Inspiration
The inspiration for a Squat Tank was that I did not think that the Squat trikes did not have enough punch, so I decided to make something that did. A friend of mine, Mike, gave me one of the Pack Rat vehicles from G I Joe. I thought that it was an interesting piece, but I had it for years before I finally had an idea. The following is the conversion I made from the Rat Pack vehicle.
Tools
The tools you will need are a modeling knife, a razor saw, a rotary tool, and a file or files.
Materials
The materials you will need are the Rat Pack vehicle, the chair piece from Robotix, some plastic card, glue, a cupola from a Games Workshop 40k tank (or something similar), an assault cannon bit, a GW Dwarf miniature, an SM tank commander bit, and some of the icons from GW Dwarves.
The Conversion
the photo at the left shows all of the pieces which are required. As you can see, the Rat Pack vehicle was a small tracked rocket launcher system. I did not need the rockets so I did not picture them. You will however need the small tower that is part of the vehicle. The Robotix seat piece is the black item at the top. The remainder are bits from 40k tanks and the Dwarf bits needed to make the tank commander.
Take the Rat Pack tower piece and remove the bottom two rings...these will be used to connect the turret to the tank bottom. Next, on the tank bottom, you will need to cut or file down the two small pieces that stick up on the left (when viewed from the front or top) so that the turret can turn freely.
Cut the seat part from the Robotix piece that is shown...this is the only part you will use from the Robotix piece. Build up the seat piece with plastic card until you have the look of the turret on the left. Drill a hole in the front of the turret, as shown, to insert the Assault Cannon bit. As you can see from the photo, I have added a hammer striking anvil bit to the front of the turret. Glue the cupola piece together and attach to the turret. You may need to file down the ring at the bottom of the cupola so that the cupola can sit flush on the turret.
Take the Dwarf torso which you have chosen and scrape out the back so that the torso can be glued to the SM tank commanders legs. I did it with a rotary tool, but it can be done with a modelling knife. When the torso fits on the legs well, glue the two pieces together. Make modification to the Dwarf commander by adding arms from the plastic Dwarf miniatures from Games Workshop and you are finished. All that is remaining is for you to paint your Squat tank.
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