Excellent
It's testing my schoolkboy grasp of French, but it puts a more modern form on the patent design in that russian link.
For me...oddly enough....this began as a Warhammer 40K discussion with a friend who was trying to educate me on the virtues of the LeMan Russ tank. For anyone who doesn;t know...this is a supposedly futuristic tank which bears more resembl;ance to the lozenge/turret hybrids built shortly after WW1. Sure, it looks cool...but it has no provision for suspension. It runs side plates very close to the tracks...but shows some large springs pretending to be suspension. We got to discussing tank suspension design and whether
a) There could be a way to design some
b) Whether anyone in their right mind would build a tank with no suspension.
I cited the TOG as a real world attempt in the 40's to build a tank with no suspension, but that doesn't count as a 'production' vehicle. Then my thoughts turned to the Char B1. My reference works refer to the suspension as 'limited' but sufficient for the intended role, where speed was not a priority. I have seen the TV program where Guy Martin 'mocked up' a real WW1 tank, and they drove it on a straight flat road. Even at walking pace the need for some form of suspension was painfully apparant.
So....we wanted to see how some form of suspension could be built into the constraints of the game model...and this was the best start point we had. TRouble was...I couldn't find ANY reference material that helped answer the question.
The even bigger trouble now is I want to build one in 1/16 scale. I tried a scratch build before on the T35, but lost interest after I ran into some stupid, niggly spring issues, followed by problems with the sheer length of the hull. Really think I should start off simpler.....but
