Creating a Republic Tank

I thought I'd try creating a Republic Sabre tank in 15mm. This proved to be harder than I first thought as there are no toys of this vehicle anywhere.

The first port of call was Alterative Armies, I knew they borrowed a lot of styles in their vehicle ranges. Sure enough, I found a hover tank that looked very similar.

I was a bit shocked at how rough and ready the resin molding was. There was so much flash resin it was hard to work out where the vehicle stopped and the flash continued.

Another bad mark against this purchase was the fact that all the metal guns had all been left out. This I turned into a challenge down the line and created better alternatives.

There's a lot of flash on this long pieces and it's a tiny bit confusing.
 

The good thing about the resin is that it's quite tough, so you can chew your way through it with some cutters.

Chomp, chomp ,chomp...

You can see here the flash that needs to be processed.

Right, resin clipped to shape, it's time to stick the thing together with super glue.

To make it look more like a Sabre tank, I added some wing like structures to the front.

I'm hoping I can paint these like the Sabre tank so my model looks more the part.

I created a heavy blaster canon for the top turret. Magnets were great here, allowing the gun to swivel. The turret was also magnetised so it stayed in place.

To bulk out the bottom of the craft, I stuck on some Lego pieces. These look like attachment points for the drop craft to pick them up by.

I re-enforced the edges of the wings to make them look more armoured. On these wings I also added various details from plasticard and resin bits.

Lego pieces bulk out the bottom of the tank.

Looking finished, I had to add a tiny ball gun to the front, the metal version had been left out of the package. It looks good though, I only needed something simple in there.

A real Sabre tank. I'm going to call my version a 'Heavy Republic tank', as it's quite a big vehicle and does look different from the original tank.

Stuck onto a base with smaller round bases stacked up for height, the tank is away.

It definitely has a Star wars feel and I think the wings really help.

I'm always really pleased when I get to magnetise pieces and they work. It's the most satisfying thing about creating these vehicles I think. It's that satisfying snap when the magnets fly together.

Here is the original tank, or rather a version of it without the turret.

UPDATE: I've done a little more today just adding some extra bits to the tank. These are basically copied from the Sabre tank.

These are like tether points for towing etc.

I've also added a couple of aerials to the turret just for a bit of flare. These look quite nice when the turret swivels and help give direction to the model. These are made from very fine brush bristles.

The very tip of the blades have been re-enforced with more armour too.

UPDATE: Sprayed in Tamiya grey primer, the repulsorlift tank is up and floating.

The grey primer ties everything together nicely. The next step is to make up a livery for it in the Republic colours.

It's nice to have a variety of armour for the clones, the heavy sabre tank has a much lower profile compared to the walker. The walker is covered in dust and dry mud, not so for the floating tank, he keeps his feet dry at all times. Maybe, as I only have one, it would be good to make this craft a command vehicle.

The little tethering fixments turned out alright now the craft is undercoated, they look close to the original.

Side by side, the heavy tank is quite a beast.

The actual Sabre tank is half the size of a walker, so this heavy variant is quite a monster. Built for speed, this tank hasn't got the heavy armour of the walker though.

I am pleased to say I pushed on with the painting and completed another walker today. The two match perfectly as they were painted close together, before I forgot any techniques from the first one.

AT-TE 15mm

 

This is the first one done with many lessons learnt along the way.

Weathered and scratched up, this walker has seen some action.

It's very hard to know where to stop with damage and weathering. I had to keep stopping myself from going too nuts.

The cockpit is sombre grey, then highlighted with dots, then glazed with Tamiya clear yellow.

Gunner with his targeting computer.

The main thing I'm happy with is that the Tamiya grey primer is the perfect colour for the armour. This model had very little actually painted on it, most of the colour was achieved through oil washes.

UPDATE: While the first paint job is still fresh in my mind, I thought I'd better start the second walker quick.

This time around rather paint on the chips in the red paint work, I tried actually scratching them off with a blade. The technique worked well as the spray primer was a lot tougher. It also gives a lot better look than painting on the damage.

Next step is the oil washes. I'm glad I made a load of visual notes on the first one, as these proved really useful on the second.