The vehicle was
housed in the belly of the Battlehawk and could be
dropped into the action when flying at low level, or as
the Battlehawk came into land, with the vector jet
nozzles on the sides providing enough downward thrust to
cushion the impact of hitting the ground.
Below: Designer Steven Begg's concept drawing showing the
tank's deployment with the Battlehawk on the ground,
which did happen in the series, but is actually
impossible on the finished model as there isn't enough
clearance for the various flaps to open and for the tank
to drive away. |
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| In the earliest
episodes the deployment was achieved by actually dropping
the small Battletank model out of the biggest Battlehawk
and onto the set in one single shot, but this did not
look very convincing as the small tank had no movement in
it's suspension. They soon stopped attempting that and
began cutting from the small model leaving the cargo bay
to the large scale model hitting the ground - although
with this technique they could not show the whole model
as they had to support it from the rear. |
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| Two motorised
Battletank models were initially built. The small one
that fits inside the Battlehawk was built using the 1/35th scale Tamiya Kampfpanzer
Leopard kit. The bigger 20" version (below) was
based on the 1/16th Tamiya Leopard A4 radio-controlled
kit - which has recently been re-released (without the
motors) for around £500! |
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| Above: The
large-scale tank with one of the Megazoids removed -
smaller versions are on the bonnet. Preproduction
drawings show the Megazoids with only one gun each, which
was then changed to two for the show. The model kit's
motors and gearbox were uprated for use in the series, to
give it more power and quicker response when turning -
although several technicians have mentioned it was still
a problem to get it to work reliably on set. |
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| Above & below:
Front and rear views of large model. |
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| Below: The small
version had a detailed bottom panel, as this could be
seen when dropped from the Battlehawk. |
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| Below: Top view of
the large tank model. |
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| Above: A major
design element on the top panel is the 'Recovery Bar',
used to pick up the tank and haul it back into the tank
bay in Battlehawk - see concept design below for detail -
yet it was never once featured in the series. |
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| Below: The Recovery
Bar in working position, only seen in this publicity
photo. |
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| Below: In the
episode 'A Christmas Miracle' a new big-scale model was
constructed. This varied slightly from the standard
design, such as doing away with the recovery bar, but its
big feature was replacing one of the Megazoids with a
fully articulated cannon. |
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| Below: The two
original tanks sitting together in the model store. |
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| Below: Battletank
on display at Fanderson convention 1984. Picture Doug
Pelton |
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