Monday, March 15, 2010

Heavy Tanks

My lack of posts recently hasn't resulted in less tinkering...

This will be the first of a few different heavy tanks that I am putting together. The FW Macharius & Maclador are both superb but are far beyond my spending limit for a single model. In order to stretch my dollar and my modeling enjoyment I am continuing to turn to the world of plastic scale models.

This first experiment is with a Tamiya 1/35 King Tiger. It fits in with the "Tiger Russes" I already have and gives a nice middle ground between a standard MBT and a Baneblade. Here's the visuals...


Close-up showing armor plate detail


Shows twin-linked heavy stubber


Shown for a relative scale


And more scale...


Progress on the turret, crew, and heavy bolters


Yeah, a twin-linked battle cannon...




It might be hard to believe, but I am not entirely happy with the way this has turned out. In comparison to the GW Super Heavies, it is all-around taller and bulkier...a rather unfortunate dose of 40K reality. In order to maintain some sense of continuity in the feel and look of my tanks, I may have to go with something modern.

Does anyone else wish that GW would come up with something else in the way of tank design, especially in light of the newer super heavies and the lastest FW designs?

More to come...

C&C is always appreciated.

The war goes on,
Hessler

2 comments:

Col. Corbane said...

I think that's got plenty of potential mate. On the GW kits, yeah, the Russ is a bit of a strange kit.

Personally, I'd like to see a conversion sprue, things like tracks, wheels, vents, exhausts etc.

Anonymous said...

I HATE the Leman Russ... I think it is quite possible the dumbest model produced ever... I wish they would model a LR that looked like a smaller Baneblade...

While I actually kind of like the Chimera, I just can't get behind the Leman Russ.... It just makes the Guard look dorky...

I REALLY like the tiger conversion.... Any way I could talk you into taking more pics? Front on comparison, side by side, straight up and down (would like to know how much longer/thinner than the LR)

Also, here's my solution to the problem... After trying with a a 1/48 merkava and a 1/48 Bradley, I ended up just using a rhino chassis and calling it good enough (but I'm still not happy)
http://clt40k.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/forgeworld-custom-turret/