Suffolk tank

[moif]

Here are a few pictures of my recently finished, fictious tank; the 'Suffolk'.

Painted in African camouflage, the Suffolk is meant to be a secret American tank, designed and built as part of a classified weapons programme in the early 1920s but then due to neferious political machinations, later sold off as surplus to an African rebellion in 1937. Armed with a hull mounted 75mm gun, the Suffolk is an assaut tank designed to support the another tank; the Infantry Support 'Thunderbolts' (I'll post pictures of them later I hope). For protection of her flanks, the Suffolk also has two side mounted .30 machine guns.

[fastolfrus]

Bit like a Char B / St Chamond hybrid.

Looks ok but if it's an American design would it mount a 75mm gun for assault role?
I would have thought the design brief would be something more like a hull mounted heavy howitzer?
And if it's in British service would something like a 3 inch or even an 18pdr be better for ammunition?

[moif]

Hi fastolfrus

I went with the 75mm mostly because thats what the Char B1 had.

[Ignatieff]

That's bloody marvellous!  Where do I get me one???

[mysteriousbill]

The Americans used lots of French 75mm, and started to make their own copies by the end of the war. They even made q18pdrs in 75MM.


Wikipedia
By 1917 US firms had produced 851 QF 18 pounders for export to Britain. Hence production of a 75 mm version offered a simple interim solution, being basically a copy of the British QF 18 pounder rechambered for French 75 mm ammunition, utilizing existing production capacity.

[fastolfrus]

Fair enough.

[moif]

Hi Ignatieff

I'm afraid it is a scratch built model, so you can't.

I did try  to replicate it in resin but my mold failed to function. I may try again in a few months time with another variant (depending on time and resources). If I do I'll be sure to post about it.

[jp1885]

That's a brilliant tank - bravo!

[Ignatieff]

Hi Ignatieff

I'm afraid it is a scratch built model, so you can't.

I did try  to replicate it in resin but my mold failed to function. I may try again in a few months time with another variant (depending on time and resources). If I do I'll be sure to post about it.

Thank you. Fair enough.  I await news from Denmark (what about getting a professional resin moulding/making coy to do it?  If you did that, and got it on the UK show circuit, I bet you'd sell a ton of them)

[Etranger]

The Americans used lots of French 75mm, and started to make their own copies by the end of the war. They even made q18pdrs in 75MM. .......

and the 75mm guns found on the Lee and Sherman tanks were also derived from the French design.

[Dags]

It's a lovely scratchbuild 

But wouldn't the gearing go through the gun's breech......

[von Lucky]

Nice work on the construction and painting.

[moif]

Thanks guys.

Hi Dags.

I try to make my models as close to realistic as I can but I'm not an engineer and I find I make technical mistakes all the time. What do you mean by gearing?

[Dags]

No worries 

Inside the track there are wheels... there has to be a wheel inside each of the 'bends' in the track. Those wheels are, roughly, the width of the track. They aren't just floating there... they have to be attached to something. The gun is placed off centre in the hull; its breech has to behind the barrel... in exactly the same place as the wheel would be attached.

Sorry to be harsh as it really is a great model.

[Etranger]

Not really a problem as a small diameter roller mounted on the tanks frames would work just as well. Plenty of space available. The Char B1 is a real world tank with a similarly mounted gun. The early Churchill models (Marks I,II) mounted a 3 " howitzer in the same place.

Traverse of the gun would be very limited, but that was a problem with real tanks with hull mounted guns too. The Char B design solved that problem by pointing the whole tank to aim the gun. Given that the gun mounting here only looks to allow for elevation/depression of the barrel and little or no traverse the "Suffolks" designers must have used a similar concept. There's no space for a dedicated gunner so the driver must be doing the aiming in any case.