Hovertank Custom

It’s the holiday season and that can only mean two things; overtime at work and stress shopping when the Toys R Us coupons come. Surely it doesn’t mean only those two things, but this does happen every year. So I bought a double of the new Imperial Hovertank and added a custom weapon to it!

Here’s a less gratuitous shot without the whole rest of my Lego armored division. As you can see there is a beefed-up turret as well as the simple (read: literally one piece) comm antenna. This particular tank, at least as far as I can tell without having seen Rogue One yet, isn’t meant to be a first assault unit. It’s more for ferrying troops and equipment around while more versatile weapons platforms such as AT-STs and AT-ATs fight the real fight. With that in mind, this is a special command-type unit with the added heavy beam cannon and enhanced comms system.

Here’s the beam turret on its own. I was going for something like Battlefront II players might recognize. The Republic and Imperial tanks in that game have open turrets at the top that offer a lot of firepower but little protection for the gunner. The ‘wing’ pieces used as shielding hopefully remedy some of that problem, though a gunner in this position would still be sniper fodder. The main body of the gun is the same piece that makes up Baze Malbus’s gun, with a handle (which mounts it to the hinged tube piece) and studs on each side. The shielding is attached to the T-shaped pipe-looking pieces and set into a stud with a hole in the top for stability. Up top we have a telescope piece attached to a 1×1 stud with a clip to make a scope. And to beef up the gun a bit further, I added a grey cheese wedge to each side and built a stubby, fat gun barrel.

I didn’t go crazy on this mod but I’m happy with how the heavy turret came out. When this set came out I told my fiance I was going to buy a bunch for the tank troopers and other Imperial MOCS. We’re up to two already! I might add some color to this one to give it a little more flair as a higher-ranking vehicle. Any suggestions? Let me know in the comments below!

As always, thanks for reading!

-David