"OGREs, Bolos, and other massive cybertanks " Topic

Who makes large, cybertank-like minis besides SJGames?

I know I've seen some over the years, but a web search hasn't turned up anything.

Any ideas?

In 1:300 specifically?

Plasma Blast Games is working on two large tanks.

link

Exodus Wars just released some large tanks.

Monday Night Productions – mondayknight.com has the Maatac line of figures.

Reviresco has some in their Days of Empire range.

GW used to make those Squat land trains for Epic -- or whatever Epic used to be called.

The Squat land trains were very big though…
The Squat Cyclops might be more like it.

Some of MondayKnight's Galactic Knights spaceships are so big, covered in turrets, but not of any obvious scale, that they might work as enormous anti-grav landships.

The individual cars of a Squat land train were barely the size of what passes for an MBT in 40K, and the engine wasn't a whole lot bigger. The Cyclops/Colossus/Leviathans might be a closer size fit for a not-Ogre, or better yet, two of them linked with a flex-joint. The Capitol Imperialis was a very large piece, much bigger than any of the above, but it was also a very limited release and goes for a fortune these days.

It you want to get extremely big, but still in 6mm scale, look up Mega Force toys on ebay.

Ooops! Meant to say the Squat land trains 'weren't' very big…
I've got the Capitol Imperialis and it's big (for Epic)… but pretty much lacking in obvious weaponry. Just one big turret up top. It wouldn't be too hard to make one from styrene sheet and add a bunch of gun ports/turrets.
The Ordinatus floats were more shooty looking but are also hard/costly to come by.
None of the 40K stuff really fits the Ogre/Bolo theme IMO though.

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I've had these guys rattling around in my head for years. I call them Dreadhulks. Berzerker/Bolo/Ogre genre. I'm going to machine them up someday.

Best,
JBR

Mr Bear, I was just checking out your Shapeways page. You've got some nice work there.

Could you go into a little detail about the materials available?

I've read the information on the website, but you're obviously more qualified to give info on which materials work best in which scales.

BWS, thanks, I'd seen those years ago, but couldn't remember where. Still some of them look a bit pricey for 6mm. $99 USD for a landship, no matter how big, is just too much, and even some of the smaller tanks were over $10. USD

Has anyone seen these IRL?

Everyone else, thanks for the links and help.

The Monday knight and Mega force items weren't doing anything for me, although I appreciate the help.

The Landtrain looks a bit cartoonish to me, but it did give me the idea of checking out GW's epic range. Forgeworld also had some nice items for epic, but of course, they were quite pricey.

I've also considered kit bashing using various things, like the fencer turrents from SJGames, various Battletech and CAV minis, and possibly picking up some 1/350 and 1/700 naval kits just for the bits.

Any other ideas on the DIY front?

Baccus here in the UK have a very large Centaur module or two commandhorizon.com/?p=101 and commandhorizon.com/?p=105 that adds a twist to the moving tank idea.

Andrew
blog.kings-sleep.me.uk
2mmwars.blogspot.com

How about Scotia?

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Optional Field,

Not to hijack, but I usually recommend white, black, or transparent detail for anything you order my stuff in. It's the highest detail Shapeways offers, as far as resolution. It won't take vulcanization, but it's readily primered, painted, sanded, or drilled for flight bases or other modifications.

Best,
JBR

I've been having much the same thoughts as far as cybertanks/landships…

I was going to turn a 15mm Hammer's Slammers Blower tank into a landship by adding a bridge and a bunch of Battletech turrets to it, but found that sanding down the turret ring was difficult with my existing tools.

Speaking of Mega Force, this is the ultimate rolling landship:

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I loved Mega Force. Great toys for their day.

JBR,
Please do those models, they look great!

JBR,
I'll second UW2's comments. They do look nice.

In an effort to keep this on topic I'm starting a thread on shapeways on the general sculpting, manufacturing, and Moldmaking and Casting boards with a number of questions and if you would check over there and include your opinions it would be greatly appreciated.

Astranagant, What tools are you using? I would have thought a good decent sized file, like the sort you'd pick up in a hardware store would do it.

RAF thanks, great pics, and in fact the rest of the gallery is quite good too.

Would you consider putting some captions on that gallery? Some of the models I recognize, but most I don't, and your pictures certainly do them more justice than any catalog photo's I've seen. If I knew what some of those were, I might pick some up.

AB, thanks. The megatank in that pic wasn't what I was after, but I did check through the rest of Command Horizon's range, and some of the human tanks and walkers looked nice.

Brigade Models is working on a very large tank for their NeoSov line. It probably won't be truly Ogre-sized, but it should be a *big* tank.

Alternately, one can still order the original (four-tracked) Demolisher tank from the BattleTech line via IWM; that is a huge beastie that puts even Ogre Mark IIIs to shame.

I rather like the ones made by Reviresco in their Days of Empire range as mentioned earlier. They also have a nifty land train.

That rolling tank in the Megaforce line is neat.

I wish someone made that giant tank in the Posleen series of stories but when I figured out how large it was in 1/300 I decided maybe it is just as well no one does.

Al

Sorry, not my gallery, just found it when looking for pics of the Scotia model

As the principle culprit behind Reviresco's Days of Empire series, I must confess that Keith laumer's Bolo series was my main inspiration, along with Edgar Rice Burrough's Carson of Venus tale of an epic battle between land dreadnoughts…

The DoE *Landship* is actually a modular affair, so how big you make it is essentially a matter of how many segments you choose to put together, and how many and what kind of armament you choose to incorporate. The SBTs (Super Battle Tanks) were al inspired by the very early Mark Bolos and the Combine "Yavac" combat units described in (IIRC) "For the Honor of the Regiment."

All are quite hefty even in 1/300 (6mm) scale, dwarfing a C-in-C M1A1 Abrams I keep handy for comparison.

Hope this helps!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

As the principle culprit behind Reviresco's Days of Empire series

Oh yeah? Was there ever a rules set released for the range? Seems like the minis have been around forever, and it sounded like there was a definite setting behind them, but what rules were they intended for? Some kind of Starguard variant, or did I miss something?

"Oh yeah? Was there ever a rules set released for the range? Seems like the minis have been around forever, and it sounded like there was a definite setting behind them, but what rules were they intended for? Some kind of Starguard variant, or did I miss something?"

<sigh> Alas, DoE's dedicated rules set never got past some early playtesting efforts. Life got squarely in the way of life, and a definitive rules set never emerged…

The background was to be a Starguard universe *prequel,* explaining the rise of the Terran Empire under Emperor Roger de San Martin I after the vicious Wars of Terran Unification of the late 21st Century. It was a period of rapid technological developments including the first effective anti-gravity systems and anti-matter power systems.

This was the age of the First Terran Diaspora, as millions of desperate souls fled Mother Terra seeking a better life in the Far and Away from a war-ravaged homeworld and a despotic empire Hell-bent on putting an end once and for all to inter-Terran squabbling (or else).

The battlefields were inhabited by increasingly massive AFVs and the dreaded Landships, as portable fusion powerplants became a practical reality, driving ever-larger weapon systems and ever-thicker armour protection. Infantry began to take a very desperate and fearful back seat, their man-portable anti-armour weaponry simply unable to cope with these growing monsters of titanium and rocket-propelled explosive-tipped-spewing mass mayhem. It was the Age of the Super Battle Tank, and the wise infantryman knew full well to stay down and *pray* they would go unnoticed when these tracked Gods o' War showed up to do battle.

I have my original game design notes and playtesting rules buried somewhere in my garage, but I haven't had cause or time to revisit them in over a decade…

Then again, if yer *volunteering*….

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

I like to use some Battletech tanks, they arent quite the multi turreted monsters of certain sci-fi genres, but they are considerably larger than the more modestly scaled 6mm.

I like th eidea of converting an Old Crow 15mm vehicle. I have plans to convert two APC's in the same range into a mobile harvester/refinery for a 6mm scenario. If i were to look to convert a tank to 6mm, i think i would use the Hog artillery hull (it looks less scale specific and much "cleaner" to convert.

cheat a little: Scrounge some of the *Mechwarrior* (10mm scale) vehicles!

The Mechwarrior tank raid is a good option.
If you have the chance to raid large amounts of lego check the Ogre link on this sites gallery efran.org/embassy/sitemap.html

and these link

I've been wanting to 'kitbash' up a large rolling-crawling fire support vehicle, if not so cost-prohibitive the GW-FW Rhino and Land Raider models would be a good starting point.

The concept of perhaps joining multiple hulls and a variety of turrets/turret-mounted weapons on such give a general build idea.

BWP,
Those models for Revisco are neat. I might even consider using the large segmented one broken down into several smaller tanks if they were available on a segment by segment basis, but at $75-100 that's really pricey.

It would be neat to see the rules and read the background hinted at in the various tank descriptions. I can't promise I'd have time for it, but setting up a yahoo group and posting the beta-rules online would almost certainly lead to some play testers showing up.

As I said I don't know that I would have time to playtest, but I will say, if you send me a xeroxed copy of the rules, I would be able and willing to retype them in as a pdf or other file if you'd like. Scanning them as pdfs might work as well, but usually that means the text cannot be searched.

optional,

so noted. I will keep my eyes peeled for those files and docs, but we've moved twice since ere I last saw 'em, so ya gotta be patient…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

BWP,
So noted.

I do have to ask, can you give us some summary of the fictional timeline? Is it a prelude to the Silent Death future background? (Which, I've played and love, but I don't know anything of the background)…

I'm all kinds of curious.

I doubt it. Silent Death has its own timeline and is completely separate from the Star Guard setting.

FWIW, the Silent Death setting starts with the rather fragmentary details found in ICE's SpaceMaster RPG, then inflicts an apocalypse upon the setting for the second edition.

That lego ogre is great…lots of fun, certainly better than card stock or chip board models… efran.org/embassy/lego-ogre.html

28mmMan, that is a pretty neat legogre, there's also one on the Ogre page over on sjgames.com.

I wouldn't object to playing with all lego models either, but putting lego and lead on one on a table never looks right to me.

I need to reassemble my PC (took it apart for parts while trying to fix the GFs) and try the shapeways software. Now all I need is an original idea of what a good cybertank looks like.

Microworld Games released a preview render of their Foundationists super-heavy tank on the TacComms boards (scroll down a bit). Very big, might make a good stand-in for a Japanese Mk. III Ogre.

link

KJ, those Microworld tanks are nice, but not what I was after. I may still pick some up though, just not to use as a quasi-ogre-bolo.

Heres a 15mm scale land-carrier, a la gundam, I made from a pair of Old Crow 28mm APCs. The photos and paintjob are a bit iffy but it has a nice bit of presence. link

I'm kinda waiting for Battlefront to make their Panther tanks with plastic roadwheels. Every Bolo story I remember has interleaved roadwheels. Take 2 sets of Panther treads, or maybe a pair of Jagdpanthers.

Of course, I also have been kicking around plans for a 1/100 Ratte… which ought to scare *everyone*!