Spartan Games - upcoming 28mm vehicles

[Pendrake]

Spartan Games has recently announced a new 28mm product line that includes a lot of rivet encrusted vehicles. According to SG they are intended as fitting the Steampunk/VSF genre. However several people (in a different thread) have commented that the vehicles look a bit too 40K.

Looking solely at the vehicles I think they have a First World War, 20's, 30's look to them. They miss out on looking 40K (to my eyes) for lack of anything that looks like it might be electric, "actuated", "liquid-cooled", or capable of emitting a laser.

And these have many, many more rivets than the Adeptus Maniacus[sp?] can be bothered with. I think some of these vehicles might have some "off label" use in Pulp Fiction scenarios. Two samples:

Spartan's Take on a Japanese Tank

But I could see this re-flagged with some of LAM's Ottoman guys as supporting infantry.

This One is a British Tank (or Tankette)

The little Japanese Tank Design also exists as a model in their 1:1200 scale Dystopian Wars land battles game (they come two to a token). I don't know if the same is true for this British design.

There are more pictures where these came from in Spartan's Gallery for the new game. Look for the tank-treaded-motor cycle -- I could see the evil minions of some mastermind or other chasing Dirk Danger/Pulp Hero on those things.

This thread is intended to discuss whether any of the models, particularly the vehicles, are suitable for pulp fiction. There is another thread in the VSF section to discuss the merits of the game and associated models as a Steampunk offering.

[P_Clapham]

The Japanese tank..... It looks very familiar.  I could swear I've seen pictures of a experimental German tank with a similar look.  Both of these Tanks could work nicely in Pulp games.

[mysteriousbill]

Might make interesting vehicles for VACW (Very American Civil War). Somthing that some factory or railroad yard might turn out to fill in for a lack of tanks aqvailable to their faction.

[answer_is_42]

Like the latter. The former is quite unsightly.

Steampunk   

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Yes, I agree. I like the British tank, not very keen on the Japanese one. I think the British tank would look OK in a Pulp game.

[jamesmanto]

I rather like the Japanese tank actually. It has that silly experimental look that one finds in the quirky wonder weapons dreamed up by mad inventors looking to sell them to governments in the late 19th/early 20th cent..

Probably horribly expensive when it come out though....

[Donpimpom]

IMHO neither for steampunk nor vsf.
The british tank looks very WW2 but I agree could nicely fit on pulp games.
But the japanese for me is completely out of discussion, it is a modern sci-fi design with rivets to make it look VSF. Everything looks wrong, the details, the size and shape of tracks, those sperical turrets...Have they ever seen how it looks a XIX century spherical boiler?

[Monk]

They both look over-designed and fussy.  The Japanese tank does look way too 40K and the British one looks a bit silly and Lego.  I wonder if it's a pitfall of CAD; it's a bit too easy to keep tacking bits on quickly.  A sculptor would take longer and thus slowly develop a feel for where the design is going.  Just my a theory.

[Melnibonean]

They both look over-designed and fussy.  The Japanese tank does look way too 40K and the British one looks a bit silly and Lego.  

Agreed.

They both look far too production line. The designs lack that human/artificer/craftsman type quality... How do I say this... They look prefabricated. They lack the human element and the vision of an inventor or craftsman which is needed to bring forth real VSF quality. Rivets and gears alone do not equate to VSF/steampunk.

When someone posts one of their scratch built models on here some are better than others; admittedly. But you know that the poster has put their imagination and heart and soul into defining their own VSF/Pulp vision. Some of the modeling may be a bit poor but that's not the point. The point is, is that the modeler is acting as the "inventor" and this is their vision of the past as it could have been if the future had come to tea a little bit early.

[Penchour]

What material are the cast in ? In soft resin, there might be a chance to 'correct' them a bit

[rob_the_robgoblin]

I think these are gorgeous, not bothered about them being steampunk or not, lovely models and I look forward to painting some.

I prefer the British one, it must be said, but my favourites are actually the Americans!

[d(sqrt(-1))]

The Japanese tank..... It looks very familiar.  I could swear I've seen pictures of a experimental German tank with a similar look.  Both of these Tanks could work nicely in Pulp games.

There's the Kugelpanzer : http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/KRUPP%20KUGELPANZER.htm

[DoctorPete]

Though I like the look of the Japanese tank, I don't see it as pulpy -- more VSF.  However, the British tank would work well in pulp games (I might use it as a Japanese tank, strangely enough) as it has that 1930s look.