Sentinel One Tank
Kid Connection Artillery Gun
Knock off gun
Paint stick, chopsticks, wine corks and pex clamps
GI Joe Cold Weather Mobile Artillery
Code name: Hailstorm
With an expansion of Cobra bases utilizing the frigid environments of the artic to avoid prying eyes, the Joe team needed to expand their artic fleet to provide the ability to soften enemy defenses prior to a coordinated attack, as well as to support that attack with heavy artillery. The result was the Hailstorm. Boasting a crew of six, the Hailstorm driver gets the vehicle in place while a top mounted gunner provides defense from close range attacks. The primary gunner operates the main artillery weapon, with a team of three providing rapid reloading from the cargo area. This tracked vehicle can traverse rough artic terrain at a high rate of speed and provide a barrage of earth shaking shells to an enemy's position.
Customizing background
This custom came about simply because it was a good day at the thrift store. I stopped in and found an incomplete Sentinel One tank as well as the big gun from the Wal-Mart kid connection helicopter set. I even found three figures and some accessories in the tank hatch area. The main gun was missing, but I was able to modify an oversized gun that I had in my scrap heap. The big artillery gun filled up the large blank area at the back of the tank very well. I wanted to be able to carry a few troops so I fabricated a bench out of a paint stick, chopsticks and wine corks. Pex clamps are glued to the wall to help keep the figures in place. My only real disappointment was after investing a lot of time in shaving the molded front driver's hatch out and hinging it back in place, it was so far forward that the Jeep interior I was planning to use for the driver wasn't able to fit in a way to get a figure in and out. I decided to paint it a snow camouflage to expand the artic fleet a bit. I've had a Cobra artic custom in the queue for a long time so I thought this would give it an adversary should I finally get around to completing it.
