Tanker: Impa TAV Tankette, KGJ-7 Tankette, and Tank Crew

Here are two more tankettes that I've designed for Tanker, representing common designs from two more of the fictional nations of the game world.

On the left is the Impa TAV (tracked assault vehicle). Hailing from a heavily-industrialized nation, it is well-armored, can be heavily armed, and has some bells and whistles that other basic tankettes may not. However, unlike the Steed and KGJ, it lacks a turret. Well-engineered and beloved by its crews, this lack of a turret means that getting fully-tracked or otherwise immobilized renders the Impa TAV nearly defenseless. This tankette can equip a machine gun, a heavy rifle, a light cannon, or even a medium cannon (the only tankette to be able to do so).

On the right is the KGJ-7. In many ways, it sits at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Impa TAV. Cheap and mass-produced, it does not have any bells or whistles, simply meant to do its job reasonably efficiently. However, unlike most tankettes that can only fit two crewmembers, the large KGJ-7 has three; it's still cramped, but if a crewmember becomes a casualty, the other crewmembers are cross-trained to take their place. The KGJ-7 is also remarkably tough; their simple, rugged design and redundant systems can sometimes survive damage that would cripple other tankettes. This tankette's turret can equip a machine gun, a heavy rifle, or a light cannon, or it can go weaponless with a recon hatch.

In addition to the tankettes, which I designed, I also kitbashed two tank crewmembers from plastic kits. The main bodies are Wargames Atlantic French Resistance, the heads are WA Cannon Fodder, and the arms and revolvers are either WA French Resistance, WA Napoleonic British Rifleman, or Warlord Games WWII SAS. The colors are primarily Ceramcoat Burnt Umber (02025), lightened with FolkArt Coffee Bean (881), and Vallejo Heavy Blue (72.143), along with a Nuln Oil wash.

With several tankettes to choose from and a pair of crewmen, I finally have an actual, finished unit for Tanker. I should probably work on getting some infantry squads put together.

Tanker: Steed Mk 1 Tankette

The Steed Mk 1 Tankette with a vaguely era-appropriate figure for scale.

I've been slowly designing a tabletop RPG, working title Tanker, where each player controls part of a small militarized group in a fictional post-World War One-esque setting. Your class can be "Tank," for example, and you control the tank and its crew members. I've gotten to the point with Blender where I can make decent vehicles for 3D printing, so I designed and printed this: the Steed Mk 1 tankette.

A tankette is like a little tank, only large enough to hold two cramped crew members, and it has only a small gun for infantry support. My design is just based on what I thought looked good when I was building it, based on elements from real-world designs such as the French Renault FT and the Japanese Type 94 tankette. Would my tank really run? Not well, if at all. Does it look good enough? Yes.

I've used 5x2mm magnets on these designs for turrets (which can be fully rotated and swapped) and the tow hitch (which can accept any of the tow-able trailers I've made). You can see more variants below (with the contrast cranked up due to the white filament on white background). The turrets are:

Turret w/HR, turret w/LC, calliope turret w/MG, recon hatch.


• Regular turret: This turret can fully rotate and contains one gun. It also has a small access hatch to allow the crew to enter and exit the vehicle.
• Machine gun (MG): An automatic, anti-personnel gun
• Heavy rifle (HR): A semi-automatic gun that can engage both infantry and light armored vehicles
  
• Light cannon (LC): The smallest actual tank cannon, similar to a Puteaux SA 18, for anti-armor use
  
• Recon hatch: An unarmed version of the tank, this configuration removes the turret and the accompanying rotation mechanisms, freeing up significant space for a more powerful engine.
• Calliope turret: This turret, which can be built onto either a machine gun or heavy rifle turret, includes a scaffold with an eight-shot rocket launcher. While there are numerous downsides, it does allow for rocket bombardment to complement the main weapon.

Top to bottom: Towed rocket cart, small tow-cart, large tow-cart

In addition, the tank can tow several types of detachable trailers. The trailers are:

• Small tow-cart: This cart can carry one unit of cargo in the RPG.
• Large tow-cart: This cart can carry two units of cargo in the RPG.
• Towed rocket cart: When detached, a unit of infantry can crew this weapon to shoot up to 16 rockets at enemy positions. This model is not particularly accurate, but it can heavily saturate an area.

So, that's the Steed Mk 1. Only one of the models I've printed has been painted up. The rest remain bare white filament. I've also designed a truck, similar to a Liberty Truck, so I'll post about that once I have one of them painted up.

 

Outpost Androids

I recently built three androids for RPG use, and I think they turned out pretty well. I considered several options for the skin color, but I went with an off-white, almost Michael Myers-looking dermis. Unintentionally, but possibly subconsciously, they share a general color scheme with the Working Joe androids from the Seegson Corporation in Alien: Isolation.

• Base: DecoArt Americana "Lamp (Ebony) Black"
• Drybrush: Mix of above and Ceramcoat "Burnt Umber" (02025)
• Highlights: Ceramcoat "Burnt Umber" (02025)
• Skin: Craftsmart "Grey" (622598) (Multiple layers)
• Eyes: Craftsmart "Pale Blue" (402477)
• Straps, pockets, and wrists: Craftsmart "Orange Spice" (194111) then Vallejo "Orange Fire" (72.008)
• Wrist screen: Vallejo "Deep Sky Blue" (70.844)
• Armor: Vallejo "Luftwaffe Uniform WWII" (70.816)
• Metal: Vallejo "Brass" (70.801)
• Wash: Citadel "Nuln Oil"
• Boots: Vallejo "Black" (70.950)

The parts for this pretty much all come from the Stargrave Mercenaries II box. The three bodies are identical, the three heads are identical, and all of the arms come from the same sprue. I cut off the end of a club to make the little flashlight/lantern thing. I wanted them to be unarmed, because they're not technically made for fighting despite being stronger and more durable than humans; their hands are dangerous enough if their programming goes haywire.

Two of the androids have some robotics showing through on their arms. For one, it's just an elbow joint, but the other has their (entirely metal) skeleton showing for one arm. That one also has half of its face messed up, so I assume it was in an explosion or something on that side. There hasn't been time to repair it yet; I hope it's not angry about that—not that androids can get angry or want revenge, right?

Belospian with Derby

Here's another standalone scifi alien, which I'm calling a Belospian. The base parts are from Stargrave kits, so that's where the head, body, and arms come from. I clipped two of the tentacles off of the head to go with a two-tentacle look, just for something different. The derby hat is from a Dead Man's Hand sprue, and I clipped off the top of the head to make it work. The synth-fur collar is built from one off the Wargames Atlantic Einherjar sprue, but I significantly expanded it and filled in some gaps with green stuff; I'm happy with how that turned out.

I don't really have any plan for this model, but the wrench implies mechanical skills and the dapper chapeau implies people skills. Maybe a high-skill character to even out the little pistol? Maybe just a memorable NPC. In any case, I'm happy with how she turned out, but I doubt I'll be putting together any more Belospians any time soon.

BurnA.R.D.

Here is another one of my FDM-printed miniatures (or mostly 3D printed, at any rate). I've previously posted some of these guys here and here. Again, this was a free STL file on Thingiverse called "The Fridge" by Skellify. It's amazing. Of course, this one has a slightly different left arm, what with a giant flamethrower cribbed from an unused part of the "IMEF Bulldog I" from Reaper Miniatures that I built here.

I think I'm going to call this model of robot the A.R.D., or "Automatic Roughneck Drone." Is this just so I can call this specific figure BurnARD? Yes. Yes, it is. But I think the name is pretty nice.

Have you seen this mech before? You might not have recognized him because of the red arm.