Couple of old but gold tank replicas

kapteenipirk · February 24, 2018

I made these tanks when my motivation for uploading stuff was quite low, so unfortunetly these fell trough the cracks.

I felt like these ones are still worthy of a proper post, as the Leopard 1 replica still has some neat features and details, and the WW1 Mk I-V mixemup is still one of the most detailed things i've ever made.

Leopard 1

The Leopard 1 replica may be months old now, but it's still the most detailed and feature filled of all my ground vehicle replicas.

I wanted to build something that felt and drove like a real tank. I also wanted to test the idea of using MK0 fuel-tanks as shock-absorbers.

So, the idea for a large fully detailed tank was born.

The choise of tank was pretty easy, as the early production Leopard 1 is my favorite MBT from the real world, plus it was much simpler to replicate than any of the WW2 tanks that i had in mind (tough i kinda really want to make a Panzer III or IV now).

The purpose of the suspension, and the reason i wanted to create it, was the overall fragility of the Ruggedized wheels, and the fact that far too many wheels lose their grip when going over hills and bumbs and whatever.

It does make the ruggedized wheels almost indestructible, but it unfortunately doesn't help enough, as the drive sprockets and the hull will usually take the impact first.

I also added a fully working turret with turret elevation and rotation powered by IR. The gun itself is just a BD-armory howitzer that has been hidden inside the hollow gun-barrel.

The turret works pretty well for it's size, but it is quite wobbly, fortunately this doesn't affect anything too much as the howitzer can rotate a few degrees to compensate for the wobblyness.

As extra detail, i made the mud-flaps so that they can flap around (not that realistically tough) and i also added a tank commander. It also added a "bendy" antenna with a little ornament at the end just for the fun of it, also i was curious to see if it would be possible to make a realistically behaving antenna. Let's just say that the antenna doesn't behave as it should.

I also wanted to make sure in this one that the "engine", fuel, and ammo would be in their proper places.

There's really not much else to say, so enjoy this test drive video i shot some time ago.

Screenshots.

Spoiler

Here you can see the "hidden" main gun, as-well as the upper limit of the suspension.

A closeup of the tank commander.

These screenshots show a slightly older version of the replica. If you look closely you'll see that the exhaust's or intakes or whatever they are, in the rear are different in the one in the video, there where also no jet engines in the back on the original.

Technical specks.

Armament: 1x 105mm howitzer and 1x 30mm chaingun.

Top speed: ~~just watch the video as i honestly can't remember~~. Seems to be 20 m/s without the help of jets.

Length: 17.3m

Width: 6.3m

Height: 6.6m

Mass: 55.482t

Parts: 569

Mods used: Infernal robotics, Tweakscale and BD armory.

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ta19kuk957t6wgj/Leopard 1.craft?dl=0

MK-XV Male

There isn't much to say about this one, so im gonna be breaf.

I created this replica shortly after i had played the story missions in BF1. I had always liked the Rhomboid tank designs of WWI, but getting to drive around in the BlackBess really made me want to build my own in KSP.

This one is as i said, a mixemup of all the designs from the MK-I all the way to the MK-V. The main hull shape is that of the MK-IV Tadpole (a failed attempt at increasing the MK-IV's trench crossing capabilities), with the features of the MK-V and the little cart wheel thingy of the MK-I (it's mounted on a stock bearing, so it can follow the tank properly).