Hey everyone!

Here are two of my older projects that are still in works since 2004 (Sci-Fi). Time has been scarce last couple of years. They've been sitting in the garage and now getting back to finishing them. Hopefully by the end of March they'll be completed and submitted to the custom section. Much like the BTR-60, they still have a way to go. Once completed I'll post new pictures.

The vehicles were designed on paper by me and built strictly out of styrene plastic with very little usage of other parts. There are no other vehicle parts used. Only exception was a side gun I mounted that's not pictured here and some of the engine components.


Here are the pics and background. Click the pic to see the larger size.

1/18 Scale Heavy Assualt Hover Tank (H.A.H.T)

Story: Used for large scale assaults on cities, enemy armor and infantry. Sent in to support other tanks/combat units that are overwhelmed by enemy forces. Their strength in armor and firepower is used to pummel enemy forces that the H.A.H.T encounters. The bulkier design and heavy armor/equipment make the vehicle much slower than the more conventional armor. Still, what it lacks in speed it makes up in sheer fire power. Very few enemy units that encounter the H.A.H.T live to tell the story.

Still has primer paint on the outside and interior. Added additional details to outside of the vehicle that have not been painted. The rear of the tank has been extended by about a 1" to 1.5". A thick door added to the rear as well opens to allow troop access.

Features: Rotating Turret;; Opening Turret Hatch;; Small plasma gun atop the turret elevates/rotates;; Interior gunner station attached to base of the turret rotates as the turret rotates;; .5" rear compartment door opens (mod not seen in picture);; Rear compartment seat 4 figures;; Driver Cabin has operating features like moveable targeting display for night operations;; driver compartment hatches open;; double doors open to reveal engine compartment;; rolling wheels to allow motion but concealed to give impression the vehicle is hovering.



1/18 Scale Vehicle/Troop/Cargo DropShip (VTC Dropship)

Story: It was essential that forces could move supplies, troops, and heavy equipment rapidly in the battlefield or between space cruisers to base supply points on planets. The dropship was flexible in it's capabilities which the military embraced. It's ability to enter hot combat zones made it a practical vehicle to use. The dropship was armored but could not withstand heavy onslaught of enemy fire (balance between speed and armor was necessary). For that reason, engineers designed the dropship to allow for combat vehicles, troops, and access to supplies, to offload from the rear of the dropship. The dropship had forward mini cannons to deflect infantry and light armor attacks and side, rotating, heavy turrets to suppress enemy ground forces in the area.

I'm considering repainting the vehicle and adding some additional details to it.

Features: Large interior cargo hold;; Rear opening cargo door;; front cabin seats 5 figures with individual stations for each figure;; cabin has computer consoles, rotating seats built into the cabin;; interior cabin lights up;; side door opens on front of cabin;; top hatch opens on top of cabin;; Engine compartment hatches open for engine access;; rotating turrets;; movable landing spot lights;; sliding hatch door connecting the crew cabin with the rear cargo hold.



Please let me know what you all think. Any opinions, comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chad

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WOW that is some serious work. Got any reference pix that you used or are you just going from your own imagination?

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very fun stuff.

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Taliesin Crow;

The design was from my imagination. I had to draft the specs on paper. Unfortunately -with the time that has passed since working on this- I think the dimensional information is in the shed. I wanted something bigger than the star wars hover tanks... a vehicle that had more firepower, armor, and would have a somewhat more menacing appearance on the battlefield.

I have a lot of ideas in my head that I want to build, but, I just don't have a lot of time. I have plenty of styrene plastic just need more time.

I'm still aiming to complete these two by end of March. And make a duplicate H.A.H.T. The dropship, ehh, might not make a duplicate but a smaller variation for troop transporting. That thing weighs 20 pounds. I used a lot of the thicker styrene for the weight baring points and used screws "HO scale railrod srews" to assemble the model with glue.

Chad

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That's crazy cool.

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Straight out of "Hammers Slammers"!

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Hammers Slammers? What is that?

Chad

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Man, that stuff is fantastic, I'm always blown away by scratchbuilt, like DH's big german tank.

I think you should look up another customizer, a guy named Straxus, looks like you guys would have a lot of fun together.

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I keep coming back to these trying to think of something to say about them. I've got nothing to add so I'm just going to go back and look at the pretty pictures.

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I'm with P-luv -- I can't think of anything to say other than "holy crap those are sweet!"

I'd love to see some close-ups of the Dropship cabin/cockpit -- and also some pics showing the light-up features.

Very cool - makes me want to try my hand at these kinds of projects myself

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Hey, do the pictures open when you click on them?

Chad

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yes, they go to a page called webshots, works great.

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Hammers Slammers is a sci fi book series by David Drake. They're a company of mercenaries in the future and their main equipment is the heavy hover tank.

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Do WANT!

If I keep looking at these, I'm gonna end up trying to build a Joe scaled Renegade Legion style grav-tank.

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Thanks everyone!

I'm searching through my computers to see if I can find my WIP pic's. My fear is that some of those pics are on a laptop that crashed. I did manage to salvage some of them from one of my flashdrives (of the HAHT). Really ticks me off.

I need to find all the pics to help with duplicating the vehicles. I asked my wife if she knew where the other flashdrives were that had all of my WIP pics; she didn't know (thankfully she is very understanding and likes the custom work I do). This is what I get for bad organization and havings projects saved on separate drives.

Of course 4 1/2 years have gone by but the flashdrives should be near my new workstation. . The next step is to see if they are any hardcopy pics hidden in some of these boxes.

HAHT WIP Pics: turret, hull, top




HAHT Vehicle Frame



HAHT Vehicle Build Process



HAHT Turret Build



Thanks again for the comments!! It's cool to have a place where I share my work!

Chad

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