Magnets and Tanks

Yesterday I got my order of 100 6mm x 1.5mm and 100 3mm x 1.5mm magnets.  They are nice and strong, and simply awesome for all sorts of hobby stuff.  The first thing I did with them was mount some in the turrets and bodies of my 5 Panzer IV tanks from Flames of War.

I also got my 1/144 scale M1A1 Abrams tank!  Here it is, for no apparent reason next to the panzer, even though they aren't the same scale.  They are both tan though.

Here it is next to the paper I was using to judge scale from the load planning post.  I think the size is pretty close.  You can see the tank a bit better now, it is impressively detailed.

It fits!  Granted, this is without walls and a ceiling but I don't think it will be a problem.  There won't be a lot of room to see past it though, so the pallets might not be so productive after all.

This is actually the back of the tank.  Because the turret is located forward of the center of the tank, the turret is rotated 180* backward for transport to reduce the overall length.

And a nice side view.  You can see the turret facing backwards here, and how much extra room there is foward and aft of the tank (remember the 4 pallet positions on the ramp).

Now that I have tank in hand I'll briefly look for some platic (or thin cardboard) to make some pallets and cargo before gluing down the tank and closing up the cargo compartment.  In the mean time, I'll probably build the engines.  As some of you may have noticed, Jake is now a contributer to the blog.  He will probably be putting up some of his Tau painting projects.