Backlog: Maelstrom (Part 1: History and Videos)

Maelstrom was my Ultimate Lego Tank, and to this day it is unmatched in firepower. Maelstrom was, in many ways, an improved version of Tempest. The idea for Maelstrom was that I would get some Power Functions (PF) motors to use in the drivetrain so I could build a full Hurricane Launcher for the weapon. Soon after I got my PF motors, I began work on the drivetrain. It was fitted with the same suspension as Tempest, but it was necessarily larger because I wanted to fit a huge Hurricane Launcher on it. The original drivetrain was great at climbing over all sorts of terrain, and it was fast too.

Maelstrom drivetrain prototype

Soon after the first prototype, I added some rubber treads to the front to improve its climbing ability. This allowed it to conquer some really tough terrain. Unfortunately, Maelstrom was too heavy to climb over most of the terrain the prototype could.

Improved Maelstrom Prototype

At this point, progress came to a standstill for a while. I had used most of my beams on Maelstrom's drivetrain, so I didn't have enough parts left to make a Hurricane Launcher. I ordered a pack of parts from Lego Education, but it was nearly a month before I could resume work. In the meantime, I made a video explaining Maelstrom's suspension.
 

Maelstrom Suspension Explained

At long last, I constructed the Hurricane mark IV and put some finishing touches on Maelstrom. This project had taken nearly a month of my summer, more time than I even spent on another Lego project.

Maelstrom: The Ultimate Lego Tank

It's also worth mentioning that this was the first appearance of DroidFreak BattleTech and its logo.

Before I took Maelstrom apart and as I took it apart, I took enough pictures for an NXTlog project and for full instructions. I plan to post those here, but this post has already gone long enough, so I'll post those separately soon.