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Here is a update on my current Salamander, sorry the progress is very slow. But im currently dug in at my cityfight project AND building my Destroyer Tank Hunter ( i will do a thread just like this for that too)
AND my local plasticard store is OUT of stuff and have been through this entire time.

Basicly what is to come.

Track guards
Dish
RIVETS
bits'n stuff

browse down for current pics

END OF TRANSMISSION

Ive been a long time lurker on this forum and ive gotten lots of inspiration from this place so i better give some back
It isnt much, and im not realy a pro at converting stuff yet. Acctualy this is my first attempt att cutting plasticard or modifying a vehicle. But someone might like it.

Anyways to the piece at hand, i got the major part if inspiration from the "M1068A3 command post" vehicle.
Its for my new cityfight mech force. And i intend to play it as a salamander command vehicle.

So here comes the step by step if someones interested. And its completly WIP so im going to add a bunch of stuff.





Basic construction complete. It wasnt to hard, it might go really smooth.



So lets take our time and mesure everything very carefully, great.



Complete patterns for top and sides, remember you could cut rectangles instead of tracing the inner hull as i did. And after that cut the grooves of the inner side of the tracks.




So the sides are complete, and by the way,i just got the letter from the state department, plasticard is REALY hard to get straight and perfect.




Roof went fairly well, its not glued yet for obvious reasons. (its alot easyer to drill and modify)







So now im done with the hull (cant do the back yet cause my local store is out of the plasticard details i need.
So lets start with the armament, i wanted to do a remote weapon station. (i dont want my crew out there dying )




So any serious commander wants controll of his battlefield. So i though of this nifty "surveyor" thingy.
Pretty nice thing to have behind cover. (of course it will be extendable "telescope" thingy when i get more tubes)



Mock up, looks pretty good this far.




Its gotten somewhere, now i need to wait for more plasticard.





Update 1.


Continuing with my Surveyor, gave it a little antenna. So basicly its a combined Surveyor/communications unit.
Looks pretty neat.



Finnishing the rear door, reinforcing the compartment where it meets the rear door. Reinforced the rear door also.



The backside realy gave me some greif. Wasnt realy sure how i would work my magic here. The old hatch hydralics that i removed looked realy out of place.
So i had to make some from scratch. Wanted big beefy ones that would fit the whole "box" look. Not realy sure if im happy with the trial ones.




They looked alot better on this mockup.. maybe i will keep em. So i leave that where it is.


Those traitors aint just gonna die by themselves. We gotta se em. So i made a few periscopes. They look kinda fragged.





I REALY liked how they turned out when mocked up. Just like the real stuff


So what do you think? Please leave a comment, thank you.

BTW, do you guys think i should skip the "building process" and just post the completed model?
I dont even know if someone gives a damn about the step by step..

This looks like it will be sort of neat! Slaps some vision or weapons ports on that front plate and it should fill that empty space there. I would bring angled plates out over the track guards when you get there to relieve the "ungly box" look that is currently being cultivated. I'd suggest extending that roof our over the hull lines when you do this, which would breack some more ugly lines. But this is a novel idea that I like! I've read about similiar field command vehicles in novels but I don't recall ever seeing one, though I'm sure "Gouge" World (Forge World, but "Gouge" because of those prices!) has made something before now.

When I get my mits on some plasticard I'm going to go to town on my Leman Russ and Chimera. I'd like to make the turret of the Russ bulkier and more realistic, and I'd like something similiar to the Razorback from the Space Marines for the IG to transport a command squad but also carrying a heavier weapon system on a more central turret, like maybe a mortar or assault cannon.

I like it where you're going with it so far. Before I had even read your explanation I immediately thought of that good ol' heap the 1068 ^_^. I drove one for a little while when I was in the Army. It's a heap, let no one tell you otherwise o.o....

Some design thoughts to make it more 'in line' with the actual vehicle:

Add a generator to the front just to the left of the driver.
Add at least 4 different lengths and widths of antenna
Have the drivers hatch flop back against the box with a drivers head poking out.
Add a roll of canvas above the back hatch to act as a sicps tent.
A large telescoping antenna base next to the back hatch could work for the battlefield surveyor you've already started modeling.

Oh and a quick research pic:


Lots of promise so far. More straight on photos could help us give more ideas (side, front, back etc.).

Looks like an old Rhino would make a better base for the 1068. I am currently in the Army and I've never seen one of them. We outfitted an old 2.5 that was no longer "on the books" into our mobile TOC, that way we didn't have to strip down and build up the damn thing every time we moved! It would be pretty cool if the IG had a truck transport of some type, or even a staff car.

Skinnattittar wrote:Looks like an old Rhino would make a better base for the 1068. I am currently in the Army and I've never seen one of them. We outfitted an old 2.5 that was no longer "on the books" into our mobile TOC, that way we didn't have to strip down and build up the damn thing every time we moved! It would be pretty cool if the IG had a truck transport of some type, or even a staff car.

A rhino would make a better base to make it completely like the 1068 as it's a bit thinner and the tracks are covered, but I think a chimera could still get the same feel.

You find 1068's in Mechanized/Armor combat units mostly. I was with First Cav my entire career, so I've seen plenty of the thing (to include plenty of other tracked vehicles x.x). They normally work in groups of 4-6, depending on what level of command they are (battalion, brigade, etc.) and link up with SICPS tents to create a mobile field command post.

I'm in the Reserves, so we get to repair old junkers (you active duty guys have no respect for your equipment). This sometimes leaves us labeling vehicles as "junked" and we start parting them out for vehicles we can keep rolling. Unfortunately we lost all our "rolling junked" vehicles when we changed command recently. We have five tons converted into full repair vehicles complete with pop out tents and a lift that folded out the side to work on even other five tons. In the bed was the pump for the jacks and a full tool stow. We used another 2.5 to carry all the parts we would need to keep our fleet of junkers rolling on the road.

I like it so far. You just need to add more details to the top (rivets, perhaps?) and it'll look a lot more realistic. A sensor dish would probably also help. Use the one from the space marine vehicle sprue, if you have one.

FOR THE EMPEROR BUMP

You're better off just replying to your post with your update. Editing without explaining the 'bump' kinda threw me off.

As for the update:

It's looking very nice so far. My biggest crit would be to lose the outside the track hydraulics you've mocked up here and go with a back hatch that's nice and thick. On the real vehicle all the ramp raising equipment is on the inside (where it's nice and protected of course!).

See, GD, that's the thing - right now, he's modeling for 4th ed, where a hit to those hydraulics keeps the door shut and causes entanglement. But, you're right on if Bla_Ze wants to model it for 5th ed where entanglement won't the issue it was in 4th.

Death By Monkeys wrote:See, GD, that's the thing - right now, he's modeling for 4th ed, where a hit to those hydraulics keeps the door shut and causes entanglement. But, you're right on if Bla_Ze wants to model it for 5th ed where entanglement won't the issue it was in 4th.

Haha, well played.

Very nice build so far. I really like the little touches you are adding.

As far as the hatch, I dunno if you really need to add hydraulics to the back. You could assume the hydraulics are internal like most APCs. If you do go with the hydraulics I think you should look into plasicard cylindars instead of using sheets and rectangle pieces. As it is they looks like leaf springs.

Instead of using hydraulics to add some interest to the back, you may consider adding a rear door too the hatch, like a Bradley. Found this pic of a model bradley that shows an example of what I'm talking about.

http://www.pirespreto.com/newversion/bradley.html

Of course you could design the door to fit with the Imperial asthetics.

I like it where you're going with it so far. Before I had even read your explanation I immediately thought of that good ol' heap the 1068 ^_^. I drove one for a little while when I was in the Army. It's a heap, let no one tell you otherwise o.o....

I'm glad i'm not the only one that thought of those beasts when looking at the pics. I was in the 3rd ACR as a truck driver and had to haul these and the rest of the M113 family quite a bit. That one in particular was a pain cause of the high center of gravity (we used normal flatbeds not lowboys so that 1068 was no fun to haul). And no I wouldn't argue, M113s are heaps from my experience too.

The 1068 does have a back hatch, I definitely suggest modeling one in as well.

I'm way into the periscopes. I don't see how they look off to you. I mean, maybe they looked really bangin' on the mockup, but they look great here.

Well this is certainly a thread I'll be following and most likely stealing and adding bitz or something!!

(Que maniacal laugh)

Looks a bit... boxy

Werdes wrote:Looks a bit... boxy

So quite "in keeping with" IG theme then.