30 November 2016

The New Black - Peter Reid: Blacktron Assault Tanks

Posted by Admin
I asked readers to send in pictures of models they've created that use some the LEGO® parts featured in our current parts festival, The New Black. Perhaps having got the bug when he took place in our previous parts festival, Nexo-Classic Space, Peter Reid (legoloverman) surprised me with some microscale tanks he built especially for New Elementary readers.

Blacktron Wolverine Assault Tank

The latest addition to Kazak's army of darkness, the Wolverine assault tank is a remote-controlled, mobile missile launcher. Each unit carries a devastating payload of eight tactical nuclear missiles.





This model started with the weapon, which is a shameless recolour of the Horizon Assault Platform (one of my newest turtle weapon upgrades - see Bricks issue 17 for details and instructions).

I do love the chamfered edges found on Nexo shields and ingots. I also love to recycle old ideas.

As well as the Nexo shields (Design ID 22385), the Wolverine uses a pair of long skeleton legs (Design ID 23769), two of the dome things (Design ID 58176) and a couple of tassels (Design ID 25375) round the back... just like on real tanks.


It's loosely inspired by this old Action Force toy, also called Wolverine. Development took several weeks, on and off. I originally planned to mount the launcher on a Blacktron turtle, but the turtle became a tank somewhere along the way. These things happen.

Blacktron Mauler Assault Tank

The Mauler uses two of The New Black challenge elements; a black Nexo shield once again and one of those nice arm joint things (3.2 Shaft W/3.2 Hole, Design ID 23443).



The shape is a nod to the Action Force/GI Joe tank of the same name. I'm quite into the scale of these little tanks, and I'd definitely like to experiment with some additional variant designs.

I'd like to thank Chris Salt for fixing the terrible problems that occurred during photography for this post. Black is not a forgiving shade - every scratch and speck of dust shows, especially on small models.




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9 comments:

  1. I'm breaking my brain trying to figure out the design of the yellow parts.
    It looks like the bar but what's the rest?!

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  2. Looks like polos: http://brickset.com/parts/6168644

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  3. I'm guessing Bar 6L with Stop Ring and Round Plate 1x1 with Open Stud, which I hadn't realized existed in yellow.

    http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=63965#T=C
    http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=85861#T=C

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    1. I'm hurt that you didn't read my previous guest post on New Elementary back in May this year. Comically entitled "Eggs, Balloons & Buns" :-) It included an image showing all the apollo studs... http://tinyurl.com/zwcrft2 well apart from the trans orange as I forgot...ahem.

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    2. Yellow was the second or third color for the Apollo Stud, quite a while ago. That's one of those parts where for every single new color they've introduced, I've always found something which absolutely would not be possible without it, and in most cases I was actually waiting for them before they even showed up in pre-release set photos. Still hoping they'll wise up and make it in trans-clear, though...

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    3. I'm hurt you all didn't immediately remember my post about yellow apollo studs/ from three years ago ;)

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  4. I'm loving these articles. I think this is the pinnacle of what TNE was meant to be, great builders showing readers what could be done with new parts. I'm seriously Jonesing for some of these parts! Do you guys get them out of sets, are they provide by lego?

    I must admit I wish I could take part in this. I love mixing system with CCBS and bionicle and it'd be fun to see what I could do with new parts in the context of "Constraction."

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    1. I'd love that Dave! Especially looking at cool ways at mixing them, I think wider readership would really enjoy that. Drop me a line here or thru Flickr (just followed you)

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