Neo-Sov vehicle on the cheap: Robogear Varan conversion

[James Holloway]

Right, so! As some of you may recall, I've been working away on this neo-Sov project and I like making things that are inexpensive.

As I was putting together my neo-Sov list, I thought to myself "thematically, what do I want this army to look like?" I decided that I wanted to embody some of the sort of general traits of the Red Army of WWII, including:

- furious infantry assaults
- commissars
- all the high explosives you can shake a stick at plus the stick.

And for the third point, there's no piece of battlefield kit that exemplifies the get-it-done vibe of the Red Army so much as the Katyusha, which combines industrial simplicity and gigantic explosions. So I decided that some kind of Katyusha-like thing was a necessity for the force and started to keep an eye out.

I was fortunate enough, a couple of months back, to win a giant box of mixed Robogear stuff on ebay for under £10, including shipping. I got, oh, I dunno ... four small walkers, three crawlers, two big walkers, and a flier, plus a few other bits and pieces, so all told I would say the average price of each item was about £1. One of these items was a "Varan" tracked missile launcher, and this seemed like a good candidate for the big-explosions job. It was painted when I got it, but I'm going to repaint it.

Anyway, here's what it looks like, with a Space Marine for scale:



Now, while this is a pretty nice bit of kit for £1, it does not quite suit my purposes. For starters, that big rectangular hole where the driver's head and shoulders stick out is a no-no. Not only do I not have a good seated driver figure in the right scale, but if I did he would look completely ridiculous riding around with his head at the level of his enemies' belt buckles. I also thought that, giant rocket launchers aside, the vehicle could use an extra weapon for defense against getting swarmed by infantry.

I took a bit of a broken toy armoured van I got at Poundland and gave it some sides made of scrap card, then put it atop the front of the crawler to form a cockpit. There were five vehicles for a pound, and this is only a bit of one, so let's call that 10p. This new armoured visor had a circular hatch at the top, a perfect place for a commander to stick his head out. I had (with this project in mind) picked up some Imperial Guard tank crew from Quendil over on the Bazaar, and I brought one of them out. He was a quid, and then there's shipping, so let's call him £1.50. Lastly, I mounted a spare Mishima assault rifle from my bits box next to him so that we could have some kind of close protection. Heaven knows what I paid for that Warzone weapons pack -- it must have been before 2002, and even then it was (knowing me) probably on sale, but I'll be generous and call it 40p. That gives us a ballpark estimate of £3, which for an AFV of any kind is not bad.



Now, I'll be the first to admit that this model is still a leeetle more a toy than a proper wargames model. How is that big launcher reloaded, and where is the ammo stored? Where's the lid to the commander's hatch? What are those fuel drums doing sticking out of the back on struts or whatever? Who had the idea to take a gigantic bombardment rocket launcher and stick it on what is essentially a tankette?

But I have added a vehicle to my neo-Sov force for £3, so I can live with it.

Next: painting!

[Elbows]

Looks good to me.  If it's a rocket launcher, it can be loaded and launched like a Katyusha (from a separate truck and crew once fired).

I'd like to see a good pic of it painted and done though.

[James Holloway]

Looks good to me.  If it's a rocket launcher, it can be loaded and launched like a Katyusha (from a separate truck and crew once fired).

I'd like to see a good pic of it painted and done though.

Just as soon as I actually paint it! Mind you, a "good" pic might be beyond my capabilities at the best of times.

[James Holloway]

Right, I spent a couple of hours putting some basic colours on this thing while I was on the phone tonight. Here's a WIP photo, taken in the kitchen (best light in the house!). The driver needs more work, and there's more touching up to do here and there -- I have some Red Army decals I'm going to stick on it as well -- but it's like 90% done. I would stick it on a tabletop like this and not feel *too* bad.

[Dr.Falkenhayn]

neat,personally i would add Mudguards/Skirts to the Tracks,looks a bit vulnerable to RPG's me thinks,but yeah looks like Soviet Tech to me 

(i wont tell anybody about the Mishima Rifle  )

[Tacgnol]

Very Neo-Sov, looks like a tooled up bulldozer, especially because of the unshielded tracks. I like it a lot, seamless work with the bit of broken poundland toy.

[tnjrp]

Now, I'll be the first to admit that this model is still a leeetle more a toy than a proper wargames model. How is that big launcher reloaded, and where is the ammo stored? Where's the lid to the commander's hatch? What are those fuel drums doing sticking out of the back on struts or whatever? Who had the idea to take a gigantic bombardment rocket launcher and stick it on what is essentially a tankette?

Well, apparently designs like that are all the rage in the far Robogear future so it must be something beery beery advanced us backward types just don't get

Anyway, it's shaping up to be a nice model, especially for the cost (discounting the time spend with it obviously). I've been thinking of using Rg weapons on other vehicles and/or gun emplacements and circulating the "tankettes" into parts of something that looks like the Saturn V crawler unit (but is obviously a "bit" smaller):
http://hammerandfeather.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/crawler-transporter/

[James Holloway]

Anyway, it's shaping up to be a nice model, especially for the cost (discounting the time spend with it obviously). I've been thinking of using Rg weapons on other vehicles and/or gun emplacements and circulating the "tankettes" into parts of something that looks like the Saturn V crawler unit (but is obviously a "bit" smaller):
http://hammerandfeather.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/crawler-transporter/

That's what I'm intending to do with the other crawlers -- scratchbuild cargo areas on their backs and use them as utility vehicles for the spaceport part of my SF terrain.

Not only does that create surplus weapons, but I have a bunch of spares as well, so I am of the same mind as you are -- these things may turn up on other vehicles, bunkers or what have you.