RC Sci Fi: Hardware Shipbreakers LAV part 1

Sunday, 24 August 2025

Hardware Shipbreakers LAV part 1

Way back in 2015 I came across the concept art for Hardware shipbreakers a computer game that eventually became Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. In it were a couple of interesting off road sci-fi vehicles that caught my eye as possible subjects for rc models, the Baserunner and the LAV or Light Attack Vehicle. In this old post I toyed with building a Baserunner loosely based on the original concept art and had 6 massive RC tyres set aside for it. In the end I didn't like my take on it (I prefer the concept art version) and then more recently used the tyres on my own design project the Bogger 6X6.

Base Runner original concept art.

The LAV project however has not been abandoned.

What I like about the concept art is that it is in a very loose photographic/painterly style which I find appealing and the designs look like they could actually work off-road. Many concept artists design supposedly off-road vehicles like they would sci-fi road cars, wheels and tyres with very small gaps between them and the wheel arches. This leaves absolutely no space for suspension travel. The concept artists of Blackbird, the developer of the game, seem to understand this and their designs are much more practical particularly in regard to RC vehicles which generally have a massive amount of suspension travel.

I felt the very boxy slab-sided body shape would be readily able to be scratchbuilt.

LAV exiting the Baserunner concept art.

Early unused LAV game asset.

I started on the LAV chassis some years ago. I had 4 Imex Jumbo Maxx chevron tyres which I thought would fit the bill for the LAV. I cutout the side view of the LAV from one of the concept illustrations in Photoshop and enlarged it so the tyre diameter matched that of the Jumbo Maxx tyres then printed it out full size to get a sense of the size and scale of the project.

LAV isolated from the background

The next step was to build a custom extended chassis employing Traxxas E-maxx suspension with a traxxas Summit two speed transmission.

Two sets of E-maxx chassis braces were cut up and attached to a 3mm aluminium plate. The aluminium I had on hand wasn't quite long enough so I added a short length at the rear. The front set of braces had to be spread further apart than normal to clear the Summit transmission. The front braces were supported by another custom 3mm aluminium plate underneath while at the rear the original E-Maxx plastic plate was used. Additionally a 2mm aluminium plate joined all the plastic braces in the centre and stiffened up the chassis. The rear drive shaft was extended with some aluminium tube epoxied to the original plastic uni joints.

The suspension was beefed up with the stiffest aftermarket springs I could find as the custom body will be much heavier than a lightweight vac formed piece of lexan the E-maxx bodies are made of.

The motor is a brushed De-Walt drill motor using a cheap brushed 12v-24v ESC. It has a lot of surface rust from sitting in my workshop for a number of years. There is one steering servo and a small gear shifting servo.

Also made quite some time ago was a cardboard mockup of the body to check the proportions and see it will fit on the chassis.

That was where the project sat for a number of years until now.

More recently I have been making the body from PVC foamed sheet mostly 3mm with some 6mm.

I have had to make some adjustments to the proportions here and there to get it to fit mostly around the front suspension, widening the nose and modifying the angles of the windscreen section a bit to compensate.