kugelpanzer aka 'ball tank'

A bit off topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwltdM9lzOE&feature=player_embedded
http://www.dieselpunks.org/video/april-fool-s-moon-conquest​


I wish I had come across this yesterday. Ah well.
 
I was just about to post that, too! I only recently started playing the game and this was a very, very different way to play! By sheer coincidence I had started reading up on the Kubinka Kugelpanzer last week...

Tell you what, I'd quite like a model of the IS 8-Ball. I got the hang of using it toward the end. I'd have one without the lamps, though, made it look too much like a snail for my tastes ???
 
Semi-ball tank, Navrotskiy, 1916:
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192 tons, 2x203 mm, 2x152 mm, 4x102 mm, 8x76.2 mm guns, 10x machine guns.
Other project - "Shar-samokat" (~ "Self-propelled sphere"), Ostapenko, 700 versta per hour (747 kmph).
Cylindrical cart, constructed by engineer N.N. Benardos, 1877:
nikolaj-nikolaevich-benardos-2.jpg
 
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Must admit, no one still have good idea what exactly this particular result of German engineering weirdness was supposed to do. It's not even clear from where it originated; some sources stated that it was captured in Germany on testing ground, some that it was captured on Far East & japanese POW's testified that it was brought from Germany.
 
where do you find that tank!
Navrotskiy tank and Ostapenko sphere - from S. Fedoseev book, "WW1 tanks" (on Russian language).
+ other variant (or, irregular blueprint) of Navrotskiy tank:
800px-Navrotskys_Battery_The_Tortoise.jpg
"Land armour vessel", engineer Porokhovshikov, 1915-16:
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In fact, these are ten cylindrical tanks, similar to the "Protivodot", connected by one large frame. Each "wheel" is a 160-200 hp engine, one mortar ("bombomyot" - "bomb launcher" or "bomb thrower"), two machine guns. Also, two 4-6" cannons and two 3" cannons in two turrets (in other variant - two armoured boxes for 500 soldiers). Speed - to 21 kmph, armour - 4 inches, 72 crews. Later Porokhovshchikov offered a flexible frame version.
And, for Imperial Russia, this is a very healthy project. This is damn better than a giant battle egg with a diameter of more than 300 meters, or a giant land battleship with a crew of 5,000, or walking tanks...
 
Maybe, best Soviet battle ball project - "Protivotank" ("Anti-tank"), 1941-43:
sharotankimono26-899a5c721109afb47c842d2798f9e072.jpg
Diameter 10 m, full weight 500 ton, 2000 HP, 90 kmph, two guns "less 155 mm" (100, 122, 130, 152 mm?), two guns "more 155 mm" (180, 203 mm?), four machine guns... And, armour 200 mm or more...
 
Sharotank,

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Per #45, I remember both 'drum' and 'ball' water carriers sold as camping / caravan accessories. Also, a 'Food Charity' sending hundreds to '3rd World', as allowed much, much more efficient transport than lugging a plastic 'jerrycan'...

Disclosure: Our Dyson 'hoover' is a 'motor in ball' design. Accessing any of its bespoke filters feels like dissecting a 3D puzzle block...
 
I could see that as a rolling mine. Building full of snipers? Roll this thing into it.

An inert version…roll two side by side into trenches and driver over the tops of them. I can’t think of any use past that.
 

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