by Bill Human

Four Acme Aerospace Mk II Engineering and Service Vehicles had been shipped to the Moon to help construct the then secret defense facility being built there. After a decade of operation, this facility was declassified and re-christened Alpha.

Years later, after most of Alpha's newer engineering vehicles were converted into "defense tanks" it was realized that this left the base without its much needed repair and construction ability. Therefore, it was decided to reactivate some of the original equipment that had been used in the early stages of Moonbase Alpha's initial construction. Two of these vehicles had been lost in accidents over the years and one had been cannibalized for spare parts, but one intact vehicle was found in the service tunnels around the base.

Nicknamed Big Al, this vehicle is something of jack of all trades. It is used in repair, maintenance and construction of Alpha's tunnels, habitat modules, flight facilities, and sensor networks. With its excavation arm, front mounted dozer blade, manipulator arm, and towing ability it has become an indispensable part of Alpha's continued survival.

Well, that's enough back-story. Here's how I built it.

About a year ago I got a cool little remote controlled M1A1 Abrams Tank, made by Kyosho, from my wife at Christmas. After annoying the dogs with it for a while, seeing what it could run over on my desk, and following it (very slowly) around my house, I began wondering if I could use it's little chassis for a RC Alpha Laser Tank. I quickly found that it was a little too large to be in scale with my ERTL Eagle Transporter, so I started thinking about doing a service type moon vehicle with it.

This idea moldered in my head for a while until I saw the "Other Guys", contest announced. That was just the kick I needed to get motivated!

"Big Al" represents my first ever attempt at vacuforming! I built a vacuform box and carved the master from a block of urethane foam. After hooking up the shopvac, I'm fairly pleased with the result.

Since this model was motorized, I felt the need for some of the attachments to be poseable. The movable "excavation arm" was donated from a HO scale earthmover from the hobby shop, and the manipulator arm was scratch-built using Evergreen Plastic tube, aluminum rod, and part of an RC airplane/control rod "thingy".

The "utility hump" was made using the plastic inserts that come with my printer cartridges, and the rest of the model is made from stuff from my parts box, a couple of 1:72 Revell armor kits, and of course, details from the body of the Abrams tank this started from. Oh, and there are two Lego pieces there too. (See if you can find them!)

Image: Right rear

Image: Left/front with hoe out

Image: Robot arm

Image: In action

Image: Front view

Image: What have we here?