Soviet fast light tanls - BT-5 etc...

[redstar72]

Is the turret modded from that of a M24?

As for me - it doesn't look much similar to M24:


But I agree: it actually looks a bit Western. It seems that its body is derived from the Sheridan. And, maybe, the turret has the same origins (with reworked rear part).
I'm not the author, and I'm not such a good tank specialist to notice these details without hint ... Maybe the tank would look more Soviet with PT-76 turret (as it has the same cannon).

[NARSES2]

I like that BT-10. Thanks for posting 

[dy031101]

A lengthened A-20 with Sagaie turret...... hull MG ball mount is eliminated.

But I remember that Sagaie is a two-man turret.

Is there another candidate suitable as a pattern if I want to make a (relatively) light MBT out of an enlarged A-20?  I've considered T-44 hull + T-54 turret...... or maybe Panzer 61/68 turret for a more Westernised idea......

[rickshaw]

Why not the PLA's Type 62 Light Tank?





Don't be fooled.  It is a scaled down T-54.  It is armed with an 85mm gun.

Alternatively, you might like the Type 63.  Basically a PT-76 hull with a Type 62 turret with an 85mm gun on it:

[dy031101]

Why not the PLA's Type 62 Light Tank?

Come to think of it, not a bad suggestion.  The line drawing I could find wasn't good, so I scaled down that of the T-54 instead.

Although I'd still like to wonder if I can replace that 85mm gun with...... a US-made 90mm with custom muzzle brake?  A French-made 90mm (or even 105mm) gun as used by the AMX-13?

(Well I found some Yugoslavian projects based on Soviet-origin equipment but armed with NATO-origin components quite to my liking and therefore am thinking along the same line......)

[dy031101]

A-20 convertible drive with scaled-down T-54 hull, M41 turret, and AMX-13's 105mm gun (though I probably didn't get the barrel length right).  I've actually found it asthetically to my liking the most, followed by simply sticking with the egg-shape turret like that of the Type 62......

Would it still have been plausible under a Yugoslavia-like background though?  I intend to reason that the turret, while inspired by that of the M41, was initially armed with the same 76mm gun as the M18 tank destroyer and later upgraded with the French gun.

[Logan Hartke]

Oooh, that looks nice.

Cheers,

Logan

[dy031101]

if you are going that way don't forget it has a cristie suspension and a large part of that hulls internal space is taken up with springs and the wheel come track steering equipment !!

Even during earlier discussions I never thought much of number of roadwheels except that bigger tanks need more of 'em.

Then these couple of days I look at A-20 and A-32 (which led to T-34) again.  They are parallel developments, yet A-20 has four pairs of roadwheels and a 45mm gun whereas the A-32 has five pair of roadwheels and a 76mm gun.

Why is it that the A-32 is longer than A-20 by only 20cm but has five pairs of roadwheels?  Is it purely because of the bigger gun (and therefore the anticipated heavier weight)?  Or does the steering mechanism also play a factor?

[rickshaw]

I would think it was a matter of "ride".  The more roadwheels, the better the "ride" in the vehicle as it smooths out bumps as you go over them.    Its like the difference between a short-wheelbase 4x4 versus a long-wheelbase 4x4.  Anybody who has experienced the ride in the two will testify, the longer the wheelbase, the less pitching you get as you go over rough ground at speed.  In armoured vehicles the same is true but its also the number of wheels and their spacing which is important.  The fewer the roadwheels the greater the pitching, particularly in a suspension like the Christie which allows long wheel travel.

The spacing of the roadwheels is also important, as well as the total length of the suspension versus its width.  The Challenger tank destroyer discovered that.  It was excessively long for its width and therefore less manoeuvrable than the cruiser tank chassis that it was developed from.  Adding an extra roadwheel to better distribute the weight of the large, heavy turret, without commensurably increasing the width did that.

A lot of this was discovered through trial and error rather than scientific theory BTW, its one of the main reasons why there have been so many dead-ends in AFV design.

[dy031101]

The way their description went sounded like they were built at the same for comparative test...... so did the A-32 just so happen to get the number of roadwheels right?

[rickshaw]

The way their description went sounded like they were built at the same for comparative test...... so did the A-32 just so happen to get the number of roadwheels right?

More than likely, yes.  I'd have to go and do some research but off the top of my head, if they were a set of competing designs then I'd say it was more than likely true.   Just as the Porsche and Henschel Tiger designs were, for example.