75152 Hovertank Top Hatch MOD

[greg3]

Hi

I was delighted to see my local toyshop (Toymaster in the UK) had the new Rogue One sets on the shelves (All except the AT-ST) so I picked up the Hovertank and U-Wing. 

Having already built the Hovertank my mind's full of possible MODs - like real life armoured vehicles I can picture variants such as; troop carrier, command post, medical, artillery, anti-aircraft etc but first off I wanted to see if I could get the top hatch to open so the commander could look out. Took about 5 mins to come up with this...

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

It's not perfect (if only they still made the old opening vehicle roof 4x4 hinge plates!!) and it makes it a bit trickier to get the figures in and out but for now it does the trick!! The figure also has to stand on a 1x2 brick to see out (he's obviously a little short to be a stormtrooper!!!)

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

Anyway, thanks for looking - comments are always welcome!!

Edited September 24, 2016 by greg3

[makoy]

Under 5 minutes.  Way to go! 

I don't know why the LEGO designers did not do the hatch this way... maybe the source material did not portray the hatch to open that way so they left out that detail in early design process.

[deskp]

Good job, good result. 

[Sucram]

What you should do next is do what they did on that AT-ST where they had the realistic hatch then you can open the whole roof.

[jhaelego]

Gread MOD! I'll def. be implementing on the hovertanks that I pick up. Rather than having a seperate hinge for the entire roof section, I think it'd be better to have the top section on jumpers so you could just pull the entire thing off. to access the interior.

[Richpepperell]

I haven't got the set yet, but I've been playing about in preparation.  Come up with very similar result (ignore the colours), although I wanted my hatch to sit a plate lower.  According to Capnrex, there should be a extra plate depth of clearance below the roof level - I'm relying on it!

[JDbricks]

Simply genius! I love it!  

[Flieger]

Just a little note regarding accuracy: the hatch opens sideways (to the left of the tank), see here.

Perhaps that's the reason Lego did not include an opening hatch - with the hinges on the side it does not look all that good, at least when I tried.

Some better builders may achieve better results though...

 

PS: as you can see in the image, the crew compartment is also a bit smaller, but I like Lego's version better.

[Cult_Of_Skaro]

On 9/25/2016 at 0:14 PM, Richpepperell said:

I haven't got the set yet, but I've been playing about in preparation.  Come up with very similar result (ignore the colours), although I wanted my hatch to sit a plate lower.  According to Capnrex, there should be a extra plate depth of clearance below the roof level - I'm relying on it!

 

 

I tried this mod and it works, but does prevent the pilot from sitting inside. The OP works and allows the pilot to sit under it, so it's what I'm settling with even though I prefer the flush look.