Imperial Army Grav Tanks
Back in Ancient days when Zoats still roamed the galaxy and Squats served in the Imperial Army, there was an army list entry for Grav Attack Vehicles. These were essentially skimmers that filled the role taken by the Marine Predator or the Leman Russ Demolisher in the current Codices.
As my modeling interests go more afield I decided to model some of these older Imperial Guard units. Some, like Imperial Guard Bikers and Guard Land Speeders, were easy enough to convert from other manufacturers lines. Urban Mammoth (formerly I-Kore) makes passable human bikers and a line of grav speeders that function nicely as Land Speeders and Land Speeder Tornados.
The only grav tanks GW currently makes are for the Eldar and the Tau. Nice models to be sure but they don't have that Imperial 'look'. DLD productions makes a very nice grav tank but at $28.00 a pop they were out of my budget for what would be, at best, VDR units. If I wanted Imperial grav tanks, I was going to have to scratch-build them. Okay, so how?
First I experimented with different ways of making the chassis by fiddling with various gubbins in the crafts department while my wife and daughter were picking up fabrics and the like (besides, nothing scores points with the women-folk like saying, 'sure honey, you spend all the time you want - I'm sure I can find something to keep me busy). Also as a bonus my measly $45.00 of assorted gubbins to complete my grav tank platoon is not much to ask after spending $200 on fabric and other sewing supplies for the women in my life.
Bill of Materials:
| Part | Source |
Cost (US$) |
| Wooden Plaque x 2 | Craft Store |
1.00 |
| Space Marine Predator Turret Sprue | Games Workshop Mail order |
10.00 |
| Package of Wooden mini-finials | Craft Store |
1.99 |
| Plastic Milk Jug Cap | Household recycling bin |
FREE |
| Starfighter Engines x 3 (optional) | Greeblies.com |
1.50 |
| AOL promotional CD | Junk Mail |
FREE |
| 20mm plastic base | Bitz Box |
0.25 |
| Golf Tee | Sporting Goods Dept. |
0.25 |
|
Total Cost |
14.99 |
The most expensive component was the turret. I used the Imperial Space Marine Predator turret sprue picked up from GW mail order for $10.00 each.
The chassis is made from 2 3x5" wooden plaques purchased at Michael's Arts & Crafts for 50¢ each glued together. The engines are made from mini-finials also picked up at Michael's for $1.99 for 2. The jets were picked up from Greeblies.com but are sadly out of print. The turret collar was made out of the lid to a plastic milk jug (free!) and the tanks finished off with gubbins raided from my bit box. Total cost to build my grav tank was $14.99. I could build a platoon of these babies for what I would pay for a single Leman Russ kit!
Construction
The finished product is
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