RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Just as a piece of pure speculation, has anyone ever contemplated building the Royal Marines' 'Hippo' BARV (Beach Armoured Recovery vehicle) ?. Apparently, we have four of them in service and they're all based on the Leopard 1a5 platform.
It looks like this: To my mind, it looks like the result of marriage (and mating experiment) between a Leopard tank and a Marshalling Yard shunter..
Here's another pic of it with a predecessor: For a bit more background I found this website (and was charmed by the self-effacing name of it ):
http://tanknutdave.com/the-british-hippo-brv/
Well, if you happen to have an older Tamiya leopard chassis hanging around, and want a very distinctive addition to your collection, look no further than this
I couldn't find any references to the Hippo in our search index, so it seems safe to say that none of our more intrepid scratch builders has yet attempted it.
But while on the subject of possible builds, I lit upon this engaging old thread begun by Gen. Alpha:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11910&p=102810&hili ... le#p102810
Do check it out

Well, if you have spare Sherman bits, and fancy a change, you could try one of these: I suppose in RC form, it wouldn't do much unless you waterproofed it, as there's no turret nor even a movable crane/lifting device you would find with ARVs. It just shoves and shunts. (No jests on that one, lads.)
With an angled watering can, it could be sent along the garden borders, or through your crop of wacky backy, I suppose
The photo, by the way, appears to have been snapped by a Roman with a Time machine. It's not one of mine.

For anyone interested in the Sherman offering Roy, I've added a link to one which Frankie did a while back

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=19668&hilit=Sherman+barv

That hippo is very, very cool. I've never had any desire to purchase a leopard but now I just might have a reason to at least get a lower Hull.

If you were building one of these for IR battling you could easily make it into a repair tank like a bergepanzer (sp?). The autocorrect on my phone gave me two different choices for bergepanzer - burka Panther, or bird hand sir. Gotta love modern technology.

Model Builder 4 wrote:For anyone interested in the Sherman offering Roy, I've added a link to one which Frankie did a while back

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=19668&hilit=Sherman+barv

Thanks, for that, Lee I must have missed that thread at the time. It's certainly a testament to Frankie's enthusiasm, Shermanophilia, and undoubted modelling skills! I'd recommend visiting his thread for those who've not seen his handiwork (latecomers to the hobby), and those itching to scratch the Sherman bug.

Max-U52 wrote:That hippo is very, very cool. I've never had any desire to purchase a leopard but now I just might have a reason to at least get a lower Hull.

If you were building one of these for IR battling you could easily make it into a repair tank like a bergepanzer (sp?). The autocorrect on my phone gave me two different choices for bergepanzer - burka Panther, or bird hand sir. Gotta love modern technology.

Yep, those spellcheckers and auto-correctors can get you into unanticipated bother, Gary. I recall writing about a recital I'd enjoyed, and it came out as 'rectal'...
Like you, the Leopard hasn't sunk its teeth into me, either. Lately, though, I've come to appreciate qualities of its suspension system...it looks cool on rough ground.