M3A1 Half-Track

[wererbob]

This project started with a New Ray Classic Tank model. Well model might be a bit of a stretch, more of a New Ray toy.

I needed a troop transport for a Warhammer 40K army I was working on. Even though the New Ray models are really cheap their details are OK. So I picked up 10 half tracks in hopes of modding them. :)

Painted up the 1/2 track in a german-ish gray color to differentiate it from the M3A1. Thought it looked OK but could use something more, so I encased it in armor.  Sort of looked like germans captured a 1/2 track and up-armored it so painted up a PAK35 to complement it.

Hope people enjoy it.

[The Big Gimper]

Hi Bob:

Welcome to BTS.

Very nice job on the M3. Hope to see more of your work.

Carl

[apophenia]

Nice concept. I like what you've done with the stepped-up roof  :)

[GTX_Admin]

Very nice.  Welcome aboard too.

[wererbob]

Thanks guys.

[Doom!]

Sometimes the little things make all the difference. Well done!  :)

[Brian da Basher]

Mr WereBob now that's what I call making an entrance!

You executed this excellent half-track with full-bore talent!

You'll find lots of good company here!

Brian da Basher

[finsrin]

All mentioned above.
Such an original bash concept.  And I'm a half-track fan anyway.  Would not have thought of doing one like that.  Hatch over driver, supply bags, gas cans and all the rest is cool.   

[Jeffry Fontaine]

This project started with a New Ray Classic Tank model. Well model might be a bit of a stretch, more of a New Ray toy.

I needed a troop transport for a Warhammer 40K army I was working on. Even though the New Ray models are really cheap their details are OK. So I picked up 10 half tracks in hopes of modding them. :)

Painted up the 1/2 track in a german-ish gray color to differentiate it from the M3A1. Thought it looked OK but could use something more, so I encased it in armor.  Sort of looked like germans captured a 1/2 track and up-armored it so painted up a PAK35 to complement it.

Looking good!  We always need more armor model subjects so this is most welcome! 

Did your half-track start out as the old 1/35th scale Tamiya kit or was it another brand?  The little 3.7PaK looks neat.  Did you check to see if the on-vehicle mount for the 3.7PaK would work on the half-track? 

[Rafael]

Great conversion, Bob!!

And a great idea to put a roof over your troops.

Is that a Bolter on the roof mount?

If you have more WH40K stuff please, post them, it's nice to have things from gaming universes too

Rafa

[ChrisF]

I like it !

And i agree with Raf.. If you have more 40k bring it on !

[stevegallacci]

Interestingly, the Germans did use some captured M3s as nebelweffer vehicles, with carrier/launcher hardware built in to the sides

[wererbob]

Did your half-track start out as the old 1/35th scale Tamiya kit or was it another brand?  The little 3.7PaK looks neat.  Did you check to see if the on-vehicle mount for the 3.7PaK would work on the half-track?

The 1/2 track is a classic tank model form new ray toys. Not really a model more of a toy. I built a custom mount as the classic tank model didn't have any mounting equipment. I'm a little limited on what I can do as far as details go. It needs to be durable enough to be transported for table top gaming. BTW this 1/2 track hit the gaming table tonight defending my 'what if' universe from all manner of alien (Tyranids to be precise).

Is that a Bolter on the roof mount?

They're 50 Cal guns (heavy stubbers in my world). I took the Bolter and Multilaser off and replaced them with something semi-historical for the picture. Did not wanting to drag my  40K sci-Fi conversions onto a perfectly respectable what-if forum. :) The weapons are actually on magnets so they are swappable. The armor itself is attached with clips so I can revert back to a standard 1/2 track if I feel like going open topped.

I've modded around 50 vehicles for my 40K army. I'm in the process of revisting the collection and looking at ways of improving it. Sometimes that means mods to make the model more WYSIWYG. Other times it's improvements for the sake of realism or using painting techniques I didn't know about when I started modding.

I'll dig up some pics and post them since people are interested.

[wererbob]

A shot of the various parts removable parts of the M3A1:
Armor-less M3A1 with a gas mask wearing driver
Armored roof with 2 magnetic weapon mounts
Windshield armor and gun mount for when going topless
PAK35
Heavy bolter (40K Sci-Fi weapon)
50 Cal
Multilaser (40K Sci-Fi weapon)



Unfortunately when I find an improvement for one of my models, it means I have to make that same mod a bunch more times. :)

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Did your half-track start out as the old 1/35th scale Tamiya kit or was it another brand?  The little 3.7PaK looks neat.  Did you check to see if the on-vehicle mount for the 3.7PaK would work on the half-track?

The 1/2 track is a classic tank model form new ray toys. Not really a model more of a toy. I built a custom mount as the classic tank model didn't have any mounting equipment. I'm a little limited on what I can do as far as details go. It needs to be durable enough to be transported for table top gaming. BTW this 1/2 track hit the gaming table tonight defending my 'what if' universe from all manner of alien (Tyranids to be precise).

That plan certainly gives you a wide selection and some modularity to tailor your game pieces for a specific mission, task, or campaign.  Makes perfect sense! 

[GTX_Admin]

Nice set.

[Brian da Basher]

Holy cow! He's building an army!

Brian da Basher

[wererbob]

I can try denying building an army but the pictures tell the truth.





These are my versions of heavy tanks (Leman Russ) in 40K. The Russ has a rule called 'lumbering behemoth' and I can't think of a tank the embodies that like the Lee . I've removed the lower guns and replaced them with Heavy Bolter (Sci-Fi) and the upper turret gets various 40K main tank weapons. The main problem I have with these is the size of the turret, it's too small to hold really big armament. I'm debating building custom turrets.

Yes I've got a vehicle addiction ........ they tell me that admitting that is half the battle. :)

[Feldmarschall Zod]

Sweet half tracks and Lees.

[ChrisF]

He's clearly crazy... But i think i speak for everyone when i say he's our kind of crazy

 

[Jeffry Fontaine]

All you need is a figure with the likeness of Sergeant Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) from Sahara for one of your tank commander figures/game piece.

[wererbob]

All you need is a figure with the likeness of Sergeant Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) from Sahara for one of your tank commander figures/game piece.

There is a commander mounted in the hatch of one of the tanks, he's a Commissar of the Imperial Guard, 1st Hoira division. In addition to being an excellent tanker he immediately executes anyone who even thinks of retreating. Not sure how favorably that compares to Sergeant Joe Gunn but he's open to being called Commissar Gunn.  Has nice ring to it. :)

[wererbob]

I do love tanks and history teaches us you can't use shermans to beat an enemy with superior technology without a 10 to 1 ratio.





These are my fast tanks, Hellhound variants in 40K. For game play purposes they're faster and more lightly armored than the  main battle tanks. Yeah Shermans being lightly armored compared to the Lee might not be realistic but hey in my universe they are. They really haven't had much done to them, a new paint job and a barrel mod.

I'm unhappy enough with these that I'm going to have to do some major mods. In the 2nd picture the first tank is hellhound which shoots flame, second is a bane wolf which shoots poisonous gas and third is a devil dog which shoots motel metal. They really need somewhere to store the ammo fuel, I added a regular oil drum to the rear but it's just not cutting it for me. I need to scratch build fuel trailers, a fair bit of work. Where does a guy gets 10 sets of trailer wheels at a reasonable price? :)

[wererbob]

Even more 1/2 tracks, seriously who doesn't love a good 1/2 track. :)





First off I'd like to apologize. When I was designing weapons for these I was spending a lot of time playing 40K, hence the ridiculous weapon sizes. If that big gun ever fired it would shred that mount and / or flip the truck.

These 1/2 tracks are the artillery wing of my army and they're still a WIP. To start with I stripped the original model's AA armament. I painted the 1/2 tracks in my standard Charcoal Gray paint scheme. I installed a largish magnet in the 1/2 track to allow me to mount various artillery options into the common chassis (magnet makes also allows for a nice smooth weapon traverse which is cool).

I need to go back and scratch build weapon system for them to replace the current ones. The lack of realism pains me. :)


Well that's the main body of my 1st Hoira Guard army. 20 x 1/2 tracks, 10 x Lees, 10 x Shermans. They've been fun to paint and mod. I still have plenty of modifications to do. Hopefully I'll end up with a few what-if models out of it.

[GTX_Admin]

No need to apologise - we still love them!

[ChrisF]

What GTX said !!

The crazier the better !

[raafif]

well werebob,
             the howitzer ain't anywhere near big enough for my liking

                  but that "Ontos"-˝trak certainly has potential for small countries that want more bang for their buck !!
       4 x Bazookas beat 4x .50 cal anytime !

[finsrin]

All these are great.  Eating it up.  Please post more if you have some.  So much you can do with a half-track.   :)

[Brian da Basher]

Holy mackerel! The man's building an army!!!

This so hits eleventy on the cool-meter!

Brian da Basher

[wererbob]

Thanks for all the positive comments guys. I appreciate them.

I'm getting down to the freaks, you know stuff I don't have 10 of. :)

This M35 is pretty much straight from the kit with the customary gray paint job. The embarked unit is one of a dozen or so similar units. I've gone with a sort of what-if theme to the army. In the middle of WWII evil aliens have landed and the axis and allies are working together to fight them off. I opted not to use the Sci-Fi heads that 40K uses and ordered in  aftermarket gas mask heads as replacements. Wanted them to look like gas mas wearing germans in some sort of metallic flak armor.




These king tigers a and they are the super heavy Baneblade tanks of the 40K universe. A single shot can wipe out a squad of  guys, easily destroy an enemy vehicle or pulverize a horde of aliens. They only make appearances in the largest of games, so far I've only ever used one at a time. The model got the standard gray paint job. I added a co-axial mounted gun to the turret, a demolisher cannon (secondary main gun) to the hull and a couple heavy bolters (big machine guns) to the hull. Not entirely happy with the extra guns, they were all scratch built and I've learned quite a bit since I built them. Someday I'll go back and improve them but since they rarely see the field it's way down the priority list.





Who else could control german troops driving around in american 1/2 tracks but a Russian Kommander with a giant hammer and a habit of shooting troops that don't do what they're told. This is Kommander Sorscha, she's multi-part resin model from the Warmachine game system. Even though it's from the wrong game system and I hate painting faces the model was too cool to pass up.



Oh and I forgot to mention the king tigers are actually motorized. Scale model King tiger with decent details and a battery powered motor for $10 each, how could I go wrong?

[wererbob]

What's an army without an air force?

Before the planes enthusiasts get out the torches and pitchforks, no real models were harmed in the making of this air force. They were mostly old hobbycraft models that I assembled a very long time ago. Glue on canopies, really bad paint jobs ...... basically junk that sitting 1/2 broken in a box.

Took out the models and tracked down as many part as I could find. I made a gas mask wearing pilot for every plane that had a canopy off. Painted them all the standard gray paint scheme. Since they're supposed to be futuristic 40K Thunderbolt fighters (no relation to WWII Thunderbolts of the same name) I added 4 autocannons and 2 lascannons to the wings. In real world speak autocannons can take out everything except the heaviest tanks and the lascannon can take out anything. The planes end up being flying AT guns.

They're still a WIP. The canopies supports need to be painted (I'm not at that painting skill level yet). They planes all look a little plain, I need to figure out a way to make a really small stencil to give them some better marking. Lastly the bases need to be finished. A giant silver disk with 'Dexter season 1 E1-4' doesn't exactly blend into the battlefield. :)

[ChrisF]

To be fair if you framed up those canopies thats all you'd need... The building is spot on just like your other stuff and i like the moody paint job !

Keep em coming !  :)

[wererbob]

Decided to put a R+D time into one of the flamer tanks.  Added an igniter to the end of the barrel, extended it directly in front of the barrel to ensure it can't be mistaken for anything else but a flamer. Scratch built a fuel trailer and added a magnetic hitch to the back of the tank.  Still not sure about this the trailer something seems off.

The trailer tank is a yellow kinder-egg container and the wheels from an ATV for the local dollar store. A wire hose runs under the hitch to the bottom of the trailer tank. Maybe once I give it a proper paint job and decals it will grow on me. :)

[Brian da Basher]

Wow now you've got an entire air force!

And with those great guns, that air force will have no problems defending your skies!

Brian da Basher

[wererbob]

Managed to finished the Sherman flamer (Hellhound) moved the fuel hose higher and added straps to make it look a little more realistic. Painted it a bronzish color to make it stand out.



New project:

I've decided I needed an air cav option for my troops so I purchased 3 of these models:





This Huey (or Valkyrie as it's know in the 1st Hoira) could end up going up against another human army in traditional warfare but could just as easily take on 30 foot tall burrowing bugs in a scene from Starship Troopers. Typically the crew and troops of a Valkyrie squad are short-lived. They drop in behind enemy lines to take out vital targets and then have to fight a battle of survival to make it back to their own lines. To fight with the a Valkyrie squad in the 1st Hoira you must know no fear.


Was going to enter the 3 of them in the group build for the Falkland islands. The Huey was in the Argentine army at the time but the laser cannon would be stretching the what-if a little too far. Although if they had laser cannon the Brits would of had a tough time of it. :)

[GTX_Admin]

That Sherman looks fantastic

[ChrisF]

Lovin the Huey !!


Sorry Valkyrie !!
 :)

[wererbob]

Thanks guys.

It was nice to finally get the prototype flamer trailer finished. Such a simple scratch build but  I still had to tear it apart 4 times to get it right.

Huey was interesting to build, it was my first time having to deal with windows. Yes interesting is the best word I can think of.
Still have 2 more Hueys to master my window installation on.

[Brian da Basher]

Wow your details and paintwork really make that flame-throwing Sherman believable!

That "black ops" Huey is a treat too!

Brian da Basher

[japsubshunter]

I just luv the magnet ideas and the options for variations - Now that would make a whole load of sense to me -