75280 MOCs/MODs - TX-130 Saber Republic Hovertank

[Per_SW]

Evening everybody.

So, last summer finally brought -annoying campaign notwithstanding- what many Clone Wars fans deep down wanted: a 501st battlepack.
Sure, the final product still irked many people, either with the price rise or the oversized builds or whatever else, but in the end the set was still appreciated judging by the speed it went unavailable when first released.
I myself was one "annoyed" by the size of the vehicles included, but I still ended up buying four copies of the set in the last few months, and I finally had the time to start tinkering with them to get something more to my taste.

First of all we have the BARC speeders
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This design is not mine, but it's a slight variation on this take. It may be still a bit too big for a 4.8 mt long speeder bike, but it feels better than the official model IMO.

Next we have the AT-RT
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Again, part of the design was inspired by another builder, but in this case I really wanted to shorten the legs and had a different idea for the main gun, so I added a couple of pieces from my spare parts to achieve the desired effect.
Still not sure about the feet, but at this scale they seemed the best option so far.

Of course after these mods I was left with loads of unused parts and an entire box still unopened, and that's when I decided to try and make a canon vehicle with what I had.
IMG_20210305_015357
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I saw a nice swampspeeder made from a single set, but I ended up choosing the Republic Hovertank after googling "501st republic tank" and finding either recolors of the 75182 or better MOCs :D
The design started with the side "pontoons", which went through a couple of redesignes mid-build.
Also, the lack of wedge pieces discouraged me in the beginning, until I found a way to convey the shape with the multitude of flags available.

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There is no back door, only a top hatch, but I still tried giving the impression of one.

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Comparing the result with set 75182 -which I purposedly did not use for reference, preferring to use a couple of pictures from Wookieepedia- you can see that the size is almost matched, although the cockpit area is definitely a bit too tall.

Finally, a couple of group shots.
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I hope you enjoyed my take on the set and were maybe inspired by it. Feedback is, as always, appreciated and encouraged :)
 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Per_SW

[Mandalorianknight]

That tx-130 is incredible as an alternate build! Making a canon vehicle out of the parts of another set is tough, especially when they don't seem to lend themselves to the set (like you said, not many wedges), but you did it perfectly. I'm definitely going to try and make one out of 2 501st sets based on yours, I can post it here if you want.

[Per_SW]

8 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

That tx-130 is incredible as an alternate build! Making a canon vehicle out of the parts of another set is tough, especially when they don't seem to lend themselves to the set (like you said, not many wedges), but you did it perfectly. I'm definitely going to try and make one out of 2 501st sets based on yours, I can post it here if you want.

Thanks for the feedback!

I'd be glad if you tried one from two sets, I'm actually curious to see if it's manageable since I noticed while building it that there are few instances of parts coming from all four.
 

[caiman0637]

Wow, these all look great!

[Sarah_H7744]

Wow, you're 501st TX-130 Hovertank is really good!

You've inspired me to attempt a Hovertank build of my own. 

[Mandalorianknight]

On 3/5/2021 at 7:27 AM, Per_SW said:

Thanks for the feedback!

I'd be glad if you tried one from two sets, I'm actually curious to see if it's manageable since I noticed while building it that there are few instances of parts coming from all four.

As it turns out, it is manageable with only 2!

So here's my attempt at it with only 2 copies. I tried not to use too much of your design but there's definitely some influence, mainly the flags for the slopes and of course the front. I tried to make it at a similar scale to their depiction in battlefront 2017, their most prominent canon appearance. I think it turned out well, though I'm getting bat-tank vibes for some reason. It can fit one trooper inside and has room to clip equipment on the sides. However, I had a lot of parts left over, and I remembered you mentioned a swamp speeder:

It doesn't look great, due to only using parts left over from the tank and the central fan/engine being tough to re-create with bricks from this set. In the end, I went for a slightly different design, but tried to keep the basic concept the same. I still had parts left over even after the swamp speeder, so I made a small ballistae and weapons rack with the extra parts, and at that point pretty much all that was left were brackets and skis, which I couldn't find anything to make it into.

One last image of the different vehicles that can be made from 4 copies of the set (plus a couple extra parts for the modded AT-RT joints). My AT-RT and BARC mods are in this thread if anyone's interested.

[Per_SW]

15 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

As it turns out, it is manageable with only 2!

I knew it! :D

15 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

So here's my attempt at it with only 2 copies. I tried not to use too much of your design but there's definitely some influence, mainly the flags for the slopes and of course the front. I tried to make it at a similar scale to their depiction in battlefront 2017, their most prominent canon appearance. I think it turned out well, though I'm getting bat-tank vibes for some reason. It can fit one trooper inside and has room to clip equipment on the sides. However, I had a lot of parts left over, and I remembered you mentioned a swamp speeder:

That's really good, I love the angled parts clipped at the back of the "pontoons" giving them an actual slope instead of just the suggestion of one, and I think you managed to make the cockpit lower than mine, which is also nice.
The flags remain the best solution for the front wedges, given the parts available, and while the nose may be influenced by my design one has to recognize that the stickered 2x3 tile begs to be used there. Love your use of inverted slopes on the front and the narrower "eyes".
To be honest, both my design, yours and even the canon one give me a bit of Bat-Tank vibe, I think it's the overall shape and the menacing slit-eyed, pointed nose shape of the front :D

The swampspeeder is also really nice for the number of parts available after building the tank, while simplistic it still manages to capture the right shape and feel of the vehicle, it makes me want to start fidgeting again with the rest of the leftover parts I have :)

16 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

My AT-RT and BARC mods are in this thread if anyone's interested.

I also advise anyone here to take a look at that thread for the MODs, it was one of the first things I checked out while looking for inspiration.

On 3/7/2021 at 1:13 PM, Sarah_H7744 said:

Wow, you're 501st TX-130 Hovertank is really good!

You've inspired me to attempt a Hovertank build of my own. 

Please do! :) As you can see there is more than one way to get one and I'm always curious on different takes and any improvement you might suggest.

On 3/5/2021 at 4:14 PM, caiman0637 said:

Wow, these all look great!

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked the various mods and the tank :)

[Mandalorianknight]

1 hour ago, Per_SW said:

That's really good, I love the angled parts clipped at the back of the "pontoons" giving them an actual slope instead of just the suggestion of one, and I think you managed to make the cockpit lower than mine, which is also nice.
The flags remain the best solution for the front wedges, given the parts available, and while the nose may be influenced by my design one has to recognize that the stickered 2x3 tile begs to be used there. Love your use of inverted slopes on the front and the narrower "eyes".
To be honest, both my design, yours and even the canon one give me a bit of Bat-Tank vibe, I think it's the overall shape and the menacing slit-eyed, pointed nose shape of the front :D

The swampspeeder is also really nice for the number of parts available after building the tank, while simplistic it still manages to capture the right shape and feel of the vehicle, it makes me want to start fidgeting again with the rest of the leftover parts I have :)

Thank you! I can't wait to see what you come up with using the leftover parts!

 

I have this crazy theory now that with 6-8 packs a gunship or AT-TE could be possible, (of course, you'd have to use black parts instead of clear parts for the cockpits, and I suppose the bubble turrets would be hard). That way the entire selection of republic ground vehicles could be made from copies of one set.

On 3/7/2021 at 6:13 AM, Sarah_H7744 said:

Wow, you're 501st TX-130 Hovertank is really good!

You've inspired me to attempt a Hovertank build of my own. 

I can't wait to see it!

[Mandalorianknight]

Update:

I used stud.io to design a tx-130 hovertank using mine and @Per_SW's 501st alternative builds as inspiration. Also pictured is an AT-RT made off my AT-RT design again from the 501st mods.

 

On 3/11/2021 at 12:43 PM, Per_SW said:

To be honest, both my design, yours and even the canon one give me a bit of Bat-Tank vibe, I think it's the overall shape and the menacing slit-eyed, pointed nose shape of the front :D

Edited April 19, 2021 by Mandalorianknight

[Per_SW]

4 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

*Bat-Tank*

That's perfect! Now all we need is a Joker AAT to go against it

[Sarah_H7744]

10 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I used stud.io to design a tx-130 hovertank using mine and @Per_SW's 501st alternative builds as inspiration. Also pictured is an AT-RT made off my AT-RT design again from the 501st mods.

This Hovertank is brilliant! 

[Mandalorianknight]

12 hours ago, Sarah_H7744 said:

This Hovertank is brilliant! 

Thank you! 

18 hours ago, Per_SW said:

That's perfect! Now all we need is a Joker AAT to go against it

Don't tempt me! I can already see a smiling joker face on that front hatch.

[Mandalorianknight]

Alright, this is my final time resurrecting the thread to egotistically post a minor update on my tank. I built a physical model, and it manages to be stable with real bricks.

As you can see, it fits a pilot and scales pretty well with the AAT.  If anyone happens to want one of these for themselves, let me know and I'll send you a part file for the instructions.