Some nice mega tank kits from Hobby Link Japan

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**Conrad Turner**

Oohh, now that I could see. 1/144 scale. Hmmm, tripple barrelled Predator, maybe? You'd have to remove the smaller turrets though, or replace the guns with single bolters.

IMO, of course.

**Agamemnon2**

Conrad Turner wrote:
Get your head out of your and go read your Constitution.

What the hell does your Constitution have to do with it, Mr. Nonsequitur?

**Kilkrazy**

Back on topic, the awesome Bandai M61A5 Semovente is back in stock.

This tank in 1/35 scale is about the same size as the GW Baneblade.

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN957471

**JOHIRA**

Kilkrazy wrote:
Back on topic, the awesome Bandai M61A5 Semovente is back in stock.

This tank in 1/35 scale is about the same size as the GW Baneblade.

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN957471

I love that model line.

In an alternate universe where I had an infinite amount of time and money and didn't get sick of GW, this would have been the basis for a Tau Human Auxilliary transport vehicle conversion.

**Kilkrazy**

The surprising thing is that a lot of the kits from Japan are similar prices to standard GW.

**timd**

Conrad Turner wrote:
Oohh, now that I could see. 1/144 scale. Hmmm, tripple barrelled Predator, maybe? You'd have to remove the smaller turrets though, or replace the guns with single bolters.

IMO, of course.

Its superheavy sized: 30 x 18 cm = 12" long x 7" wide... The two barreled kit might make a "Fellblade".

Tim

**Conrad Turner**

Wow, now that, for a 1/144, is BIG!

The M61A5 is a tank I have seen many times at model shows, but never caught on as to what it was or who made it. So thanks for that, I'll have to look out for one now.

Thanks Killkrazy!

**AJCarrington**

Kilkrazy wrote:
The surprising thing is that a lot of the kits from Japan are similar prices to standard GW.

Unfortunately not (for me at least)...an what's worse (IMHO) is the quality of the kits themselves...GW doesn't come close to the detail level found in most "modern" plastic kits.

**cygnnus**

Conrad Turner wrote:
Wow, now that, for a 1/144, is BIG!

The M61A5 is a tank I have seen many times at model shows, but never caught on as to what it was or who made it. So thanks for that, I'll have to look out for one now.

Thanks Killkrazy!

Well... Considering that the original concept was to use a turret taken from a freakin' battleship, it ought to be big!

Valete,

JohnS

**Conrad Turner**

Yes cygnnus, I did recognise the turret as from a battleship, but then there are battleship turrets and there are battleship turrets.

I now realise that this is based on the bigger ones.

**Construct**

Conrad Turner wrote:
Oh, and whilst I have no problems with the design of those other two 'tanks' (Self-propelled guns would be more accurate), anyone thinking of using them as 'counts as' Shadowswords may find that at 1/35 scale, they're a bit big.

IIRC, 28mm is around 1/56 scale, so you could end up with something around 50% bigger than a Shadowsword.

A search for Baneblade dimensions gives:

Hull length ~ 9" ≈ 230mm
Hull width ~ 5.5" ≈ 140mm
Hull height ~ 2.5" ≈ 65mm
Hull + turret height ~ 4" ≈ 100mm

The Wikipedia page for the A39 Tortoise gives:

Hull length =10m ⇒ 286mm
Hull width = 3.9m ⇒ 111mm
Hull + turret height = 3m ⇒ 86mm

The Hobby Search – still a much more useful site than HLJ, even if the latter has improved – page for the Gunhed gives:

Height (standing mode) ~ 180mm
Length (tank mode) ~ 250mm

This image (637kB) of the delicious M61A5 Semovente gives:

Hull length ~ 10.5" ≈ 270mm

All about the same footprint as a Baneblade, thanks to the latter being shorter and wider than a 'real' tank.

**blingman**

I love the look of that gunhed, I think I will have to get a couple for my tau .

**Conrad Turner**

Thanks for that, Construct. with some actual figures, at least I now know that 'in fact' the Baneblade would be 2.88m longer than the A39. So, yes, the A39 would make an impressive 'counts as' early mark/model Shadowsword.

Still not sure what the M61A5 'counts as' with those twin barrels, and I am sticking to my earlier remarks about the Gunhed.

Impressive models in their own right, of course, and I'd still like to have both the gunhed and the Semovente in my collection just to have them.

**timd**

Conrad Turner wrote:
Thanks for that, Construct. with some actual figures, at least I now know that 'in fact' the Baneblade would be 2.88m longer than the A39. So, yes, the A39 would make an impressive 'counts as' early mark/model Shadowsword.

Still not sure what the M61A5 'counts as' with those twin barrels,

The new Forge World Fellblade (early Banblade) has two large guns in the turret;
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Events/fellblade.html

Tim

**Amaya**

Instead of turning threads about releases almost completely unrelated to 40k into pissing contests over your opinions on upcoming GW models, could we please stay on topic?

Every damn release has multiple posters filling up nearly every other damn thread with complaints and forced memes mocking the latest codex.

Take it somewhere else.

**Construct**

Conrad Turner wrote:
Still not sure what the M61A5 'counts as' with those twin barrels...

The barrels appear to just slide into their mounts, so it should be straightforward to swap out one barrel on the fly with a scratchbuilt searchlight/targeter assembly that slips over the top of its mount, or swap out both barrels for a scratchbuilt plasma cannon etc. that slips over both empty mounts.

**Fafnir**

Conrad Turner wrote:

And your point is?

The Gunhed is from a movie, and it fits the Tau aesthetic no more than sticking a rail cannon on a Patalbor kit and calling it a "Tau Titan". Even with GW themselves saying "feth established design aesthetic" of late, does that mean we do too?

And yes, I love the Gunhead. Seeing it drive up a lift shaft as, quite frankly, amazing. But it just doesn't fit current Tau designs. Go on then, name a single Tau wheeled vehicle. And no, I don't believe Chaos should have got a "robot transformer dragon" either. But just because Chaos is going all "Transformers" does not mean that Tau should go all "Random Japanese film/anime" - despite the number of people painting Tau armies to look like Pikachu/Deathnote/whatever Anime is flavour of the month.

I dunno. If you ditched the wheels, and replaced them with jet engines of some sort, you'd be on your way to a very convincing Tau conversion. It would require a fair bit of work, but that Gunhed model could make for a very cool, and very fitting Tau something or other.