COMPETITION Brawling Bobcat: Armored Truck for the Lone Free State (2245)

[Sturgeon]

As I slowly get things back together to reboot, I wanted to ask: What procedural changes would you like to see in how the competition is run when we reboot it? Feel free to make any suggestions you think are appropriate.

Also what start and end dates would be best for everyone?

[Lord_James]

Ah shit, I totally forgot to tell you all how my JPA armor from the previous competition was made: basically it is a pseudo lamination of a FHA plate (hardened as deep as possible) with an additional RHA plate, as thick as the backing layer of the FHA, placed onto the hardened side. 

 

 

The process involves taking the FHA, and then hydraulically pressing it into a fresh, red hot RHA "box" (that is slightly convex) and holding it there until the RHA is able to weld (if not using hot welding). The hardened face being pressed into is suppose to be rough, to give more surface area for the outer box to bond. The box sides are suppose to be long enough to come close to the back of the FH plate, where the more ductile (and easily weldable) section is, and welded back there, entombing the FH section and creating an armor package. When mounting in a vehicle, the "box" RHA layer is suppose to be the farthest from the inside, so that it is the first layer struck in the package. 

 

 

As an example, if I have a 100mm plate hardened 25mm through, there would be a 75mm "box" place on it's face, and would produce a full 175mm package (the side tabs that are welded to the rear of the plate do not have to be 75mm thick). I intended for this armor to be the base armor due to it being expensive and time consuming to make, but used as such would probably be exceptional at it's job due to it almost exclusively having to defeat damaged penetrators and disrupted HEAT jets. 

 

 

Hope you guys are inspired by this in the next competition, might be useful for enhancing the armor protection of such a light vehicle. 

[Toxn]

9 hours ago, Lord_James said:

Ah shit, I totally forgot to tell you all how my JPA armor from the previous competition was made: basically it is a pseudo lamination of a FHA plate (hardened as deep as possible) with an additional RHA plate, as thick as the backing layer of the FHA, placed onto the hardened side. 

 

 

The process involves taking the FHA, and then hydraulically pressing it into a fresh, red hot RHA "box" (that is slightly convex) and holding it there until the RHA is able to weld (if not using hot welding). The hardened face being pressed into is suppose to be rough, to give more surface area for the outer box to bond. The box sides are suppose to be long enough to come close to the back of the FH plate, where the more ductile (and easily weldable) section is, and welded back there, entombing the FH section and creating an armor package. When mounting in a vehicle, the "box" RHA layer is suppose to be the farthest from the inside, so that it is the first layer struck in the package. 

 

 

As an example, if I have a 100mm plate hardened 25mm through, there would be a 75mm "box" place on it's face, and would produce a full 175mm package (the side tabs that are welded to the rear of the plate do not have to be 75mm thick). I intended for this armor to be the base armor due to it being expensive and time consuming to make, but used as such would probably be exceptional at it's job due to it almost exclusively having to defeat damaged penetrators and disrupted HEAT jets. 

 

 

Hope you guys are inspired by this in the next competition, might be useful for enhancing the armor protection of such a light vehicle. 

Why not just reinvent the Wilson/Ellis bonded steel plate? IE: pour high carbon steel between two lower-carbon steel plates and then hot roll the resulting sandwich?

[Lord_James]

8 hours ago, Toxn said:

Why not just reinvent the Wilson/Ellis bonded steel plate? IE: pour high carbon steel between two lower-carbon steel plates and then hot roll the resulting sandwich?

Because I didn’t know that existed? 

[Toxn]

4 hours ago, Lord_James said:

Because I didn’t know that existed? 

You're welcome.

 

Edit: just checking, but you know that both methods won't allow through hardening (in your case, re-hardening) if the piece is particularly thick, right? There's a reason why explosive welding is used...

[Sturgeon]

I will probably have enough time to reboot the competition this weekend, but I need at least 4 serious participants/teams. I also need at least one judge. Any interest?

[Sturgeon]

Looks like we have a judge! Great. I'll type up a pitch today and get it in the thread tonight. We'll be restructuring the competition a little bit based on lessons learned in the Sioux Scout Rifle Cartridge competition.

[Dominus Dolorem]

Are you still taking submissions for this competition?

[Sturgeon]

2 hours ago, Dominus Dolorem said:

Are you still taking submissions for this competition?

 

It's on ice. We've considered rebooting it, but struggled to drum up enough interest.

[Sturgeon]

@Dominus Dolorem I would like to put this competition back together. In your opinion, would you rather the requirements stay as they are, or shift more towards a tank?

[Dominus Dolorem]

10 hours ago, Sturgeon said:

@Dominus Dolorem I would like to put this competition back together. In your opinion, would you rather the requirements stay as they are, or shift more towards a tank?

Well tanks do allow for more flexability in terms of what you can mount on them, but wheeled vehicles could end up hilarious.

 

Though I know more about tanks so I suppose I would have to say that I would rather work on a tank.