British WWI Heavy Tanks & Gun Carrier

[rickshaw]

I find the Warhammer designs exceptionally top heavy - too high and unstable.

In WWI, the British did develop "funnies" - they had beach assault versions of their standard tanks to enable a planned raid to be made on the Belgium coast during the Ypres offensive, which was intended to cut off the Germans and clear the coast to force the U-Boats to leave.  They also developed fascine carriers as well, for crossing the wider German trenches that the Germans instituted as an anti-tank measure in 1917.

[Mossie]

Practically speaking, GW's designs aren't that feasible, but they very much belong in the sci-fi fantasy stable.  GW's style is semi-charicature, they tend to emphasise things like weapons & other main features.

As well as fascines, the British increased the length of their tanks to clear the new widened trenches.  This began with the Mark IV 'Tadpole', a simple extension of the track guides.  The space between them was occupied by a plate, a handful troops could embark on it or it was quite often fitted with a mortar.

Mark IV Tadpole


It was quickly realised that if you were going to strengthen the rear to take the Tadpole extensions, you might as well lengthen the whole tank.  The Mark V* was a stretched Mark V.  This wasn't quite up scratch, the increased length made it difficult to turn & it would shed it's tracks.  The Mark V** improved on this, the curvature of the tracks was increased on the underside to improve turning as well as increasing ground pressure to prevent track sheding.  The width of the tracks were increased as well.

Mark V**

[Just call me Ray]

I find the Warhammer designs exceptionally top heavy - too high and unstable.

Practically speaking, GW's designs aren't that feasible, but they very much belong in the sci-fi fantasy stable.  GW's style is semi-charicature, they tend to emphasise things like weapons & other main features.

I think I should add that these are sci-fi designs, from a gaming universe where you have a species of creatures who are able to make vehicles go faster just by painting them red, and may I add, is mostly played by 40+-year-old armchair Rambos and 16-18-year-old social malcontents who like to talk big about a strictly disicplined military dictatorship and how awesome it would be but wouldn't last two weeks in Marines bootcamp.

Plus all their stuff's overpriced anyway.

[jcf]

The Mk V** were converted to bridging tanks.
Small pics from an old book (published 1933):


Jon

[Wyrmshadow]

I haven't posted anything new in a while.. and this maybe a British WW1 thread, but this certainly is a heavy tank.
4 hours ago I was at this stage:


now I'm here.


not happy with the color yet.

[dy031101]

I've realised that adding a turret creates space (see Mark V cutaway above) & weight distribution problems, but it looks good!

Could we remove the rear MGer's position and move the engine to the back?

[Mossie]

Nice K Wagen Wyrm!

Dy, I guess so.  It'd need a bit of a re-design to the rear.  Putting all the weight centrally might give you CofG & ground pressure problems, similar to the A7V.  A stretch wouldn't harm it either.

Saying that, the French managed it with a much smaller tank, the Renault FT-17, which heavilly influenced the way tanks would be designed ever since.  It was designed from the start to use a top turret, which continued to be the norm carrying on in the current day.

[Wyrmshadow]

The last threadjack.
Okay, I'm happy with the new texturing I did tonite.