggod progress with the front and the sides - and then i realized that the whole right side was slightly bent. Because i did not consider material strength and half a mm makes a large difference if it results in an all so slightly angle on 20 cm.

So i am currently rebuilding the whole side.

But the twin-stubber is already in place.

 

This is a detail shot of the side doors.

 

Did i already write about revising vents?

In the first two tanks i just "engraved" the vents in the paper - which did not look aczualy bad, but just does not keep up with the rest.

Detail shot of the old approach:

So now, i really build as a kind of box them - which is massively more time consuming. And a mistake of placement of a quarter mm is VERY visible. Damn. 

But i will leave it this way - i made about 7 test builds so far and at least it does not look totally crappy any more. It is a pity that this is the large centerpiece, but maybe i will make another one some time in the future. And of course there will be a few more of the smaler tanks which will have that type of vents. They will eventually look better.

Edited May 3, 2018 by Nostromo

[duz_]

You are extremely patient!

Can't wait to see the final product.