Hi everyone!
I know I’ve got a ton of projects in “progress” right now but I honestly think I’ll shelve all of them for a bit for this one.
I’ve loved the Fallout series of video games for majority of my life, and ever since I’ve seriously gotten into AFVs and AFV modelling I’ve been really dissatisfied with the AFVs in the Fallout series. Fallout is based in an extremely retro-futuristic post apocalyptic world which had 40s-50s culture, music, firearms, fashion, alongside heavily armored suits, abundant use of nuclear energy and robots, along with plasma, laser, modern day weapons, and etc. It’s honestly got a lot of clashing aesthetics, with the most notable ones which relate to their AFVs being the pre apocalypse 50s culture and sci fi elements. But I just feel like the MBT in Fallout (pictured below) is so lackluster to me.
there’s a good video which breaks down it’s and other Fallout AFV’s flaws, which includes the fact that the Fallout MBT doesn’t even have sprockets (so it’s unable to even move). But my real issue is in it’s appearance and unrealistic features. I’d really prefer something like an M48 style tank, or even an MBT-70 with modifications to fit the more retro futuristic style of fallout, which is what I’ll be doing with this project. I thought that an MBT-70 with a cast turret with the 20mm autocannon, along with it’s mounting area removed would be a much more compelling and more grounded in reality MBT for the US army in Fallout; but for now I’ll be making an MBT-70 from the Enclave faction, which are the post apocalyptic remnants of the US Government. they frequently use power armor and plasma and gauss weaponry, along with helicopters such as the Vertibird, they’re extremely high tech and have a ton of experimental weaponry.
(Example of Enclave power armor)
(Example of Vertibird)
But moving onto the kit itself, I just received it in the mail with some goodies alongside it, I’m planning to use the m1919 barrels as a coax machine gun, the Trex abrams tracks as replacements for the kit tracks (I’m pretty sure that leopard tracks would also work for this, I might be wrong though), Aber metal barrels to replace the kit barrels, and an ETmodels IDF Droid APS…as an APS (since I accidentally bought the wrong type so it was just sitting there and I thought it’d look cool on this)
I’m aiming to make my MBT-70 as an experimental upgraded version (I’ll call it MBT-70E5), which has been pushed into service under the Enclave in northern California. I originally planned for it to have these “tesla” glowing things on it like the Enclave have on some of their power armor (pictured below).
I thought that those “tesla” glowing things could act as an APS against energy weapons for the MBT-70 but I dont have a 3D printer or any way to make those so I’ll put those on another Enclave MBT-70 I’ll make (maybe when Takom finally makes one, their VT1-2 kit has the roadwheels for it!!) But for this build I think I’ll slap on ERA from the Tamiya M60A1 w ERA, along with spares from Academy m113 sprues, and parts from some dollar tree toys I honestly got to just mess around with on this kit. (I’ll be sure to call out the sources for my other modifications though) Also one last thing before I finally show the parts of the kit and some photos of it; I’ve been thinking about how to paint the MBT-70E5, and I’ve settled the options being either light grey (similar to the photo of that tesla power armor), a dark black/OD, (probably something like those US mbts in Europe during the cold war or something similar to the first power armor photo), and a red desert/desert MERDC camo, or any other unique American AFV camos that could fit in.
(but now that I think more about it, the experimental Ferris USAF camo could be kind of cool for the MBT-70E5 if I desertize the colors and change it up a bit)
Okay, okay so now onto the actual kit itself, I’ve taken some photos of rough drafts of modifications I’ve already thought out some more, such as the ERA and cast turret.
Here’s a photo of the upper turret half, note all of the ridges and hard corners it has, I’m planning to sand them smooth and make the turret curved and then apply a cast texture all around it.
I’ve blu tacked on the ERA panels and the smoke launchers from the Tamiya M60A1 kit, I’ll show photos and explain my plans for it but if anybody has any tips or comments for any part of this build feel free to let me know!
(Bad photo but you get the idea:)
I’m also planning to cut off some of the ERA blocks from these panels to fill in these gaps here:
I’m so far planning to cut off the era blocks which are pointed out here to allow better fit and coverage:
This area is entirely naked (pictured below), but I’ll cut up this era panel to make it cover that area up (pictured below the naked area)
(I’ll cut off the left section and separate the red circled area)
(Then I’ll reattach it onto the top of the panel in the area circled in red below)
But that’s all for this post, thank you so much for taking your time to read all of this! I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you’ve all been doing good. 
(I’d genuinely go crazy I don’t think I’d want to do that, or honestly either one I’m scared of both AEF and the tesla thingies)
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