Great crates, guys. I really like the smaller one you made, DutchIndy...it seems closer to the actual scale of the crate in the film.
Now time for a little Deja Vu...
Last Crusade Tank...the sequel!
By the time I had this thing assembled, my first LC tank was packaged and out the door to be mailed to its new owner. The experience of making the first one was a lot of fun, but it was also very difficult. It took me a month to complete, and I made many mistakes and had tonnes of setbacks. I kept adding to it, then realized that A) it was a tad too big for my tastes, and B) their were aesthetic elements to the basic structure that I wasn't 100% pleased with. So, rather than continue to modify it, I decided to sell it (money's tight, so that made sense) and just start from scratch. In contrast to the first version, I completed Tank 2 in one week.
Among the things that I wanted to change do this time around was make sure the caterpillar track housing was more accurately shaped. I also wanted to make the thing smaller, though I thought my first one was kind of cool because it was so big (but really I just wanted something more accurate), and the big reason for my wanting to redo such a mammoth project was because I wanted to do a better job of detailing the interior. So, here it is:
The Exterior:
Looks pretty familiar, eh? Its shorter in terms of height and length, and the treads/caterpillar tracks are 1/2" narrower than the first (I think tank #1 was more akin to the Monkey King tank). While I liked the proportions of my first tank better (especially the side gun ports and the overall length) this really is more what I wanted from the finished product.
Another big change from the first tank is that I wanted the side armour and panels to be more three dimensional, which requires more construction but looks much better.
The turret is also much more elegant in its construction, since I actually created a circular joint as opposed to using a screw (which worked well for the first tank, but I wanted to try something different).
The shovels are scratch-built using styrene card and rod...they're not removable though, so Vogel can't beat the crap out of Indy with them.
A couple of outside shots:
The Interior
With my first tank, I plunged ahead on the construction of the outer body, thinking I'd just detail the interior later. Unfortunately, the tank's structure required more foresight than I thought, so as a result I ended up having a nicely done interior room with very little going on. The main problem was that the side guns needed to be accessed from the inside, and the way I built the treads blocked them completely off. Sooo...I had to accomodate the guns when building the treads this time, and also make some detailed guns:
The guns are more appropriately scaled this time as well, and are made from some plastic tube that I had lying around and some styrene rod and card.
The final product:
Thinking this through before construction really helped save time...all I had to do was completely remake the thing! Lots of doohickies and doodads and greeblies added as I went. The chair, guns, bench, and control console were based on very simple boxes constructed from styrene.
In much the same way that the periscope added a toy-like flavour to my first thank, I see this more detailed interior as doing the same thing for this version (though I did flub up and not leave enough room for the periscope this time around).
Comparison
Tank 1:
Tank 2:
Let me know what you think, and thanks for looking.