This is my first custom... I took a stock DTC HISS tank V5. Painted out the gold. Shaved the chin guns and missiles. Dremmeled out the launchers on the turret. Cut off the "cup" for the turret figure. Put a ladder in it's place so the figure could still sit in the turret. This opened up the troop compartment. Added a bunch of Marauder's stuff like the ammo and fuel dump, tools and weapons. Added a stowage kit from Build-a-rama. Kit bashed a Ford focus model for a few other things.

Changed the side launchers into ammo boxes and added two 25th Anny Roadblock ammo belts. Dry brushed it grey to weather it up a bit. Custom antennas made from heating up the plastic "trees" that model kits come on and stretching them to desired length.

I'm quite pleased with it.

Before:

*Courtesy of YoJoe.com*




After:













Thanks for looking...

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That works really well the paint and extra parts sell the ruggedness of it. Makes it look like a real tank. I dig it.

Damn that thing is awesome. I would pay so much money if Hasbro produced something like that.

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I really like the look of the interior with the ladder in place of the seat. Just to clarify, the Stinger driver in the pictures has his feet on a rung to brace himself at that height?

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Yes, the turret troop uses the rungs to brace himself...

Here're a few pics of my custom HISS driver to illustrate. It even spins freely.

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The mods make a nice difference. The stowage gives a real-world feel.

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Very Nice!

Beautiful custom, I always love making Joe related items look more realistic. I have one small nit pick to point out, you might want to weather that small brown crate on the back, it really sticks out with everything else being painted and weathered.

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That is too sweet. I love all the details. Amazing. Now if I can only get another DTC Hiss I'd be in business.

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Wow, you "unpimped" their ride! Nice, nice job. Very, very cool.

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Uhh, yeah...you got me. I got a little preemptive with the pictures, lol. I actually blended it in a lot better since the original pics were taken and was just too lazy to re-take them, haha. It's amazing what a coat of paint and some dry brushing will do to plastic toys to make them look all that more realistic.

I was quite pleased that the rear turned out so well. The two jerry cans and oil drum fit perfectly. I used a scrap piece of ladder to form a sort of rack for the drum. Then the sledge hammer fit on the end rungs perfectly. Almost like it was meant to do that.

The other items on the rear were from Marauder's new web-belts. I bought the two canteen one, cut them off the belt and put them on the back. The second canteen is inside the troop compartment.

Thanks for all the great comments...

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OMG! that is awesome man is that one of those wire saw things on the side of the HISS? very cool man hasbro should have did somthing like this

I'm almost becoming a broken record about this, but the open back has to have some kind of door on it. I'll never understand why Hasbro made it open like that. That mean any enemy that gets behind this HISS has free pickings on the troops in the back. THat doens't make any sense. You've gone thsi far, why not add a little hatch to it. Othewise you've done a mighty fine job making this thing look plausible. I especially like how you ditched the spring loaded missle launchers and made the thing look a ton better in the process.

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And much rockage so ensued. Very sweet work here. My only small critique would be that I'd think the ammo belts would get caught up in the tracks and that there would be some sort of loop they'd feed thru on the sides of the cockpit to prevent this. But otherwise, way friggin' cool.

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you just set the bar for yourself -- we are going to be expecting nothing but the best now!

nice work, brother!

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