In Progress » Full-Scratchbuilt Hovertank

06.03.05 » Source,
Concepts & Initial Scratchbuilding

This is gonna be a hard one to explain to those of
you unfamiliar with the Maschinen Krieger (MaK) universe… First
off click
here. This is the site where I first spied these awesome
insect-like hovering vehicles. The site where I saw them was called
“Vehitle
Contest“. I’m not sure if the misspelling was intentional
or not. I was told that these were variations or 3D representations
of artwork from the MaK designer Kow Yokoyama. Wherever they came
from, they rock and I wanted to make my own variation.

Mine will primarily be based on this
one. I’ll be constructing it in 1/20 scale to keep the scale
consistent with most other MaK kits. I’ll be making mine as a swift
assault tank. On the right side of the cockpit there will be a large
scratch-built tank cannon. The cockpit will have a hinged opening
hatch and full detailed cockpit. I want to have posable landing
legs, some engine details, and lots of little details. Everything
will be made from scratch or scavenged from various option part
sets, AFV kits and leftover Gundam kit bits I use for spare parts.

As far as story and setting goes, I’m not sure yet.
I might keep it on Mars or I may make an earth desert-deployed version.
Who knows? I’m not even sure what colors I’ll paint it yet aside
from being in the red-orange-rust range. THis is quite the change
from my normal builds where I explain everything up front. Since
I’m building this from scratch and making it up as I go along, it
should be interesting.

06.03.05 » The “Plan” and
Initial Build-up

So my plan is to make most of the large components
such as the cockpit, engine, legs, cannon, etc… and attach them
to a large foam egg. After all the bulk is built-up with these parts
and plastic eggs (typical of many MaK scratch-builds, just look
at the SAFS!) I’ll use Bondo to blend all these parts together into
one big tanky mass. After that I’ll add the greebles and other bits.

I started out laying out the shape of the cockpit
box on paper. I cut out the paper and traced the design onto styrene
which I cut and glued together using Tamiya Extra-thin cement. Using
paper allowed me to get all the angles correct before cutting. Later
I’ll putty all the edges and sand them smooth.

Here’s a shot of the cockpit inside details so far.
There will be many more gauges and greebles added later. I was searching
for 1/20 scale race car seats, but wasn’t having much luck. All
that I found were either the wrong scale or very expensive. So I
made this one from thick sheet-styrene. I used a candle and various
sizes of PVC pipe to shape the seat contours. It still needs some
putty and adjustment, but I think it’s a good start. My test figure
fits into it nicely.

For the hatch I wanted a flat angled front with a
rounded slope towards the back. I cut the sides and front from styrene
and glued them together. When dry I took 2 layers of .01 thick styrene
sheet and one layer of .02 and layered it over the top to form the
curve. It’s easier to bend thin layers than it is to bend one thick
layer. When dry I shaved off the excess.

Below is the hatch sitting atop the cockpit. I’ve
already made a hinge and it opens great but I haven’t photographed
it yet. The next pic is of the cockpit box attached temporarily
to the foam egg. The egg has had it’s bottom cut flat. Various hover
greebles and antigravity pods will be added there.

Lastly is the cannon. Look familiar? That’s because
it’s the main body of the cannon I was making for the Sazabi.
I nixed that project temporarily since this one seemed much more
fun and rewarding. I replaced the styrene barrel with part of a
broken wind chime that I have. I think it’s aluminum since it’s
been outside for years without rusting.

06.06.05 » Legs

The legs have posed an interesting challenge so far.
I need 6 of them and they need to be identical except for the armor.
That means that if I decide to use parts that are not scratch-built
from styrene, I need six or 12 of them. I’d cast them, but I don’t
know how and it’s cheaper this way. Plus I find that this gives
me more practice and skill development.

So I have been using parts from an Academy M-10 tank
to creat the legs and various shapes and sizes of Evergreen Styrene.
The knee joint is from the wheel portion of the tank. Not sure what
the parts are called, but I was able to cut them in half and remove
a top part and have interesting knees. The ankle joint is rectangular
tube which had a short end removed. The foot is cut from a thick
piece of strip. (.250 x .125) The rest of the knee joint is made
from those two shapes as well. The shin is made from styrene rod
and an H-column.

I still have a lot of detail to add to them. I need
to add minus molds to the outsides of the ankle joint after it’s
painted and the pins have been inserted. I also need to make the
channels that will hold the “wheel” part of the knee to
the lower leg. Then I’ll make and add the armor to the ankle, shin,
and knee. I also need to add some wires, treads and such too and
clean up around the ball-joint pole. A Wave B-Joint will connect
it to the tank.

06.10.05 » It may not look like much…

Okay… it looks awful right now. However it looks
much better than it did after my first layer of bondo. You can see
some of that layer in the second image. It’s the darker blue. But
basically I have all the outside shapes and bulk attached to the
foam and am currently applying Bondo light body filler to create
the “shell”. Once cured (20 minutes) I’m gonna go and
add more bondo layers until the while rough shape is completed.
While it’s curing it reaches a state where it can be easily carved.
This state doesn’t last long however. But that state is allowing
me to carve down some of the peaks and ridges so that I won’t have
as much sanding to do later.

Anyway… here’s some pics and remember… “humble
beginnings”. 😉

06.21.05 » Looking slightly better…

Since the last post I’ve added a little more bondo
to the front and sides. I also used my Dremmel and sander and cleaned
up the “cake icing” look. I need to fill holes and such
on the main body still. I also will be building up and cleaning
up the front buldges and armor panels now that my Magic Sculp order
has arrived. Yay! Before that though I needed to gouge out the foam.
I used a rounded, sharp, pointy clay tool to do it. Here’s some
shots: