Future Tanks - Mikes Diecast Tanks and Armour

What if the Germans, in WWII, had decided to build a "super-dreadnaught" tank? Takara sought to answer that question with its 'Amazing Weapons' Series. Takara designed a 1/700 scale 1000 ton 'Land Battleship', featuring a HUGE turret with two 28 inch guns of a battleship on a tracked hull of 35 meters by 15 meters. Its also 2 auxiliary turrets and AA guns.

Aoshima is a Japanese scale model manufacturer. They primarily manufacture cars and motorcycles, though they have started making WWII vintage airplanes, armour, and some science fiction. Most past models have been plastic, but the releases shown above are diecast metal.

Above are the recent releases themed from the movie Aliens, released in 1986. The movie featured the Colonial Marines, sent in to investigate the colony of terraformers who had "gone silent". Their descent to the planet was in a Colonial Marines dropship, with an APC onboard.

The dropship is 1/72 scale, and is about 13 inches long. The detail is superb! The weapons pods are well made, and they can be extended in attack mode, or "tucked in" for fast atmospheric insertion. The ramp raises and lowers, and can actually store the APC. The version shown above is a limited edition, and came with the Alien Queen. As noted, it is diecast metal, and is heavy!

The APC is also very good. The wheels roll smoothly. The main gun turret retracts for transport, and rotates, as does the front gun. Again, the model is Heavy diecast metal.

Galoob, Konami

Galoob DropshipA	Galoob Dropship	Galoob Sulaco	Galoob Sulaco
	Konami Aliens APC	Konami Aliens APC	Konami Aliens Dropship
Konami Aliens Dropship	Konami Aliens Dropship	Konami Aliens Dropship	Konami Aliens Dropship
Konami Aliens Sulaco	Konami Aliens Sulaco	Konami Aliens Sulaco

The Colonial Marines of the movie Aliens was also immortalized by Galoob and by Konami. The Galoob version is fairly toy-like. The Konami releases are nicely done and well detailed!

Popular with Gamers, Warhammer 40k represents a far future where humanity is constantly at war with an one of a number of 'nasty customers'. To assist is the mighty Imperial Guard and their armoured divisions. Games Workshop, creators of Warhammer 40k, have created some very interesting interpretations of what tanks might look like in the far future. Warhammer tanks are available as large scale plastic models (assembly required) as well as small white metal models.

For those of you familiar with Science Fiction, Keith Laumer presents us with tanks known as Bolo's. As tank armament increased over time, Bolo's were armed with increasingly sophisticated Artificial Intelligence, eventually becoming self aware. These stalwart members of the Dinochrome Brigade became staunch defenders of Humanity in Laumers's wars of the Future.

For more on Bolo's, go to : Kitsune's Science Fiction Conversions

Other

Halo by Johnny Lightning

Halo Warthog

Star Wars Clone Tank

Star Wars Clone Tank

Star Wars Clone Tank

Star Wars Clone Tank