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Here is my WIP conversion for the Taurox. I personally think the treads on the font looked rather silly so I decided to convert it to a halftrack. The wheels are just pinned/green stuffed to the suspension for the front tracks. Thoughts?



Size conversion to a chimera/manticore frame.




Wheels can be found here http://chapterhousestudios.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=77&product_id=221

I think it looks pretty sick actually man, good job.

Nice. You could even chop up all 4 track units to lengthen one set to make it look a bit less chibi. With tracks you are after all trying to maximize ground contact.

Need to raise the back treads. The front looks like it is higher than the back.

Looks pretty sharp, that thing has some ridiculous ground clearance. Those things are cartoonishly tall, but I think that's exaggerated by being next to the Chimera.

And really, military trucks ARE cartoonishly tall with crazy ground clearance. Just look at all the Unimogs and MRAPs and the like. So thinking about that, it looks pretty damn spot on.

You are on the right track ( and no pun intended). I think the track boxes look ridiculous, I plan on getting rid of them all together. I plan on a 3/4 track or some such.

General Hobbs wrote:


Need to raise the back treads. The front looks like it is higher than the back.

Yes. Or find very slightly smaller front wheels. Or get rid of the back treads entirely, e.g. go for twin sets of back wheels? The rearmost pair would protrude past the back of the hull, but that's not necessarily a bad look.

Does the stock front suspension hold the wheels or does it need to be built up for the track/wheel swap?

Nah, the wheel is the right size. The visual problem is the "wheel" well being flat vs. the round tire. The wheel needs to be lifted about a quarter inch so the bottom is perfectly level with the back tracks and then the wheel well need to be cut off and replaced with shaped plasticard to fit around it so it doesn't look to be hanging out in space like it does now. But I do like the idea.

2112 wrote:
Does the stock front suspension hold the wheels or does it need to be built up for the track/wheel swap?

Its stock. I just pinned the wheel and added some green stuff to give it some more stability.

Thanks for the replies, I understand the problem with the wheel well. I'll see if i can mess with if after adding the engine parts etc. If not I'll try to work around that if I make another one.

I'm a fan! A lot of folks were saying it's more suited to being a halftrack, and your conversion definitely proves it.

I like it better than the standard model. Wheels in the front look very WWII-ish. Approved.

The wheels in the front look too big, to me. It's not just the disparity in height with the tracks; they look too big. I think they would look better with smaller tires and more clearance between the tire and the wheel well (allowing the suspension to flex them up and down a bit).

Also, you might try moving the front wheels forward so that they are properly aligned with the front of the wheel wells, and then building up the back of the wheel well with armor plating. I could see the hull mounted weapons which look SO DUMB on the back fenders looking much more sensible and cool on those front fenders, where they wouldn't shoot off the doors!

And now you can use the spare tracks to make a Rapier Laser Battery.

1.) Wheels look better than tracks.
2.) IMHO the truck is still too high, as noone can enter or exit it properly: Doors are above head level. At least add ladders ... or lower the truck.

 Kroothawk wrote:
1.) Wheels look better than tracks.
2.) IMHO the truck is still too high, as noone can enter or exit it properly: Doors are above head level. At least add ladders ... or lower the truck.

You got a problem with some ground clearance mother trucker?!

In all serious, it does seem really high, but I think a lot of the tanks are really low. Proper offroad monsters should have some height to em'. Its certainly got the chops for bouncing across the battlefields of the 40K Universe.

Looks great.

 Kroothawk wrote:

2.) IMHO the truck is still too high, as noone can enter or exit it properly: Doors are above head level. At least add ladders ... or lower the truck.

Tracks added. Now to just figure out how to magnetize the guns and it should be done.

I think they only way to improve it would be to make it less of a monster truck with the high chassis but you're limited in what you can do without getting rid of the back tracks. I think it might look better with the smaller ork wheels (two pairs in front and two pairs in back) to lower the chassis. At this point, it still looks more like a half track monster truck instead of a half track scifi military vehicle.

Nice. I think it needs more form fitting fenders around the wheel though.

The step ladders improve it a lot. Now it looks accessible, and also looks like it's very able to make it through rough terrain with such high clearance.

Now this is a model I could buy. I think you pretty much nailed it, especially adding the ladder. I do see some merit in the suggestions regarding the front wheel well, but I'd say it's much better than the original model.

 Chemical Cutthroat wrote:

You got a problem with some ground clearance mother trucker?!

In all serious, it does seem really high, but I think a lot of the tanks are really low. Proper offroad monsters should have some height to em'. Its certainly got the chops for bouncing across the battlefields of the 40K Universe.

One of my problems with it is the height though. For combat vehicles, you want low slung slinky things that you can hide easily. The various comparisons made to MRAP type vehicles is valid, but those vehicles are all effectively armoured lorries for use away from frontline combat, not hardcore battlefield IFVs.

Truth, combat vehicles should be low slung. But transports tend to be tall to stuff full of soldiers, and though they're not -that- tall, the Bradleys and Foxes of the world do seem to have a higher profile than tanks... though for the life of me I can't find a side by side of a Bradley and an Abrams. (And it could also be that the Bradley is mostly body, and the Abrams is much more turret).

The Taurox looks like an up-armored Deuce-and-a-Half to me, just more armored. It's more like an armored truck than an APC. The Chimera does the same job, but it has that low slung look you're talking about.

Hmm. I think I'm just a sucker for the Chimera chassis, they really did a good job on that. What's the fluff for the Taurox? Maybe it says somewhere why they went with such a big ole' box of a battlewagon?

How hard was it to remove the front tracks?

migooo wrote:
How hard was it to remove the front tracks?

They're almost literally snap-fit, so you can just assemble the whole thing without gluing the separate tank tread boxes to the vehicle with no problem whatsoever.