Shepard armoured assault transport: models, variants

Okay so while I was cleaning up a little recently I stumbled on an awesome piece of art in a white dwarf for the old epic game and it was the inspiration i needed to put pencil to paper and start drawing. so at present i am part way through the 1:1 designs of the model and it has me thinking of variants.

Transports

• Standard version: (commonly designated as platoon carrier)
  this version is the most focused on transportation of infantry to the front
• Company Command variant: this vehicle acts both as a troop carrier and as a field command for a hektarian company. it’s internal upper deck is dedicated as a command area (albeit a cramped one) with a central holo-table which is often used to track troops on the field. it is also more externally ornate. I also will be building a model of this one with the roof removable so as to show off the command level and maybe the troop section. this also has medicae facilities to heal up a commander who may get injured in the field.
• medicae corps triage vehicle: only ever deployed to the back lines of a battle this
  this variant contains specialized medicae equipment including a triage center
• Seige troop carrier: unlike the above variants this tank sacrifices much of it’s top armour to instead operate as a massive amphibious landing craft to carry large massed infantry formations. it has often been likened to the gorgon and has been in imperial service for as long

Support tank variants:

• Colossal Mortar variant: (inspired off the art that inspired the side track design) hektarian regiments will often station these in the rear lines of a battlefield to use their mortars for a preliminary bombardment that hails the arrival of the dragoons infantry and battle tanks. this tank swaps out it’s entire passenger space for a massive ordnance launcher and ammo supplies.

front line variants:

• Missile battery variant: much like the previously mention mortar variant the missile battery variant forgoes troop capacity for munitions and ordinance batteries. however it is often deployed as a front line bunker buster and armour pounder. though it doesn’t have the stopping power of a shadowsword it still is a terrifying thing to face one of these
• engineer corps variant: forgoing most armament this tank’s main role is to transport both supplies for the engineers and to act as a bridge layer to allow for troops and armoured companies to cross rivers.
• heavy battle tank: while it has been in use for nearly as long as the baneblade these variants are considered to fall into the category of second generation baneblade.

other variants:

• the shepard armoured carrier also has an stc variant as a motive sections for colossal armed and armoured road trains that are used on frontier worlds and on the worlds in the hektari system to transport vast amounts of cargo be it fuel, water, armoured companies or infantry companies, or any other important resource on a world where pipelines are found to be too vulnerable. in the hektarian thunder narrative campaign these do feature a few times for themed missions
• several combat variants exist in service to a nearby forgeworld. it is believed that the stc on mars was lost during the great heresy so only the hektari 2 and a neighboring forgeworld posses the stc forges to build these tanks

okay so here is the art that inspired the forthcoming design. I will share more on this project when i have a the first model set up at which point i will share the designs too

July 12, 2019 | Categories: Adeptus Mechanicus, Astra Militarium, hektarian tanks, Hektarian thunder narative campaign, scratch built wh40k, Uncategorized | Leave a comment