Monday 18 January 2016

Will the real Stegatank please stand up?

Well, here we are again. Offering up more stuff for you to gawk at. Enjoy :)


Here is a subject that I think has been a little confusing right from the get go of RT. Now, let me preface this blog post by first stating that this may be old hat to some, blatantly obvious to others, but for me (with my diminished intellectual facilities due to.....old age, alcohol & marriage.) it's never been adequately explained. Well, I think it warrants clarification.....so here's my take on it;

In Rogue Trader, page 112, there is a single page dedicated to Walker's & Stegetank's. It describes them both "ok", but fails to include a picture of a Stegatank. "But there is one you ninny! Look under the heading of Stegatank, it's right there! A whole gang of them!!", I hear you cry. "But it's not, you fool!" I rebuke in anger. Take a closer look at an expert from Rogue Trader and you'll see what I mean.


Looks ok at a cursory glance yeah? Let's look a little closer in the next
picture shall we...

The plot thickens.....and clarity eludes us. Should we continue on down the rabbit hole?

After reading the descriptions it basically differentiates them into bipedal & quadrupedal categories.


Now, following on from my "study" of the information in Rogue Trader, my own interpretation of what GW had in mind when they envisaged what a Stegatank looked like, pretty much looks like they were loosely based on a series of model kits released in the mid 80's by Revell. They were called Robotech Defenders, I've included the examples from that range that look like Stegatank's below:









Their pretty funky looking model kits if you ask me. I remember seeing these in a brochure back in the day, but even then they were way outside of my meagre pocket money range. Oh ,but I really wanted them! The diorama for the last one is bloody fantastic too!

And here's a modern example of a Stegatank that I came across a few months back. Suitably pimped for some RT action. What do you think?




Now, as some of you may already well know (and I think I may have talked about this subject before in an earlier post, but my memory has decided to let me down again.), during the editing process for Rogue Trader they had originally planned to use a bunch of the staff's kitbashed creations to accompany each of the vehicle descriptions. After all, these were what the vehicles descriptions were based off of in the first place!

But, at some stage during the selection process for the pictures required for RT they had a think about the legal implications of using copyrighted material. And they came upon the realisation that they would have to pay licensing fees to each and every one of the manufacturers of these model kits if they wanted include them in the book. So, unfortunately for us, they had a rethink and decided the best (and cheapest) solution was to use illustrations instead of photography to accompany each of the vehicle descriptions instead.....more's the pity I say.


Alright, so now that I've finished my ramble/conclusion here's my point,

I reckon the above model kits were what GW had in mind for what a Stegatank looked like. 

What do you all think? If you have any differing ideas I'd be really keen to read them.



Now, go in pieces :P

12 comments:

  1. Funny you should mention it, I've got a stegatank in the works for an up-coming battle :D it's a secret though, shhh!

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    1. I'm right aren't I? That's what they look like yeah?

      I'd love to build one too, but I've kinda got a "bit" of a back log of unfinished projects :)

      Don't worry Crooksy, I can keep a secret, mum's the word :p

      Cheers buddy

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  2. I had a star wars AT-AT in i think 1-72 scale whih i used as a stegatank. It has four legs and two forward firing cannons.

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    1. Hey, good idea! That one is so obvious. It's probably a more likely candidate to mine I think.

      Both examples came out around the same time in the eighties too.

      Thanks for the feedback :)

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  3. I always had Zoids in mind for that entry... you remember the big battery powered ones? I recall that Tomy even had a Stegosaurus-shaped one!

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    1. Yeah, another worthy proxy Leadballoony!

      I've actually got one of those Zoids, the big arse Brontosaurs one. They re-released them about ten years ago. I could never afford them as a kid, so in my twilight years I bought one :) They still rock!

      Cheers

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    2. yes, i actually used my zoids stegosaurus as a stegatank. now thanks to this blog i need to buy a zoids stegasaurus to convert to a stegatank.

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    3. Cool! I've managed (by pure luck) to motivate someone into the awesome world of kitbashing :)

      Can't wait to see it when it's completed.

      Cheers.

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  4. A Stegatank better have a Stega-tail too, with spines and everything.

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    1. Hey, that's a bloody great idea! I imagine the spike on the tail could be oversized & electrically charged. The spines a narrow battlement, where troops could move up & down the length of his spine protected.

      Cool Dai :)

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  5. The triceratops zoid would actually work pretty well, I think. Back in the day I had a Robotech Dromedin that I used much as you describe, but I traded it away as it always looked a bit too delicate and overtly tanky to me. I still have the bones of a trigon I've been hacking apart for years and repurposing for other models. (I got it used and it was missing parts, so no great loss to even the purists out there.) Look forward to seeing your take and thinking maybe I need to do some looking as there's an RT project that suddenly pops into my mind as well.

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    1. I remember a certain RoboCop toy that you pimped out rather well Composer :)

      I have no doubts you can impress again. Cheers :)

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