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He everyone, looking at the current hydra kit from FW i had decided to go off and make my own Hydra for my massive Imp army, and decided on patterning it after the Russian ZSU-23-4 (mt)and the failed U.S. M247 Sgt. York AA tank.

so here is the sketch that i use to make the tank. basing it on the chimera chassis.


The chassis is flush with the tracks, so here are the new extensions to allow me to run the upper deck all the way to the back


the cut down rear hatch is now a the back of the tank with the hindged rear door, cut off the piston ram connection to flatten out the back


now the upper deck and location of the turret ring.


and a quick mock up before i have to stop working on it...


the turret is as tall as the chassis, is it too tall? i thought that would be just right but i'm no longer sure... comments?

What is the turret ring from? Planetstrike terrain?

with the size of the barrels you are using, i would make the turret a bit smaller. looking good so far.

Looking cool man. I like these style of flak weapons, but wanted mine to resemble the actual Hydra a bit more.

This I love though man. Keep it up!

I would make the turrett alittle smaller. Otherwise it looks good.

the turret ring is from the quad autocannon turret base.
and i was thinking of knocking off about 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch off the top of the turret sides... otherwise its supposed to be a giant box...if you look at the pick for the Sgt. York its a giant box on top of a Patton chassis. today i'll build up the turret and i am gonna dread the front of my own creation...

I built a flat deck like you did. then I took the boxy thing for the Interceptor Lascannon turned it around and used it as the turret for the hydra. Put a hatchon it. I drilled two holes in the top rear of each of the sides and put the autocannons in the holes . I also legthened the ACs to make them longbarrelled..ie72" range.

Nice use of Planetstrike barricade on the hull deck.

I too think the turret is too big and boxy - I'd prefer about three quarters of that size. And think about what detailing you're going to put on the turret sides - even at the smaller size, it's still quite a bit of blank space. (Hmm, maybe som more Planetstrike barricade bits?)

I'd make the turret smaller, and add some more "complication" to it. Basically more facets.

You're on the right track patterning it after the Shilka (I assume that's what you mean by ZSU-23-8, I don't think such a thing exists). But the Shilka has a much lower, more shaped turret. Nobody sitting inside it.

Yeah, the turret does seem large. I can't imagine a reason why a tank designer would make a turret be almost as tall as the tank.... it would be so much harder for them to go hull-down or anything.

the ZSU-23-4 "Shika" is the tank i'm thinking of...they are in fact the same tank...wiki the tank and you'll see... and as for the box thing, its ment to be big, although i did knock a 1/8th of an inch off the turret height. it is based on the turret box of the M247 Sgt.York tank, that turret is tall as heck and a different look vs. the Stock hydra which is patterned after Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer Gepard...wiki that jumble of letters... well i was starting on the turret build and of course my camera is dead...so i will wait a day and try again later, so i can take pics while i figure out how to build it...

Yeah check out this image:


I think a lower turret would look a lot better. Personal opinion, of course! I have no scratchbuilding skills, so you are already doing fine by me.

I can't imagine a reason why a tank designer would make a turret be almost as tall as the tank....

Because it's not really a front line tank, and a tall turret like that might be necessary to crew the guns, to store ammo, etc.

If you can get away without doing it, great, but generally a tank that's meant to shoot down aircraft should be focused on doing that. If a big, roomy turret helps, there you go...

the ZSU-23-4 "Shika" is the tank i'm thinking of...they are in fact the same tank...wiki the tank and you'll see...

Right, I know, but you said ZSU-23-8, which would basically mean a vehicle with 8 23mm guns, and I don't think those exist. Altho they'd fit right into a 40K battle. More guns is always better!

In any case, I'd suggest you shorten the turret both for looks, and for gameplay. Don't forget, you've got to hide this thing in game...

Also, the tall turret with big slab sides will be a real challenge to paint. Not in terms of getting it painted, exactly, but in terms of making it look good. It's just a big empty space with nothing of interest. With some panel lines, rivets, facets to the shape of the turret, you've got edges and surfaces to paint and make interesting.

I've always been partial to the Quad .50's from WWII.

Seems pretty simple, especially with the new defence lines with the quad autocannons. You can either post the gun on a chimera or use the guns and put them in the multilaser turret.

I've always been a fan of the Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer Gepard. Looks an awful lot like a half a Hydra to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gepard_1a2_overview.jpg

The turret is clearly as tall, if not taller, than the chassis but mostly because of the radar systems. For a self-contained AA system like a Hydra, you need a target tracking radar and a detection/search radar. The target tracker is the phased array in the front and the one that looks like a airport control tower radar dish is the EW radar. When I get around to building my Hydras I'll be sure to get those bits on there to add a teeny bit of realism.

DoW

I agree with comments that the turret could be smaller. Other than that looks like a cool and cheaper alternative

Ok, more pics!

I cut down the turret height by about 1/8th of an inch, looks better. I know its still tall but again its based off the Sgt. York AA gun turret...

my Extended Hydra Autocannons in their TL sets, ready to mount to the armature

and a completed business end of my tank. Giant hinge points guaranty little to no breakage of the gun pivot area. also the gun is awaiting a gun targeting radar to go between the barrels

the internal turret structure. you can see the main pivot hole is secured to the internal wall and the outer wall. also if you look at the turret floor you will see a bit of the defense gun that connects to the turret ring.

more internal structure, a test fit of the other side to make sure its all true and flat...it was

a test fit with the barrels...

now with the finished barrel set and attached targeting radar dish, note that the walls on the right side of the turret art not glued in at this point, its a test fit.

so i finished the main turret structure, just have to finish skinning the top of the turret and adding details to the giant flat sides, also gonna add the main scanning/early warning radar that will take up the left rear corner of the turret. i was thinking of the spinning bar type radar, which will look cool if i motorize it... will have more pics in a few days, till then i need to acquire another chimera chassis for a 2nd hydra...

scanning the sky for trouble

jep'ray wrote:also gonna add the main scanning/early warning radar that will take up the left rear corner of the turret. i was thinking of the spinning bar type radar, which will look cool if i motorize it...

The technical term is a Horizontally truncated parabaloid (I deal with radar systems pretty much every day at work) but that's not terribly important. Seriously though, it would look very awesome motorized, do it!

As for the turret, I don't think it looks terribly huge anymore. It will definitely need some rivets/gubbins to hide the fact that it's a big sheet of plasticard, but that's an easy enough fix. I'm actually liking the 'internal' cannon setup rather than the 'external' that the Hydra seems to have. The only other thing I can think of is an ejection port/system for spent casings. But that's only if you're worried about the crew getting buried in brass!

All in all I'm a big fan and I'm looking forward to seeing it with a lick of paint!

DoW

Yup, the new size is better. So, fluffwise it's big to contain the crew and ammo? Then that's the solution to detailing it - you need some crew/ammo access hatches. The Chimera hull side hatches would be good, if you can find some, and/or the same from the old Leman Russ (the ones normally covered by the side sponsons).

ammo ejection ports are next, along with a copula and some hatches...panel lines and such along with either rivets or holes for screws... i was gonna mount ejection rails towards out from under the barrels like the ZSU-23-4 but i don't think i have enough space for that ideal anymore, so just 2 exit hoppers, one to each side should work...gonna buy some small gauge tubing for spent shells and cover the tracks and hull with them...

well that took longer than i expected... ever had a day when no matter what you did things never came out right?I spent hours trying to fit a upper deck to the turret, and no matter how careful i was with measuring or laying down the lines to cut, it always came out wrong. I must have cut 6 diffrent top plates before giving up and making one over sized plate glueing it down and then trimming to size...
So here is the turret with the upper plates installed along with a cupola


Another angle, it went together well after i finally got that darn top plate in place...


Now the detail work and installation of the "Horizontally truncated parabaloid"...gotta go buy a motor and battery for that...

Very nice I like it a lot, I'm thinking that maybe that your idea would work well making a Armageddon pattern basilisk or something. Nice work keep it up.

True, same setup minus the turret ring...

so i'm adding crap (armor plates, panels and such) to the sides of this thing to make it look more interesting... here we go...


one side with a ladder to help get tot he top of the turret, i added 2 possible access hatches to the front of the turret, need to add handles


here you can see the shell ejection port, gonna need to either grab a bunch of ork big shoota spent ammo streams or but some brasss and cut and glue my own so i can have shells flying out the sides of my turret!


other turret side, that big chuck of gray plasitc is my optical site, just thought it up last night while staring at the black hull, it can rotate.


a better look at its front, that optical mount is held on with a magnets


see. and the round bit that is its base was a old as sin 1st gen Rhino hatch that was rattling around my bits box...

Ok, today i go and visit local electronic parts store to pick up micro motor and a few resistors to slow it down and a battery or two to make the spinning radar. There is just one place in this town to go and it makes radio shack look empty by comparison as far as random electronic related loose bits go... if they don't have it, it doesn't exist...

more to come and a heres a preview of my next build project. Griffon ACC. Like the hydra project, I drew up some plans...

I currently own 2 griffons and plan to disassemble one to see how this little prject goes...

Looking good, I particularly like the rotating optical sight. Not sure about the ejecting ammo idea, but see how it looks before you glue it in place.

That is an exceedingly neat conversion! I especially like the ultra-elevation possible in the AA mount

Is there any way to get some kind of fabric to cover the hinging positions? At the moment you can kind of see right into the bowels of the turret.

@Flinty: yeah, i noticed the hole too, its a lot smaller than it used to be, but the angle of the barrels kinda leaves a nasty habit of leaving gaps. Working on geting a small cloth cover for it.

Ok. not for the past few days i've hit up my local electronic hobby stores raiding various parts binds for my spinning radar thingy or "Horizontally truncated parabaloid" as a radar tech has informed me. Thanks btw, its always nice to know just what the heck i'm working on...i will still think of it as the spinning bar radar thingy... i gathered the parts, a micro motor from a R/C heli, a simple on and off switch, a volume control thumb wheel (speed controller), a battery holder (CR2025 i think, its a quarter sized battery) and some small gauge wiring. I am already skilled as soldering so assembling it is no problem. i do a dry run testing the concept and proving to myself at least that it all works. I can draw you guys the basic set up if you wish. But then here i am holding a bunch of parts and looking at the back of the turret...
Where the heck will it all go?
Of course i knew it would mostly have to go inside the turret, but i just skinned the darn thing. The only hole in it is for the copula, and the battery holder is bigger than that... I'll have to but a access hatch into the turret....but its so nice and smooth in back...carefully i chop a giant hole in the back of the turret.

He are the motor and speed control with extra wiring to double check the set up, you can see the batt centered in the hull. the on/off switch will be masked with a box.

I am using 8 magnets to hold on to the back cover plate, which will also house the radar motor and speed control.

Ah, much better...

This shows the placement of the motor in the housing (it came from the Aegis defense line quad autocannon turret base) and the speed control that i stuck to the bottom of a drum, hey they are just the right size for each other. The red thing it a power connector from Deans plugs, this allows me to remove the cover plate for access to the Battery for replacement...gotta think ahead sometimes...

Final placement fit test before wiring the rear panel

Back side of panel before i soldered on the last wire and plug

The last thing those Ork Death Koptas will ever see

The final rear view of the turret, the box on top turns it on and off, side forward for on. the speed control is a good it under the barrel, I'll be sure to write "water" across it. A chicken hatch in the rear of the turret... btw that radar was spinning when i took those last 2 pics... it spins a little to fast but its cool, i'll have to dive into more difficult electronic science to fix it, which i'm not gonna do, it works the wiring is neat and compact and now I'm gonna prim and paint, and i need to add rivets still... I'll post more when i start painting...

I know the number that the tank will have, but what to name it? All my tanks are numbered and named, mostly from tanks in novels written by David Drake and his Hammers Slammers series. any suggestions on a name for his Hydra?