Topic: military ground vehicle

[spudafett]

that is an awesome little lego tank....   how many other people here play with legos still?  it'd be fun to have a star wars lego building contest too....  but that's for anther time and day.


I think a short armor piece to go over the treads like in that lego tank would look pretty cool.  I also liked the idea of adding a few armor plates to the sides of the shuttle.

[Clonehead]

Yeah, that skirt could be made fairly easily. Prehaps a mockup is in order.

[Luke Sprywalker]

Yes Sten Hunter that is what I was thinking you meant. Thanks for that pic as this gives me a better idea how I need to mesh everything together. I have some time now to go work on the back door and magnets on the container. It is raining here today so I am free!

[Luke Sprywalker]

I got the magnets worked out on the container first, so I would be sure of how it will work on the shuttle. The magnets work good enough but I am thinking about adding a dowel or 2 to the bottom of the container and shuttle, then drill holes in the platform to hold them from sliding side to side. The container is barely able to do that it seems.




I have been tossing around ideas in my head for the back door since I pulled this ship out of the attic. I tried a few things today and decided on building a small box out of the same mesh material I used for the floor grate. One of the squares fits perfectly over the bumps on either side at the bottom of the door frame. I figured out the exact size of the door by tracing from the inside on a piece of foam core and worked on it till it was perfect. Then I cut it out of plexiglass and hot glued it to the mesh box.










It works really good but I need it to fold in half so it can open when the container is in place. I looked thru our legos and found 2 hinged parts that would work so I glued them on after cutting the door at the right spot. I wish I did a better job with this part, one of the hinges ended up at an angle and a bit higher than the other. It works but when you fold it in half it ends at an angle not paralell with the bottom door line. You can't see it with the container in place so I am not going to sweat it...for now.











Now for that front windshield, should I make a section of that open up or not? I plan to tint a piece of the plexiglass and cut a section of a for sale sign into some framework to go over the glass. Any thoughts?

[Reconsgt]

Looking good, I love to see the ways others tackle the projects and really like the WIP pics.

[TheCloneCommander]

looking good LS, i was just thinking...maybe you could put piano hinges on the side of the shuttle so you could open it up and have better access to the
inside of the ship and on the other side so the same to even it up but don't fasten it to the top half of the ship... just an idea that way you wont need to try and make the cockpit windscreen that works

[Clonehead]

I love that hinged back window! how does the fiber mesh box on the bottom work?

[spudafett]

hey ls... this is just a thought, and probably more work than you want to put into it, but what if you took your dremel and cut a slit down the top of the shuttle, nose to back door.  Then put hinges on each side of the shuttle so that it opens up sideways too?...

OR... cut only the back half of the shuttle like that so that the troop area can open up and become a gunner platform...  Think back to the old micromachines tanks and stuff that opened up into a play set, that's kind of what I'm thinking...

[TheCloneCommander]

just another idea i think might work is recently i bought a fishing tackle box and the dividers that are in them would look good for extra armor plating
just another idea... 

[Luke Sprywalker]

Thanks  for the feedback and ideas on this guys. Clint, there is a bump inside the door frame like hasbro uses on most ship doors. The door would have a bit of a hole recessed in the sides at the bottom to fit over the bump and rotate on it. One square of the mesh fits over the bump perfectly so I framed up the box and filled it with hot glue for strength. So the door rotates on that lower bump as the door is held in place by it fitting into the center of one small square. Hard to explain I guess and you can't see so good as the mesh is a clear to white color. I am getting ready to go to the shop and paint it grey so I hope you will be able to see what I am trying to say in todays pics.

Thanks for the input on all the door possibilities and front wind shield. The shuttle opening up in the back on both sides would be awesome but a bit more than I want to try at this point. I am going to stick with the door in the back and everyone should be able to exit thru that door. I will most likely glue the front wind shield in place and not have it open.

Fishing tackle dividers is a great idea but I don't have that lying around the house. I hope to use the plexiglas or an old for sale sign for the plating. I want to figure out the design with some thin cardboard and tape it in place to make sure I like it before I start glueing on anything.

Please keep the ideas coming.

[JTrooper]

Really cool Ground vehicle It's just so hard for me to take apart a cool toy and make something else. I have a GI joe Grizzly Tank and I'm looking for a concept

[spudafett]

jtrooper: you mean a tank similar to this one:


unfourtunately most of us here are completely lost when it comes to joe references.  I've got more experience with the 25th aniv. line and even I had to go google which tank you were talking about.  IDK how you'd convert this one into star wars and still keep it's original features... yours is motorized isn't it?!  or does it just have light and sound?  if it isn't motorized I'd remove the treads and make a heavily armored hover tank of some kind.

welcome to the customizing forum btw, I havn't seen your sn around before.

[Luke Sprywalker]

hey where is everyone at on this one? Clint where is that old project you were going to dust off and get back to work on?

[spudafett]

yeah... it seems like this thread has become still for a few days...  Everyone still working hard or coming up with ideas?

[Phatty]

I've seen some of the works being done here, and now I'm questioning my whole idea...looking for the right inspiration!