Need some ideas to redesign a tank

[Kastrenzo]

I only have enough tracks to make 4 vehicles, one of the track sets is actually off some old Megabloks apc that I put on a big tank. *If I really wanted to, I have two generations of SW Tank Droids I could take apart, but I don't want to, at least not the new one, I kind of like how it looks.*

Anyway, the problem I have is I found these treads a few years ago, put them on this tank, but it's incredibly unsophisticated and frankly a waste, if I only have a couple treads, I want them to be put to good use.

I'm not sure if I've ever shown this, possibly a year or two ago, But I'm looking for ideas to redesign this tank, I'd like to change it enough so that the treads aren't as exposed as they currentley are, but at the same time I don't want the tank to be wider than it is long.

I don't normally build my vehicles with a strict requirement of "Minifigs have to fit inside it", so I don't need to concern myself with trying to build around that kind of work








Irrelevant to this topic, but I placed a minifig beside the tank I'm working on , as well as an older one from my white army just for size comparison. this is more of an opinion question, I -might- have enough peices to convert the grey/white tank into a different color scheme. All the other vehicles in my white army are white with black trim, do you think it would look better swapping grey/white with white/black? I have two of these grey/whites, But I'm sentimental to scrap them and redesign them *I'm cool with changing their colors, just not their designs*, Because I've had them since I was a kid, they were the first proper tanks I ever made by myself.

[Apollyon]

I am using the same tracks on my main batte tanks.
When i built them i took a look at lot of pictures to get an idea how real tanks are shaped and how people build them in Lego. I definitely recommend to check out Silent-Sigfig's tank designs.

[Kastrenzo]

Sigfig uses individual peice link tracks mostly, I've only got two rolls of them and they're both on SW sets, I'd be willing to take them off, but not until I knew what I was going to build with them and had the pieces to do it

I remember looking at some kind of backhoe or dozer or something that I was going to buy a few of like last year, then I forgot about it, and I don't think LEGO sells anything currentley that comes with tracks/treads, Rubber nor plastic

[Silent-sigfig]

I can help, but tell me what are you trying to modify and what do you want it to look like?

[tahthing]

The obvious first step is cover the tracks up!
to stop it looking overly wide make the chassis thinner, many real tanks sacrificed a lot of internal space for the suspension system.

The problem with Lego tanks (other than if you make them a reasonable size to have a hollow-turret ring) is that the normal turret-seating with legs in the main hull can't be done.
So here i'd say make the hull a bit taller to fit two crew in, one behind the other.

[Silent-sigfig]

The obvious first step is cover the tracks up!
to stop it looking overly wide make the chassis thinner, many real tanks sacrificed a lot of internal space for the suspension system.

The problem with Lego tanks (other than if you make them a reasonable size to have a hollow-turret ring) is that the normal turret-seating with legs in the main hull can't be done.
So here i'd say make the hull a bit taller to fit two crew in, one behind the other.

Or use panel parts to seat them side-by-side .


The problem with those treads is that they warp as they age, making covering them a bit of a challenge

[Kastrenzo]

Even more annoying is I found another tread of the same type, But only one, So I've got three now, I suppose I could always make some kind of messed up Monotread thing if I was feeling like making incredibly boneriffic contraptions.

I think that specific tread is on LDD, Maybe I'll play around with some ideas on there.
I think it might be the -only- rubber tread on LDD

[Silverdream]

You could always make a half track with the third tread.

[Kastrenzo]

Made a near-replica of the model in LDD, Although the tracks in LDD were about 2 studs shorter than the ones I have

"Possibly something to do with halo's comment about warping, i don't know."

If anyone has some free time on their hands and would like to play with the design let me know, it'd be appreciated, I'm willing to tear the whole thing apart if necessary, But I'd rather give it a facelift.
http://brikwars.wikispaces.com/file/vie ... TATank.lxf

I'd like to cover up the treads both on the top/front/back and on the side, similar to that yellow tank, but I've also got to change the body so that it's not wider than it is long like I mentioned. Turret will probably need to be made bigger too.

Most of thepeices I Like to use are slanted roof tile peices *at least that's what the LDD calls them*

[alphafalcon541]

Going to try working on it

[alphafalcon541]

http://brikwars.wikispaces.com/file/detail/MOTATank.lxf
There is a quick skirt design for the tank. No turret yet but it will have one soon, and I might just have to build this tank

[Kastrenzo]

you've given me some ideas so far, ill wait till your done mucking with it and then I'll dissect the LDD model, and try to build it.

I'll have to dig for some of those slanted skinny plates on the side skirt, but I'm sure I've got some equivalents.

[alphafalcon541]

http://brikwars.wikispaces.com/file/detail/MOTATank.lxf
there that's what I have sorry it's missing one side of the skirting but it is the best I can do right this sec. The turret was kinda an after thought so if you don't like it as much sorry. Hope this gave you some ideas though

[Natalya]

To compensate for a narrower chassis where the tracks are you can use a raised suspension design. Indulge me as I try a crude ASCII diagram to illustrate...

╚═╗   Inside     ╔═╝
██╚═══════╝██
██╜▄▄▄▄▄▄▄╙██
██ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ██



Royal Blue sections are the hull of the tank, viewed from the front.
Black sections are the treads.
Red sections are a lowered technic suspension that the treads are attached to.

So the floor of the inside is the bottom of the blue section. By building a wider section over the treads you partially cover them and allow for room for computers or things sticking out of the wall or whatever, cool stuff that you couldn't normally build with the small floor plan of building between the lower treads only. But to make this work better you should raise the lowest part of the hull a bit above the treads to give ground clearance and to make the wider part of the hull able to start sooner as you build from the floor going up. I used elements of this design on the Vanquisher.

[Zupponn]

I really want to make that diagram into a guy discoing.