1/250 (or close to) "Horatius" - Matrix-style hovercraft

[wacek85]

I've always wanted to have a model of Matrix-style hovercraft. Unfortunately all available models are too expensive. I had no other ideas than printing one but one day, when I mulled over Nebuchadnezzar photos (Morpheus hovercraft from first Matrix) I've hit and idea. Nebuchadnezzar looks (well, almost) like AH-64 upside down. Having this in ming I've started with first cuts. I've scavenged what I could from WH40K and guns spare boxes. I bought bulged buttons for clothes in suitable size and we'll see where it leads

[Vorcha]

interesting 

[Weaver]

That's an interesting idea. You could always say it's an earlier version, or that no two such craft are entirely identical.

[wacek85]

A lot of cutting and scavenging later...

[wacek85]

Bogie from Sherman + two buttons = one set of hoverpads Six of this sets vould be placed in order: two on nose, two on bottom, two on top. There should be also four on tail but I need to build them in different way because their installment is more compact.
Fuselage base is almost done, now additional armor, antennaes, guns and some greblies. Nose with cockpit glass is ready too.

[Old Wombat]

This is looking interesting! 

I can't see the human resistance in Matrix having any serial production of large, complex machines.

So, it's more likely that each vessel of this type would be a one-off than a fixed design, & that "classes" would be based more on a general armament layout & power output range.

Keep up the good work! 

[Weaver]

This is looking interesting! 

I can't see the human resistance in Matrix having any serial production of large, complex machines.

So, it's more likely that each vessel of this type would be a one-off than a fixed design, & that "classes" would be based more on a general armament layout & power output range.

Keep up the good work! 

Yeah I was reading up on the ship last night, trying to find more background info about the design, and it seems it was an "antique" which dated from before the Machine War, and was then refitted for travel in the tunnels. If the other ships are similar then presumably they're all of widely different ages and so are unlikely to similar. It's a bit like losing your modern air force on day one of a war, then trying to fight on with whatever you can find in the museums. There's another ship featured in Matrix Reloaded which is of a different design.

One of the TTA books, Great Space Battles, has a similar premise for it's main story. An invader arrives with a jamming system that makes modern ships uncontrollable, so the TTA has to dig deep into it's mothball fleet to generate an "old fashioned" counter-attack force that's immune. This is obviously a ploy by Stewart Cowley, the author, to explain the fact that no standardised ships appeared twice in the second-hand artwork that he was using. I strongly suspect that whoever wrote the first few episodes of the BSG reboot, with the "antique" Galactica being immune to the Cylon computer virus, had read Great Space Battles.

[wacek85]

Hull is almost ready...Now only to finish propulsion systems, wiring, armament (finished already) and sand seams. Then antennas (a lot of them)...

[wacek85]

Almost ready for black primer...Just few more antennas (need to scavenge spare box in modelling cave) and quick sanding.
From left:
Side, top, bottom. 

[buzzbomb]

Excellent 
That is some first class greebling

Been down a similar path to create the NOD Venom from the Tiberian Sun game, using a helicopter basis as a starting point

[Old Wombat]

Really beginning to look the part now!   

[zenrat]

 

[su27rules]

          

[wacek85]

At last base/dio/vignette/stand is on the way

[Old Wombat]

Nice! Almost like a ship-in-a-bottle!