Stranger Than Fiction Armor

[Pirate-Drakk]

Originally Posted by cyberia

Bob, those are priceless!!! There is absolutely no word play in the whole "land battleship" idea!

I agree, the Land Battle Ship lives!

[cyberia]

Speaking of land battleships, this one actually got to the design stage...

"Bolshevik"

If built, this beauty would have had 24,000 horse-power multiple engines, weighed 1000 tons, had 6 turrets and crew of sixty people.

Ordered designed by the Soviets in 1932, The "Bolshevik" tank was intended to be a powerhouse Communist propaganda tool and deterrent to aggression. Logistics however proved a greater deterrent to its further development and the vehicle never made it from the paper stage.

As shown in the drawing above, had it been built its enormous size would have drafted the WWI German Kolossal-Wagen (silhouetted on left) and the WWII Maus (silhouetted on right).

[PanzerBob]

All engines of war should be this big then maybe we'd think more before unleashing them!!

[cyberia]

I think I found the forerunner of the 1980's Big Wheel. Only this one was armed...

"Big-Wheel" Battlewagon Design

German commercial firm of the Bremen Hansa-Lloyd Works created the Treffas-Wagen in 1917, which had huge wheels, heavy guns, weighed 18 tons, and needed a crew of four to operate.

Treffas-Wagen

This unique monstrosity was not developed any further, to be replaced by the A7V.

[Pirate-Drakk]

Originally Posted by cyberia

This unique monstrosity was not developed any further, to be replaced by the A7V.

Yah, the A7V was a piece of work! Proof of a failed concept.

[PanzerBob]

Originally Posted by Pirate-Drakk

Yah, the A7V was a piece of work! Proof of a failed concept.

Ah yes but my twisted mind envisions hundreds of these "ideas" crawling across the Hellscapes. Picture it Royal Grand Land Fleet rolling into the Imperial Kaiser's Land Armanda laying waste and mayhem to the point where another war would be never fought again. (that's the WWII tie in)


Other than than that, there does seem to be a few designers out there at the time who never got a trike for Xmas!!!!


ALKETT VSKFZ 617 MINENRÄUMER

[Klaus]

How in the world did they want to steer this thing? Mind control? This looks impossible. But on the other hand: "We are Germans! We only need to go forward."

[cyberia]

Minenraumer

Here's a photo of the real deal on display in a museum somewhere in Russia. This one is either a two-wheel version, or is just missing it's rear wheel.

RPM Models actually makes a 1/35 scale kit of this thing.

[PanzerBob]

It's just the angle of the shot, more pics different paint same museum.

1.2.
1. Color photo from the Russian Kubinka Museum revealing the size of the beast
and twin MG armament courtesy of A. Beck DR

2. Details of the rear rolling armored wheel courtesy of A. Beck DR

[PanzerBob]

During the trial tests, it proved that this vehicle was unsuited to the operations of modern mechanized warfare. Its ponderous weight, slow speed, and its awkward size made the Minenräumer (minesweeper) a large target for opposing artillery and the project was thus abandoned.

See Complete Story

Nice Model giving good overview.