Mini-competition: fix-a-tank, 1943 Italy edition

[N-L-M]

Flame cutting and riveting are sufficient for the armor fabrication, though welding is preferred of course.

All the rest is either stolen, simple, or unmodified from the existing tank.

[Lord_James]

4 hours ago, N-L-M said:

Flame cutting and riveting are sufficient for the armor fabrication, though welding is preferred of course.

All the rest is either stolen, simple, or unmodified from the existing tank.

I don’t want to sound critical, I love the thing actually, but the autoloader seems a little to advanced for the Italians. The automatic rammer is great, similar spring-loaded systems were used on Japanese naval AA guns (12.7cm and 10cm type 89s), but the ammo hopper that feeds it is a little... post war-ish? It seems to forward thinking for what the Italians were using or even experimenting on at the time. The angled turret armor is also one of those things that is a “well duh” but no one ever used during the war, despite the heavy use of angled hull armor later, all the turrets (and any appliqué applied) were slab sided or mildly curved, with no real effort to angle them appropriately. I love the tank though, nasty little bastard seems like something the Finns would make (or the Swedes after they repaired their industry), but is a couple years too advanced for the Italians.

 

I hope I don’t sound to critical... 

[Toxn]

@N-L-M

Quick questions about the trapeze ejector and flick rammer:

 

For the ejector - I assume that the ejector and tube are fixed to the gun carriage and so are always in alignment, but then how does having a ~90mm tube on the top of the barrel affect the depression?

 

For the flick loader - my understanding is that the rack is fixed to the turret, and that the mechanism sits on a loading tray fixed to the back of the gun. Does this mean that there's some sort of flexible linkage betweem the rack and tray to guide rounds in? Or does the gun have to be levelled between each shot? Or are the distances small enough so that rounds can just fall onto the tray without issue?

[N-L-M]

13 hours ago, Toxn said:

For the ejector - I assume that the ejector and tube are fixed to the gun carriage and so are always in alignment, but then how does having a ~90mm tube on the top of the barrel affect the depression?

At -10 degrees depression, the gun only just hits the turret roof at full recoil but the tube clips through.


Limiting depression to -5 degrees solves that problem.

Perhaps ejecting not with a tube but with a T-62 style roof hatch (only on the front of the turret) would allow the full 10 degrees of depression.


Also apparently elevation is +15 not +10 as previously stated. I dun goofed there.
The tube requires a bit of a mantlet expansion but nothing special.

 

13 hours ago, Toxn said:

For the flick loader - my understanding is that the rack is fixed to the turret, and that the mechanism sits on a loading tray fixed to the back of the gun. Does this mean that there's some sort of flexible linkage betweem the rack and tray to guide rounds in? Or does the gun have to be levelled between each shot? Or are the distances small enough so that rounds can just fall onto the tray without issue?

The latter. At -5 degrees they're aligned, as the barrel elevates and the breech drops theres a bit of a drop from the height of the hopper feed to the ramming tray, but it isn't very far to go.

[N-L-M]

15 hours ago, Lord_James said:

but the ammo hopper that feeds it is a little... post war-ish?

It's nothing more than a couple gravity feeds and a couple manual spring return ratchets where you yank the handle of the type you want to pull it far enough to drop it into the rammer tray. Really nothing complex at all.

[heretic88]

I really like this BT-5 upgrade! Especially the new armor configuration! My only concern would be ergonomics. The original BTs were already cramped, I wonder how would the crew fit in there when the 75/76mm guns are mounted instead of 45mm.

[N-L-M]

It's gonna be a tight squeeze, no two ways about it. BT-7A managed to squeeze in a 76mm gun IRL, so it's not impossible. Hopefully the loader assist means the gunner needs to move around quite a bit less in combat, and the cupola does give the commander a little more breathing space.

[Toxn]

I'm going to pack up shop on my end and get to judgin' in the morning.

 

Final call to all who want to submit an entry