6mm Stormchicken Dropship

Awhile back, I posted a preview on the TacComms forums of a 6mm-scale dropship in progress.  Well, it's finally finished, so without further ado, I present the mighty Stormchicken!

https://www.shapeways.com/model/2710215/6mm-stormchicken-dropship.html

Here is the original teaser pic:

And the final product:

Here is a shot of the various components:

3mm Modern Update -- CV90

By special request from a friend in Germany, here is the latest in my 3mm modern line-up -- the Scandanavian CV90 family of armored vehicles.  If you aren't familiar with the CV90, it's a fairly new-ish lineup of armored vehicles launched in 1993 by BAE Systems and Hägglunds which has since been adopted by other Nordic countries.  It continues to be developed in a wide variety of roles and is able to support all-rubbrt tracks, full-sized tank turrets, and a variety of cutting-edge electronics.

One of the beautiful things about this line is that it should work well in sci-fi/near-future settings as well as for modern/ultramodern gaming.

Depicted below are:

• Base CV9040 IFV with 40mm Bofors cannon
• CV90120 light tank with 120mm smoothbore gun
• Mortar carrier (not sure what type of mortar -- maybe an 81mm)
• CV9040 anti-aircraft vehicle
• Armadillo APC (with three remote turrets -- one carrying a .50 cal and the other two carrying grenades or something)
• AMOS Advanced Mortar System -- this is really cool!  Two 120mm mortars paired in a turret!  The hurting is love!

Here are three more variants:

• CV9040 with mine plow
• CV9056 -- this is the base CV90 IFV with the addition of a two-port BILL antitank missile launcher
• CV90 armored recovery vehicle

This is the CV90105, an export version intended to appeal to the wider world (where 105mm munitions are plentiful):

And finally, the command/electronic warfare variant:

15mm Alien Grav-Tank WIP

This is the result of three or four hours of work, so I think it's an indicator that I'm getting better at this Sketchup thing.  It would still need substantial improvement (especially greeblies), but it's not a bad start, if I do say so myself.  I'm not sure that I like the cockpit concept well enough to keep it;  it reminds me too strongly of the droid ships from that horrid blight on our society that was the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

This was largely an exercise in what I could do with curves and asymmetrical design.  Symmetry is something that I'm naturally prone to, so deliberately designing something that is asymmetrical is really quite difficult for me.  At the same time, I recognize that alien beings who are not bound by human notions of balance, beauty, or form might readily and easily utilize asymmetrical design as part of their design norms.  Plus, and this is of vital importance to the science-fiction crowd, it can look really cool.  Cases in point:

Hopefully this will be a workable starting point for one of the indie mini producers I've already been working with!

This little marionette (not my work -- pulled it off the Sketchup Warehouse) is 15mm tall, from toes to nonexistant-nose.

6mm DeathBot Soul-Grinder

The latest from my attempts to create proxy vehicles for Epic-scale Necrons, since Greed Workshop has seen fit to entirely euthanize Specialist Games, is the DeathBot Soul-Grinder.  I know the name is rather lame, but I had a hard time finding a decent synonym for "abattoir".

The length of each side of the pyramid is roughly 100mm, so this is a pretty big beast.  Rather than the "Doc Ock"-style tentacles I've seen described in most Epic fan materials, I went with a more robotic approach.  I'd say that this was for reasons of artistic imperative, but in reality, I just couldn't seem to design tentacles that I liked.

Here is what the individual components will look like:

I did contemplate not having the arms all around the base of the pyramid, but rather would have had eight "maws" with arms surrounding each.  It turned out not to look that great in practice, but I still like how the individual maws turned out:

This monstrosity will soon be on my Shapeways store, where I'm sure it will only cost you one kidney!

3mm Terrain: Pod Housing

I was listening to an NPR story (this happens quite often) about the oil boom in the Dakotas and the challenges it presents to the local communities in terms of infrastructure.  That led me design self-contained prefab "pod" housing that would essentially be plug-and-play housing units for the oil workers.  Here, in 3mm scale, are some of the results.

The piece on the right would be the individual living quarters.  The middle piece is the "hub", which provides a communal living space with toilet, shower, and food-prep facilities.  The left piece is a hallway designed to connect multiple hub-and-spoke complexes.  The hallway pieces could also be equipped with lounge comforts (TVs, video games, pool tables, a bar, etc.).

Here is some basic conceptual layouts of the living unit and a typical hub unit (walls have been removed for illustrative purposes):

Here are some examples of layouts of multiple units:

Here are some other pod-housing units I experimented with:

Maybe I can get a government grant to make these a reality someday!

MicroFleet update: The AstroGators

As promised, here is a fleet of starships that belong to the reptilian AstroGators.  They are known for their golden eyes, extremely slow hand-to-hand combat, and susceptibility to hand-made black powder cannons.