Land battleships?

Wyrmshadow · October 10, 2009, 02:24:13 AM

I've got a real request here. A friend of mine has asked me to model and animate a landship but I've only seen 1 picture of what he wants. Does anyone know of any more drawings of this paper design? It's nearly impossibly to google it because it shares its name with an actual Pershing Tank.

batmancustoms · October 10, 2009, 04:15:21 AM

awesome topic!

russcal · October 13, 2009, 06:36:35 PM

Heya, Wyrmshadow!

Check out this site: http://www.landships.freeservers.com/

Excellent resource for all armored things of World War I. Has a fair amount on the various experimental / fantasy vehicles that were looked at by the different combatants.

Hope this help!

Russ
Proud son of Rose and Wes

Wyrmshadow · October 16, 2009, 01:50:39 AM

Here's what I did with the plans.

Doc Yo · October 16, 2009, 08:00:35 AM

Wow, that was fast-really sharp looking interpretation of the plan....you should e-mail Roger Todd with these-
I know he'd be delighted.

Wyrmshadow · October 16, 2009, 12:55:39 PM

Quote from: Doc Yo on October 16, 2009, 08:00:35 AM
Wow, that was fast-really sharp looking interpretation of the plan....you should e-mail Roger Todd with these-
I know he'd be delighted.

Well if you know how to get his email address I'll send him the pics.

rickshaw · October 16, 2009, 09:51:59 PM

Quote from: Wyrmshadow on October 16, 2009, 01:50:39 AM
Here's what I did with the plans.

Errr, there doesn't appear to be any provision for much in the way of steering...

Mossie · October 17, 2009, 04:21:29 AM

I assume it would be steered by means of uneven braking or a slip gear? If you start to turn those big wheels in soft mud you could easily dig yourself in.

rickshaw · October 17, 2009, 06:32:52 AM

Quote from: Mossie on October 17, 2009, 04:21:29 AM
I assume it would be steered by means of uneven braking or a slip gear? If you start to turn those big wheels in soft mud you could easily dig yourself in.

You'd have a very, very large turning circle trying that.

Mossie · October 17, 2009, 08:08:06 AM

That's more or less how tracks work & it's not going to be very spritely at 150 ton anyway. Using conventional steering on the beast is going to cause you some serious problems. To be honest, I think the wheels would prevent it being a viable machine, along with it's size. Very cool though!

rickshaw · October 17, 2009, 08:09:36 PM

Quote from: Mossie on October 17, 2009, 08:08:06 AM
That's more or less how tracks work & it's not going to be very spritely at 150 ton anyway. Using conventional steering on the beast is going to cause you some serious problems. To be honest, I think the wheels would prevent it being a viable machine, along with it's size. Very cool though!

Yes, thats how tracks work but they have the advantage they have (effectively) one wheel on each side in the form of their tracks. This has two wheels a side. Because of that you can only really brake one of the two wheels, which results in a very wide turning circle. I'd had to try and manoeuvre it along any road system, in the approach to the battlefield. It would have been better to articulate it or allow either the front or rear or both sets to have a large turning movement.

Sauragnmon · October 18, 2009, 02:43:10 AM

Well, since the wheels appear to be rather fixed in place, you could still lay it out with a Skid-Steer arrangement, like much smaller construction equipment like the Bobcat and other such light lifters - link the drive on both wheels of each side to a control, then you can outright reverse one side for an even tighter turn. But yes, looking at the layout, I would say quite simply the unit would not be all that mobile in general.

One would question, though, if armored trains might not count as land ships in some ways, like the ones the Germans had in WW2 with tank turrets and the like mounted on them.

jcf · October 18, 2009, 12:29:52 PM

Quote from: Mossie on October 17, 2009, 04:21:29 AM
I assume it would be steered by means of uneven braking or a slip gear? If you start to turn those big wheels in soft mud you could easily dig yourself in.

That monster would dig in on hard ground going in a straight line, never mind trying to turn.

Mossie · October 18, 2009, 03:14:14 PM

Even with tracks!

sagallacci · October 26, 2009, 10:03:05 PM

I've been noodling on variations of things starting with a "land monitor" to break the siege of Petersberg in 1864 during the WotR. Not much more than a locomotive engine running on treads and an armored box around it all. From there land cruisers (literally maritime pre-dreadnought size steam powered monsters) would patrol the vast plains along the US/Canadian boarder and fight for Empire in Asia and Africa. The hulls (these would have to be at least semi-amphibious for big river crossing) were more or less conventional marine designs, mounted on multiple independently articulated track elements for reasonable floatation and manerverabilty. Not terribly fast and would quickly become obsolete with aviation's eventual ability to carry useful warloads against them. 20th. C. armored combat and anti-tank aviation would start on a whole different level thereafter.

As for more reasonable/real world concepts, not many come to mind, and most are more towards heavy moble weapons platforms than direct combat vehicles. Keith Laumer's Bolo weapons, huge A.I. super tanks, in the tens of thousands of tons and megaton-equivelent energy weapons might qualify after a fashion.