2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Jan 3, 2015 14:04:24 GMT -5
It was a fairly obscurre vehicle with probably fewer than 500 produced. A lot of the chassis have been bought surplus and used as platform for commercial equipment. Trenchers and small haulers. I suspect as military full tracked surplus they are among the least expensive vehicles one could find. Probably $5,000.00 or so plus the cost to transport to your home (another $900.00 or so) The fellow who owns it has numerous full tracked and armored vehicles and has supported airsoft events in the past although none of them are WW2 vintage.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Feb 20, 2015 17:21:28 GMT -5
Here is a friends SP British Howitzer which has been a nice stand in for a tank at numerous airsoft events here in the NW. Here it is following a strike from a NERF bazooka. I have helped to put on numerous events with real and fabricated armor. My fabricated armor was too smale to be credible and real armor is frankly too big and unweildly for most venues to say nothing about how expensive to transport. I'd still love to fabricate some WW2 armor on cut down Ford Aerostar Mini vans but doubt it will ever happen. Real armor is so hard to transport and requires actual roads and lots of safety considerations.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Feb 21, 2015 22:43:47 GMT -5
If you look at an older Ford Aerostar the shape would facilitate a fabrication and they are cheap used cars. My thinking is to remove the upper structure at the glass. Literally cut everything off at the top of the doors and dash board level. Because the roof creates part of the structural strength the doors would have to welded shut and a metal frame created at what would have been the base of the windows. I invision extending the side walls out about six to eight inches on each side to create greater size and create an overhang to suspend the tracks which would be fixed. Side skirts would camouflage this fact and in tall grass it would not be apparent. To facilitate the need to get air to the radiator some fake burlap sand bags will be affixed shaped over wire but allowing airflow. For a German tank applied spare track would allow air to enter and hide the radiator.
A German Panther is a reasonable vehicle as it had all flat shapes throughout. It would be approximately 5/8th scale which is still huge! another thought is a Hellcat M18 tank destroyer which would be pretty close to one to one scale or a late war flat surfaced Sherman. Allied tanks would be more palatable for neighbors, parades and such and create less drama when being transported to events.
In reality of gameplay a single armored vehicle though intimidating is tactically worthless on an airsoft field as airsoft range extends just slightly beyond the dead space Infantry love to exploit in close combat. Players with NERF bazookas or Panzer Fausts will make quick work of an airsoft tank contrary to the movie FURY! Armor is best deployed with mutiple vehicles and Infantry close in support. Infantry quickly get seperated from tanks due to enemy fire and the tanks mobility. If they move slow enough to keep their Infantry in close they are extremely vulnerable. If they leave their Infantry they likewise are vulnerable. Infantry from halftracks were an effective compromise.
In my perfect world I picture two replica tanks and three halftracks, (Per side!). I need to win lotto big!
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Post by volkssturm on Feb 22, 2015 0:36:10 GMT -5
Yeah, that scene in "Fury" where the panzerfaust cuts through the side of the tank and kills the gunner (or loader, not sure which one), was a major flaw in the story. A shaped charge melts the metal and sends a stream of white hot molten steel into the tank. I doubt that hitting a body would do much to stop it from starting fires and setting off ammunition But the movie would have ended right there. Another flaw in the storyline was they sent Brad Pitt out without any infantry support. That late in the war any experienced platoon sergeant would have refused to move until they came up with a couple squads of grunts.
It would make an interesting scenario, though, infantry cooperating with tanks against AT guns and panzerfausts.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Feb 22, 2015 1:02:05 GMT -5
I would love to add that element to airsoft on a grander scale that the single armored vehicle here or there that we have managed to get at events. An Armored FORCE is a whole different deal and would add complexity and realismthat would really set WW2 events apart from normal airsoft. White Armored cars or US halftracks seem quite doable on Cut up Import pickup trucks.
I saw a you tube of a guy taking a beater car and squirting expandable foam all over the outside and then sculpting a very impressive exotic car shape which he shaved down and then finished in a very convincing outer shell. He even redid the interior panels and once shaped upholstered very exotically. It got me looking at vehicles and pondering the possibilities. If the wheel base is right and general shape is close it appears anything would be possible.
not sure what he sprayed over the foam to create panels that he painted. Military armor certainly wouldn't require nice finishes in fact German vehicles Zimmerit paste could in fact be the foam!
Scale is not essential to me in fact for gameplay and practicality somewhat undersized is actually a plus. Half scale is way too small however. 3/4 scale might ge about right for airsoft. Nerf main guns and a bow gun and coax with a commander controlled gun up top could be pretty formitable. tank to tank would be fun as well!
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Mar 2, 2015 17:07:20 GMT -5
I recently received pictures of some plywood fabricated armor that came out looking pretty darn good in my opinion. The event was a WW2 pageant in Russia outside St Petersburg.
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Dracul
Master sergeant
Posts: 1,341
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Post by Dracul on Mar 2, 2015 17:13:28 GMT -5
From 2ndBat
These are fabricated fake tanks mounted on inner truck bodies sent to me from one of my Finland Customers who bought several Garand conversions from me. These were used at a huge Leningrad commemoration event which had quite a few real armored vehicles and field pieces along with some really well done props. looks like a pseudo Marder and a PZ III? The tracks are fixed and suspend a bit off the ground and don't turn or anything but (especially with sideplates) aren't very distracting. Obviously being in reality wheeled vehicles they are pretty much limited to roads but that facilitates tactics and safety to a large extent. I think a Panzer troop with assorted vehicles like that would be cool. Reenactment pageants in Russia are quite eloborate. There is one group with large numbers of half scale armor but thats too hokey for my taste. These are somewhat underscale as well but not distractingly. 2nd Bat
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