Smethwick Mechanical Elephant and Castle

While cleaning out the basement I came across a copy of AT-43 that I purchased long ago. I always liked the two walkers that came with the game and I've been pondering what I can do with them. The Firetoad I think is going to be a Prussian Walking Destroyer to join the LandKriegsFlotte that I will hopefully be making in the future.
 

Destined to carry a big main gun in the service of the Kaiser.

I was less sure of what to do with the Therian walker. At first I thought it might work as something in one of my evil factions, but once I pulled the weapons and the face off the front it kinda reminded me of a walking submarine. Of course I had no use for that but it did give me the idea of using it as transport walker. Perhaps something along the lines of an elephant with howdah used by hunters and explorers in India. I'm thinking it will be a walker designed for the rich and famous to travel about on expedition but commonly pressed into military service.


Well it looks like the front of a submarine on legs to me anyways.

With a concept squared away I set to work. I broke the model down and proceeded to trim away bits that didn't fit in, like the pointy feet and other pointy crab like parts on the legs. At this point I know I need to make new feet, possibly rework the legs, reshape the body, add a deck to the top, and a new powerplant.


Torn down into components. Surprisingly there is a nicely modelled  pod-thingy for a pilot hidden away in the carapace (the orange thing up front). Makes me wonder if there is a pilot in the other walker too.

I cut the top half of the carapace off flat and started gluing things back together. I'm going to keep the legs separate to make working on them easier. They attach to the body by a nice thick hex pin mount built into them and it's pretty solid so temporarily putting them together again is no problem. A piece of plasticard became the new deck and I used some epoxy putty to rebuild the hull. This will get sanded out smooth and details like portholes and such added.


AirCaptain Goswell inspects the new Mark III Quad-Ambulator at the Smethwick plant.

Next step all of the fiddly detail work!