"Ackwisch" walking tank, plus HMMWV & display base (beauty pics on P. 2)

Old Wombat · August 01, 2014, 05:16:24 AM

Paint job is looking good, Dizzy!

Dizzyfugu · August 02, 2014, 03:09:36 AM

Thanks a lot, here's the Ackwisch back on its feet again:

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The base for it, plaster ground work plus a resin rock (actually from a pet shop, it's aquarium decoration!)

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Preps for earth works:

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

And the first gardening results, still wet:

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Dizzyfugu · August 05, 2014, 06:34:50 AM

Some more gardening work...

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Dizzyfugu · August 05, 2014, 11:21:01 AM

More news! The Ackwisch's legs receive some flexible, hydraulic pipings:

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The base caught a distrinctive yellow-ish hue, due to some layers of various artist pigments. The flanks have turned black, too.

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The main attraction is also closing on on final assembly. The Ackwisch also received a pigment treatment, hence the yellow-ish look that corresponds to the base, ready for final matt varnish application.

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

buzzbomb · August 05, 2014, 05:43:51 PM

Looking really nice.

finish is terrific

Dizzyfugu · August 06, 2014, 09:23:50 AM

Thank you! Some news...

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

nighthunter · August 07, 2014, 01:31:37 AM

Looking good, Diz!

Dizzyfugu · August 18, 2014, 03:05:52 AM

Some news! The Ackwish is more or less ready, but the base needed some more attention - namely the left side. Actually, the rock's slope took up a bit more space than expected, so the tank had to be moved further to the right - leaving the left side open and blank.
I thought that a small modern vehicle could fill the gap, and - since I was too lazy to build something from a kit - I settled for a die-cast HMMWV from Dragon, already weathered and in desert markings.

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Really nice (esp. for the cheap price I got it!) - but a bit too pale for its surroundings, so I added some dirt and sand, as well some more details:

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

This blends much better into the landscape. Some antennae will be added, too, as well as a figure standing next to it, so that there will be a kind of observation scene:

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Beauty pics of the finished ensemble hopefully to follow soon!

The Chaos · August 18, 2014, 03:25:32 AM

The mud looks Good, nice Job Dizzy

Dizzyfugu · August 18, 2014, 05:47:04 AM

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam, based on a Merkava tank) - IR footage by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

More to follow soon...

Dizzyfugu · August 21, 2014, 12:12:16 AM

Sooo... finally, the project is done! Some final words to sum it up:

A fantasy mecha project, inspired by Patlabor & Gundam. The plan was to build a 'realistic' hexapod tank, even though with an SF touch.

The vehicle is not 100% supposed to match anime style – but the concept is pretty popular in Japanese animation, SF or special interest genres like Ma.K., so I think calling the "Ackwisch" (Hebrew for "Spider") mecha is fine.

While the mobility of walking vehicles is arguably higher than that of wheeled or tracked vehicles, their inherent complexity has limited their use mainly to experimental vehicles. Examples of real manned walking vehicles include General Electric's Walking truck, the University of Duisburg-Essen's ALDURO and Timberjack, a subsidiary of John Deere, built a practical hexapod Walking Forest Machine (a harvester for rough/delicate terrain).

One can argue about the sense of a legged tank, though. It's slow, it has a high CG an silhouette, it's mechanically complex, it needs a lot of space in order to manoeuver, and you cannot deny the laws of physics: ground pressure is a SERIOUS issue, for any armored vehicle. A simple wet lawn can stop a tracked medium battle tank with a relatively large footprint – how's a walking tank with only a fraction of area to distribute weight supposed to fare? A modern battle tank like the Merkava easily weights 60 tons and more. You might add for a legged specimen at least 10 more for the legs and their mechanics... so, is a walking tank "realistic"? Certainly not, but it's cool.... And, since this is SF, it should at least look cool and somewhat menacing...

This project had been waiting on the bench for a while and even saw a major creative interruption, and even then the whole building process took several weeks. Main ingredients are an 1:72 ESCI Merkava II tank kit, PVC doll joints from Kotobukiya for the legs (so they remain moveable, within limits),six resin legs from two 'Junk Rock Tank' recast kits in 1:35 scale (from a total of eight – you never know!), and two aftermarket gun barrels made from metal, since the tank received a double gun as a special feature. The commander's cupola was donated from a 1:87 scale Roco Minitanks M60, otherwise a lot of details had been scratched or improvised – please check the WiP pics.

Construction was pretty straightforward, though, as well as painting, since I kept the tank in a uniform drab color (very similar if not identical to real life IDF tanks, RAL 7008 "Khakigrau"). Weathering was done with a thorough black ink wash and dry painting with various shades of brown, beige and grey, plus some of the artist pigments that were used on the base, too (see below).

The base was created with Styrofoam and plaster on an MDF board, the rock is actually aquarium decoration from a pet store, made from resin. The crater was sculpted into the basic surface.

The surface was decorated with fine sand, water-based paint and artist pigments, the vegetation consists of fine model railroad turf and grass fiber, brush fibers for large weed bushels, some dried real vegetation and a bit of dry moss.
As some space was left on the left side of the base, I eventually added a small vehicle there – my choice fell on a die-cast HMMWV from Dragon. Very fine car model, even though its place and position could have looked a bit more natural if I had integrated earlier into the planning process. But with both vehicles in place, the whole arrangement gains a bit of a meaning, as an observation scene. I still would not call it a diorama, though – it's just a presentation base that might also be used in future model photographs.

Shooting the tank on its base was tricky, because of the relatively small dimensions of the base – on some of the pics I had to add virtual foreground in order to fill blank space, but otherwise only little "photoshopping" had to be done.

1:72 "Ackwisch" walking tank (inspired by Patlabor & Gundam) & HMMWV on display base by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Cobra · August 21, 2014, 12:51:23 AM

Superb Job,Dizzy

Keep up the Superb Work

Dan

Dizzyfugu · August 21, 2014, 01:05:08 AM

Thanks a lot!
A bit 'back to the roots', since I had a long and fruitful mecha phase in the late 90ies.

zenrat · August 21, 2014, 01:51:33 AM

Brilliant.
Although the picture of it upturned made me sad - like an upside down turtle...

dumaniac · August 21, 2014, 02:13:37 AM

very impressive