Tycho AFV for my NOVA Corp soldiers - WIP

[kristof65]

So I've long wanted a unique hover tank/APC to go with all my NOVA Corp figures, and last night I was suddenly inspired to create one. 

Here are my results so far:


This is just the left half of the lower hull. Once I finish detailing it with the things I want to be symmetrical, I will mirror it, and then add additional detailing, and a turret. I'm creating this in Fusion 360, and from there I'll export it for printing on my 3d printer.  I have no idea if I'll ever get around to painting it, as I still don't have my NOVA Corp soldiers painted beyond a base coat, though.  We'll have to wait and see. 

[kristof65]

I've made a little more progress on this so far. 

Slow going because I'm learning how to use more features of Fusion 360, and having to really assess my design to make sure it will print fine on my printer. I tried six different things just for the angled grill/port portion thing on the front until I finally found something that I liked AND that wouldn't cause printing issues. 

 

[kristof65]

Finally got to a point I was satisfied enough with to mirror the hull, and begin work on the more asymmetrical parts. 

The is the hull from the front. As you can see, it looks a lot better when you're seeing more than just the left half. 

 

And from the rear:


Not sure what setting I had different in the two renders. I'll have to figure that out before my next one. 
 

I have two major parts left to design, though they will probably wind up being multiple pieces.  A turret for the top, and the bottom part.  I've got to go dig out my new Reaper Flight stands, because I think I'm going to use two of them to make it "hover" and I'll need the measurements. 

[kristof65]

Progress so far.  Gut holes located and place for the turret and hatch.  Added some "sockets" to place some greeblies. Not sure what those greeblies will be just yet, but got to a point where I exported a file to do a test print of the hull itself. Unfortunately, that won't be for a few days at least, because my print queue right now is full of Christmas presents.  Which is not what I bought the printer for, darn it. 

 

Started working on the turret. Got the back half of the turret detailed, including a couple of "sockets" in which I will use raw PLA filament to act as antennas. Have an idea for the main gun in mind, but I'm still trying to work out in my head how it will attach to the turret.  I kind of want to do a gun that can elevate, but that means having to work out the assembly geometry. 

 

 

Going to have to figure out what to call this at some point. My working title was "tank hull" and now "Nova Tank", but I'm going to have to come up with a cool name that doesn't infringe on Reaper's IP. 

[Humansquish]

Seeing the hull mirrored helps a lot, I wasn't sure what anything was before.

 

I think "Nova" is generic enough to use.

[kristof65]

1 hour ago, Humansquish said:

Seeing the hull mirrored helps a lot, I wasn't sure what anything was before.

 

I think "Nova" is generic enough to use.

Thanks. My son wasn't very impressed, either, until I mirrored the hull, AND added the turret. Now he wants me to print him one, too (and give him half my NOVA Corp soldiers). 

I know Nova is generic enough to use, but since I'm planning on using these with Reaper figures and sharing photographs of it finished with those figures, I want it to be fairly clear that it's NOT a Reaper tank.  It's as much wanting to avoid conflict between Reaper and I as it is wanting to spare ReaperBryan even one nasty email about why somebody can't find it on their website. Because that seems to be his luck sometimes...

[kristof65]

It's time to pack it in for the evening, here's where I'm at so far.  I thought of a name for it, it will hence forth be known as the Tycho AFV.  With my scaling, I think it's going to end up being too small to actually be a personnel carrier, so I'm re-designating it as an Armored Fight Vehicle design to give light, fast support to the NOVA Corp troopers. After all, a corporate security force doesn't need main battle tanks. Right? Or at least not yet?

 

I still have a few parts to design:
- the two hatches - I'll probably design one, and use the same part on both. I'm probably going to make those two part hatches that can open up, and then I'll cut a 80010 Nova Corp Sgt to place inside. 
- four "socketed" greeblies. I'll probably design five or six, and then when combined with the four sockets, I'll have a wide variety of combinations. 
- the actual barrel of the main gun. 
- the lower hull. I have an idea of how I want this to look, but I'm not sure my Fusion 360 skills are up to it yet. 

It looks like the main hull is going to take about 6 hours to print.  With all the other parts that have to print, this is probably going to take 24 hours of print time total. 

Oh yeah, this should have about the same footprint as a GW Space Marine Rhino, to give you an idea of scale. 

 

 

[kristof65]

And a quick screen grab of what I've accomplished today between service calls and emails. 

 

hatch mounts done and first barrel geometric in place.  Probably going to end up designing 3-4 barrels, too. This one is probably going to be some sort of rail gun. 

[chaosscorpion]

Kristof65,

 

Awesome! the project looks great.

[kristof65]

Barrel option 1 done, and a new render. 

 

I'm really getting anxious to start printing this guy. 

[kristof65]

57 minutes ago, chaosscorpion said:

Awesome! the project looks great.

Thanks. I've dabbled with 3d CAD before, but now that I can actually bring my stuff to life, I'm really enjoying it. 

 

[chaosscorpion]

I was going to ask what you were using as your print source, CAD cool.

[kristof65]

I'm drawing it in Fusion 360 - I was using 3d CAD as a generic term, in case there is a product with that name, and I confused anyone. 

I'll then be exporting the STLs and printing them on my Prusa I3Mk2S. 

I've got everything done except alternate barrels and my greeblies for my sockets. Working on capturing new renders now. 

[kristof65]

OK, a big photo dump, as I'm mostly done with the design phase.  Now comes the printing and modeling phase, but I can't do that until I get about a weeks worth of Christmas presents printed. Unless I can sneak some tank parts in in between. 

First up, the "technical" drawings:

 

Top View

Right View

 

Left View

 

Bottom View

 

Front View

 

Rear View

And playing with the rendering engine of Fusion 360.  

I have no idea what settings I messed up. It was supposed to look like it was floating across a field:

 

This render worked out better.  Flying across the desert...


So that's it for now.  I'll start showing printed parts as soon as I can. 

[kristof65]

I can't stop working on this...added a second barrel option.