"What do you want to see in a 15mm sci-fi vehicle???" Topic

Most of what's been mentioned seems available as it is. That said, I'd be happy with a few more civilian vehicles, but no more flatbeds, please ;)

On the contrary. If you are doing a modular transport model with a box, then also do a flatbed. Then make a clamshell box that fits on the outsides of the flatbed.
EDIT: pic is about 3/4 down this page: link

Retro Sci-fi needs a M-47 for inital contacts.

militarymuseum.org/M47.html

Also near future/now needs SUVs.

and minivans.

Thank you so very much for making 15mm your first choice of scale to work in.

Drops ships are a definite, in 15mm there's the scope to have decent sized ones but nobody makes any that are any good (imo)

I can't back the 'alien' vehicles idea enough, there are tons of humanesque vehicles and its kinda boring. Please can we have some more exciting vehicles, some ideas:

Skiffs/grav vehicles (i.e. not floating MBTS)
e.g. self-propelled gun/APC perhaps?

link

Interesting grave vehicles that look alien
e.g. more along these lines/more weirdness!
link
link

Also, love the trikes and 3 wheel ideas. In fact anything with wheels rocks.

Basically, anything but near future repeats of what we have e.g. modernish tanks in the future with lasers tacked on.

I'd put together series of vehicles, like the Brit CVR/T and US Stryker families.

It should be worth mentioning that there probably won't be any special CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) variants, *every* full-blown military vehicle would have those systems built in.

I would aim for lighter, faster, harder hitting vehicles. That is, less heavy armor, more active protection systems. Look at the Russian designs for the Shtora and Arena systems. But make them look integrated, not tacked on like an afterthought.

Remote weapons systems, not pintle-mounts.

Thanks for all your input. The concept art for a few ideas which seem to have running consensus on here is now being drawn up. Thanks again one and all.

It was a pleasure, we'd need more threads like this from brave souls like you willing to put out new toys for us all!

:D

and walkers that tend towards the hard sci-fi end of the spectrum. More like the APU's from Matrix Revolutions than Gundam

All that machinery, and then the guy is exposed? That's more 40k than hard sci fi.

To be fair, I think the exposed pilot was because against a sentinel, the armour plate would basically just make sure that the pilot was kept alive whilst they chewed through to get to him, and in that position a quick death is preferable. What about the suits in avatar, then? They actually had some sort of operator control, rather than just "hooked into my nervous system", although I grant you that the pilot was still rather exposed.

Ok, Think Car Wars, but with Star Wars Landspeeders….

And Orks with Star Wars Landspeeders…

Which is a good description of what is kicking around the mind….

"What would you guys think to a shaped hull blank with no detail"-Rhysius

I actually like that idea a lot. It would be easier to add armor upgrades, stowage and weapon sytems. ATGM or rocket pods attached to the flat surfaces. Perhaps even a point defense. Additional armor plates might show firing ports so the vehicle can remain buttoned up and troops can still fire their weapons.

Honestly, the easiest thing to do would be to look through the catalogues of other companies doing 15mm sci-fi and ask yourself what gaps there are that need to be filled.

Here are a few:

Groundzero games: shop.groundzerogames.net
Combat Wombat: combatwombatminiatures.com
Khurasan Miniatures: link
Antenociti: antenocitisworkshop.com
Rebel Minis: rebelminis.com
Blue Moon: link
Old Crow: oldcrowmodels.co.uk

I want tanks or combat vehicles that would be home, not just on a Sci-Fi gaming table, but home to an alien force.
Doesn't have to be a giant living APC (but the Star Whale does look cool) but just something different. The APC from the cover of Gruntz is just one example.

That long legged scout buggy from Borderlands would be killer.

I have one very simple request… I want this made.

Here's his DeviantArt page… He's got a couple of awesome images of the same tank design. Including an awesome image of the main guns elevated to almost right angle to the ground as an artillery piece.
talros.deviantart.com

@Dragon Gunner: Thats what I was thinking and as the upgrades/bolt ons wouldnt be moulded there would be no problem with fitting or lost detail due to cleaning etc!

@Richard Gaulding: Thank you very much for the advice- I regularly drool over the current manufacturers websites. I think I knew already where there may be gaps, I just wanted some feed back. Gonna be talking to a CAD designer shortly about getting some stuff 'sculpted' up!

@Splod89: That looks awesome, however, I want to try and veer away from traditional tracked design I think to begin with.

Well, if you want to stay away from tracked designs, I have a request:

I want a hovertank like one of the Low Altitude Vehicles from Shadowrun. Picture a cross between an attack helicopter and an ekranoplan.

The image I have in my mind is a wide nose and short, long-chord wings like the Russian Orlyonok ( link ), sharply anhedral wings like an AV8 Harrier, and a tail section more like an A10 or the Aliens Dropship. It'd have a sleek remote turret on the dorsal side like a B29 or P61, probably with a GAU13 (the 4-barrel baby brother to the GAU8). Other weapons could be carried either above or below the wings.

Not totally sleek like a fast-moving fighter (but it needs to look like it really does fly by aerodynamic lift), it needs to have the bulky menace of an A10 or Hind. Roughly 10cm wingspan, ~15cm long.

I will buy at least 4 of them regardless of price.

Large VTOL/small dropships. Yes, horribly expensive to make in resin, but probably could be produced for reasonable prices out of laser cut ply or mdf.
A lot of the popular concepts for these sorts of vehicles are quite angular. The folded paper Chickenhawk, designed by Topo, link , is a fine example.
Now if vehicles like could be bought as wood kit, with detail burned into it, and maybe a few white metal detail parts to glue on they would be popular objective/eye candy.

What I would like to see is a low -mid tech large HEMMT truck on balloon style tyres with interchangable loads including a troop carrier pod,tanker pod and several cargos.

Best of luck
Guy T

I love modularity. You can make a lot of variants with great efficiency and maintain a sense of common aesthetics between all the vehicles.

I just gave a design to a minis company that is a grav tank hull with options for a tank, APC, air defense, TOC/C3, howitzer, and urban support tank (in the spirit of the Russian BMPT). I'll ask the new owner if he's okay with me sharing pictures of the designs.

Here we go. Steve at Mad Robot Miniatures is looking at producing these.

The tank:

The urban support tank:

Command/TOC vehicle:

SP artillery vehicle:

APC:

ADA vehicle:

Thanks,
jav98

They're fantastic! I love 'em- I would certain buy them. Did you do the modelling? If so I need someone who can do CAD modelling!? Fancy helping me?

Sure! PM sent!

Hey javelin…what about addable track sections for that vehicle range?

Or wheels.

Huh… I could see if that would be possible. The hull is really geared towards anti-gravity, though. Might be tricky!

You tease! Hope it makes it into production.

That is a nice vehicle system, Andreas.

-Eli

Truly alien, not-organic range of land grav vehicles, including f.ex. MBT, APC, comscan, also some different like gate-vehicle, mother-vehicle, .

Dropship made from MDF is genious idea, congratulations WJAL21.

Javelin98, whole range is awesome, the best is urban support tank! Brilliant!

APC is problematic – why there is no belly hatches to deploy soldiers stealthily beneath grav tank? Jumping out may lead to massacre. If You change APC (a lot, I admit), i will buy whole set.

Um… maybe the APC has ejection seats installed (he said sheepishly)? I don't know, honestly. I was making a modular system that would work with one hull and many different turrets or supplemental hulls. I have another pic I'll upload that shows how the turrets and "prosthetic hulls" both use the same hole, but in different ways. It'll make more sense once I post the pic, trust me!

Hope it makes it into production.

It will ;)

Awesome. I'll be watching for their release.

The first range that im now developing is the human range. But i have plans for an awesome alien range as well with all sorts of cool kit. More soon.

Once again tnaks to everyone for their contribution,

Rhys

Humans, you say? What tech level? Tracks/wheels, direct-thrust (like a Harrier without wings), or grav?

Here is how the modular Prism vehicle is configured:

The hole with the notch allows both fixed and rotating pieces to be used. The turrets have a flange that allows the turets to rotate but keeps them in place (you insert the turret facing backwards, so that you still have 300+ degrees of rotation without worrying about the turret coming off).

The fixed hull pieces have a flange that makes sure the pieces are aligned nice and straight with the main hull and will not rotate:

I try to make things as easy as possible for the hobbyist while still retaining good functionality.