Beyond The Sprues
Modelling => Group and Themed Builds => The Tankbuster GB => Topic started by: Dr. YoKai on November 05, 2025, 06:51:14 AM
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The inspiration for this comes from a short data entry in a timeline of military technology from the Science Fiction role playing game, Traveller. Managed to find the relevant quote pretty easily:
LBB:4 Mercenary
"Tech level 11: All combat vehicles are now grav powered. The grav tank generally utilizes the more compact plasma A gun and/or tac missile racks. Very heavy grav tanks mount the plasma B gun. Light grav sleds are used for scouting, generally mounting tac missiles and autocannons.
Close support sleds mount VRF gauss guns and tac missiles. All vehicles have pronounced free-flight capability.
Tech level 12: All vehicles have sufficient free-flight performance that ground combat vehicles effectively no longer exist, having merged with aircraft. The primary weapon of the heavy gunships include plasma B guns, VRF gauss guns, and tac missiles. VRF gauss guns are also widely mounted on personnel carriers, as are plasma A guns.
Tech level 13: The first damper fields allow protracted storage and transportation of elements with short half-lives. The first major use of the damper field militarily is to enable the manufacture, storage, and transportation of 2 cm californium rounds, fired from auto-cannon mounts in remotely piloted drones. Each round is hollow and collapses on impact, the collapsed round having sufficient mass to go critical, thus causing a small nuclear explosion. More conventional gunships mount plasma C guns or fusion X guns along with missiles.
Tech level 14: More sophisticated damper fields render the californium drones obsolete.
Gunships now carry fusion Y guns or rapid pulse X guns.
From here: https://www.travellerrpg.com/threads/grav-tanks.7348/ (https://www.travellerrpg.com/threads/grav-tanks.7348/)
Started with this pile of parts-
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54901712387_364f8d7d6f_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rDtCm4)DSCF1250 (https://flic.kr/p/2rDtCm4) by VileDr.Yo (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46965833@N07/), on Flickr
Got this done over the last two days-
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54902585036_cb7a30e1d3_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rDy6KJ)DSCF1251 (https://flic.kr/p/2rDy6KJ) by VileDr.Yo (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46965833@N07/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54901712377_96e1f9a0c4_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rDtCkT)DSCF1252 (https://flic.kr/p/2rDtCkT) by VileDr.Yo (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46965833@N07/), on Flickr
This is 1/35 scale.
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This looks exciting already :smiley:
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Very different! I’ll be watching.
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This looks exciting already :smiley:
It does indeed :smiley:
And those californium rounds are at that intersection between intriguing and creepy :o
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This does look good! Why even fire the Californium? Just sprinkle it on the ground and let the ridiculous amount of neutrons it emits do the job.
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This does look good! Why even fire the Californium? Just sprinkle it on the ground and let the ridiculous amount of neutrons it emits do the job.
Like a lot of things, it is the sheer goofiness of the concept that appeals to me. A 20mm Davy Crockett? What's not to love?
This is actually a very old concept on my bench. Back in the 1980s, a company called Gamescience released a series of Star Trek ship in
styrene plastic. I had several, including the 'Dreadnought', which had a slightly thicker saucer section. I used that to create a earlier, smaller
version of this build with a turret fashioned from a spare aircraft wheel and some landing gear bits. I know it is still lurking in storage someplace in
the shop...
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... A 20mm Davy Crockett? What's not to love? ...
;D ;D
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Getting closer, but the weather and the holidays have slowed things down a bit. Still first primer is on, and if I can get one more warmish day, I should be able to finsh...as soon as I can settle on a paint scheme.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54949434732_c2268ebbc9_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rHGdx7)DSCF1267 (https://flic.kr/p/2rHGdx7) by VileDr.Yo (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46965833@N07/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54950321581_b4ddb5baac_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rHLLaB)DSCF1266 (https://flic.kr/p/2rHLLaB) by VileDr.Yo (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46965833@N07/), on Flickr
I know it is not Thanksgiving for a lot of the folks on here, But I am mighty thankful for all my friends at BTS.
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That's coming along nicely, Doc! :smiley:
Happy Thanksgiving! :D
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That is so right to my eye.. :smiley: :smiley:
And a happy Thanksgiving to you too
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Looks great! The two little vents on the lower right look like googly eyes!
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Love it! :smiley:
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I haven't been completely idle, but the weather hasn't been good. Too cold, even with the small space heater running, but there were a couple of days just warm enough to get some primer on.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55017842909_205b589188_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rPJPUr)DSCF1274 (https://flic.kr/p/2rPJPUr) by VileDr.Yo (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46965833@N07/), on Flickr
and the masks I used for a simple 'dazzle' pattern paint scheme. That's done, but I haven't taken pictures yet.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55016697897_7159d483e2_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rPCXwR)DSCF1278 (https://flic.kr/p/2rPCXwR) by VileDr.Yo (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46965833@N07/), on Flickr
Happy New Year, friends and colleagues!
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A primer coat always brings things together! Did you cut the pattern on an old phone/tablet?
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Yes, it's an old Kindle, or another one of those ebook readers that came into vogue awhile back. It was actually given to me by a fellow commuter when I was still riding the train to work in Austin about seven or eight years ago. I used it for about two weeks when it suddenly glitched while charging, and a trip to B&N discovered that they (1) didn't replace batteries and (2) couldn't repair them and would I like to buy a replacement? So I've used it as a handy cutting surface ever since... ???
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https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xq92oz (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xq92oz)
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gives WH40K tau drone vibes.
super cool
.
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Just about there. The attempt a dazzle could be better, but I'm not going to get enough of a break in the weather to do much more than this.
It does blend in fairly well with the rest of the workbench... :D
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55035861950_ff64056595_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rRkbky)DSCF1279 (https://flic.kr/p/2rRkbky) by VileDr.Yo (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46965833@N07/), on Flickr
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:smiley:
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The splinter pattern looks very good (and effective)