Mancha's Cyclops

[Mancha]

I received my Cyclops (is that the legitimate name, or did Chairface immortalize it thus?) from RAFM on Friday.  Been playing with it ever since, and came up with this:







To my way of thinking, the most important addition is the undercarriage.  It doesn’t increase the overall size of the tank, but it now looks like human-seized figures could be lurking in there.  Having done that, I had to drill out a space for a commander, who will be perched in the hatch, and the brass smoke-stacks were a summer purchase at a train store.  The dozer blade was more or less an afterthought.  It’s been lurking in my parts box for years, receiving speculative looks with every conversion.  I might not have added it here except the tubular copula of the tank fits perfectly into the notch of the dozer blade.  Anyway, with the tank’s minimal armament, the dozer blade sort of gives the tank a more obvious purpose.

All I have left to is work out the forward machine-gun mount (totally not satisfied with the OEM part) and paint it, although I’m not certain when that will happen.

As a review of the model, I can mostly echo Chairface’s comments from an earlier thread: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=22933.msg280422#msg280422.  I LOVE the atypical shape, with the three wheels and jutting forward copula.  I also very much like the exposed boiler, and I think the wheels have a very original design.  Unlike Chairface, I appreciate the smaller and more numerous rivets (although some of them were lost in the casting).

Granted, the resin required some cleanup and the rear wheel required some fiddling, but I would expect that.  I think the body is too shallow, and my undercarriage conversion is an absolute necessity (in my eyes).  As I commented when the original pictures were posted, I don’t like the striation markings on the body and I’m hoping they’ll disappear when I apply primer, because if they don't, a drubrushing will make them all too evident.  I assume these striations are an indication that the master was designed on a computer, as opposed to being modeled from raw materials.  If computer-modeled minis are a thing of the future, I hope the striations are not.

All in all, I’m very happy with this mini.  The shape is original and interesting, the price is right, and the model has lots of possibilities.

[Christian]

That's incredible!

Nice review and the conversion work is great.

[Westfalia Chris]

Great, but subtle little modifications. I particularly like the little numerals on the side sponsons, and am looking forward to seeing what kind of armament you'll add.

[The_Beast]

Well done! Not sure if it's sufficient for me to imagine large fellows inside, but sure helps! I still think on a 15mm-20mm table, it'd be a proper beast, and Chairface could learn to love the rivets. ;->=

Speaking of which, I totally was lost at them being too small; if anything, a touch smaller, and many more, with scribed lines indicating  iron plates and... Oh, wait, blithering again. 

However, old bean, this HAS lost a great deal of ground clearance. This WILL haunt your intrepid crew in the future, I'm sure. 

Doug

[Calimero]

Nice conversion indeed. I too, especially like the numerals on the side, a simple yet clever idea IMHO.

I’m not a 100% sure about the dozer blade though… To me the original design looked like some kind of light "mosquitoes class" landship. Now with the heavier looking blade and the addition of the lower hull it could be a "medium class" landship

Anyhow that’s a very nice conversion work

[Chairface]

Mancha I bow before your conversion greatness. You took a good product and made it great. The undercarriage, the smokestacks, the hub on the wheel all add immeasurably to the model. The numbers look right - I may steal that for something else. The dozer blade I'm not entirely sold on, but it does not look out of place. I look forward to seeing a Hinterland model sticking out of the top. Maybe the original princess? Well done. One thing about the rivets - they didn't bother me too much until I started painting them. Let me know how you feel once you start.   I only wish that I hadn't decided to do mine as factory and made some changes of my own.

Oh, I can't claim to have dubbed the model the Cyclops Land Wheeler. That's all RAFM.

[Admiral Benbow]

That's what I call a major improvement!
Great!
 

[Mancha]

Thanks for all the positive feedback, everyone.  A Hinterland commander is on the painting table. 

[Ray Rivers]

 

Very nice indeed!

Looking forward to seeing how you arm the thing.  And also it's Commander.   

[Thunderchicken]

Great stuff Mancha! As the other chaps have said the subtle conversions have made an admiral difference. Any clues on the colour scheme you're going for? 

[Mancha]

Any clues on the colour scheme you're going for? 

Probably a boring green, so as to go with my "realistic" WWI-style Hinterland minis painted thus far.