Shipbucket

The quality of the designs of this challenge is very high! And some of the drawings are so beliveable (with the specs and history) that they can fool to many people *! And some of the cammo schemes are terrific, very but very nice drawings here!

*: And some drawings are even better than real life render drawings and even mock-ups!

A36 Conqueror:








Simply put, the British were late into the war footing game. While Actionist France geared up for round two against the German Empire as soon as possible, the immediate post-war mood in Britain was that of "isolation is splendid and the alternative is anything but." They let themselves get dragged into a continental war and it got them nothing but some graves in Belgium. Until Mosley's boys got in power, the focus of the Brits was to maintain the empire they had left. This meant that they were focused predominantly on keeping up with the Kaiser in naval affairs, ensuring the Japanese didn't have any creative ideas for East Asia, and reminding natives in the colonies that the old ditty about Maxim guns still applied. British interwar barrels were mostly light, intended to operate in bad terrain against enemies who had no armor whatsoever.

When Churchill and Mosley took power, the focus shifted back to a war in Europe. This followed French and Confederate design philosophy, two powers who were leaps and bounds ahead of the British in land warfare. However, "perfidious Albion" was more than happy to let France do most of the dying and as such didn't really have it in mind to create massive expeditionary forces like they eventually did in the Great War. Instead the British Army was as it was in the beginning of the Great War: a small number of elite troops. Their barrels were intended to operate in tandem with infantry, and as such never had an infantry/cruiser mindset. This ultimately led the British to pioneer the concept of the "Universal Tank" (known as the "universal barrel" worldwide after the war, following the connotation that "tank" carried).

Because of its small numbers in Europe (less than 15 were fielded altogether during the war), the A36 Conqueror gained a legendary and significantly misplaced reputation for its supposed capabilities that could have never been tested. Tales that sprang from unfortunate German light barrels that encountered a Conqueror evolved into the barrel successfully facing four medium barrels and modern pseudo-historian claims that not a single of the Kaiser's heaviest panzers could challenge the Conqueror. In reality, whilst an incredibly effective and modern design, the Conqueror was neither the most armored or powerfully armed barrel in the war. Its sloped armor could not compare with its contemporaries in North America, while the 94mm gun was surpassed by late-war Confederate 122mm designs. Indeed, postwar analysis in Germany of a captured Conqueror showed that its armor was incredibly thin in some locations and of poor quality for a barrel of its size. Despite these flaws, the Conqueror was an effective design that influenced nearly all postwar barrel development.

The postwar Conqueror Mk. II was introduced in 1946 and solved many of the Mk. I's key flaws, specifically quality control in the turret armor. This variant would see widespread use across what remained of the British Empire, and saw use for most of the 20th century in these post-colonial states. Rather than a direct successor, the Mk. III ("Indian Conqueror") was instead a downgraded model of the Mk. I specifically for the fighting in India and the expectation that several would fall into the hands of pro-Japanese forces. A significant number of Mk. III examples produced were simply cobbled together using existing Mk. I and Mk. II parts regunned with a 20-pdr cannon, though a small number of newly produced barrels were built. Spearheading the doomed attempt to retake the colonial crown jewel, Conquerors were ill-prepared to fight in the conditions they were used and suffered innumerable mechanical failures and sabotage. When the British finally cut their losses and pulled out of India, most remaining Conquerors were given to whatever moderately pro-British Indian states remained, primarily the Indian Republic and Marathi Confederation. Other examples captured in Hyderabad and Assam were repaired to see service with various indigenous modifications, and their Imperial Japanese allies would appropriate several for technical analysis. These captured Conquerors provided a significant leap forward in Japanese barrel philosophy, and copies of the 84mm gun continue to see use in IJA barrels to the modern day. In the late 1950s, the Conqueror Mk. IV was developed to bridge the gap between it and more advanced postwar barrels. With an advanced 105mm cannon installed, the Mk. IV was predominantly used by the Union of South Africa and never saw frontline service in the British Army. Other minor variants existed, including:

• FV3001: Armoured Recovery Vehicle; almost entirely replaced with Champion chassis derivatives in British Army service by 1960.
• FV3003: Armoured Ramp Carrier, with the vehicle itself being part of the bridge.
• FV3007: Surface-to-air missile carrier typically used with Teasel or Butterfly missiles, derived from similar late-war Confederate concepts for projected Mk. V Heavy Barrel variants.
• FV3008: Self-propelled 5.5-inch artillery built on reversed Conqueror chassis with engine in front.
• FV3009: Barrel buster (internally known as "tank destroyer") armed with a modified variant of the BL 7.2-inch howitzer.

While overall a modern and forward-thinking design in 1944, the Conqueror was still a wartime barrel design with all of the flaws and limitations that carried. Ultimately the gutting of the military following the superbombing of London and loss of remaining dominions meant that the barrel was set up for failure. No true export customers existed due to the global abundance of surplus American and German barrel designs, and the Conqueror was ultimately replaced in front-line service by the Champion barrel in 1956. The barrel would remain in service until the 1970s when the last training examples were retired.

Specifications:
Entered Service: 1944
Length: 9.82m
Width: 2.8m
Height: 3.44m
Powerplant: Rolls-Royce Meteor (650 hp)
Speed: 39 km/h
Main Armament:

• Ordnance QF 94mm 32-pounder (Mk. I/II)
  or
• Ordnance QF 84mm 20-pounder (Mk. III)
  or
• Ordnance 105mm L5 (Mk. IV)

Secondary Armament:

• 1x coaxial .50 Tredegar machine gun
• 1x .303 Ripper light machine gun

Crew: 4 (commander, loader, gunner, driver)


OOC: Essentially a proto-Centurion for Southern Victory, based on the assumption that a smaller and pragmatic Britain could pioneer the MBT concept somewhat early.

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DeviantArt

105mm universal gun carrier, serial model 6



Entered service - 1958 (equivalent)
Weight - 52 tons
Dimensions - 7 meters long, 3.25 meters high, 3.5m wide
Crew - 4 , commander, gunner, driver, loader
Propulsion - 820hp
Speed - 52km/h
Fuel range - 450km
Suspension - torsion bar

Armament - 105mm M1946 (60 rounds), 7.62mm M1919, 12.7mm M1921

Armor - 152mm front glacis, 76mm sides, 178mm turret front, 100mm mantlet, 105mm turret sides and back, 50mm back, 50mm turret roof, 25mm top

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Kinda late and not entirely finished entry since i've been busy with irl stuff and barely had time to draw but here it is

Project Futura / Kot Universal Fighting Platform

In late 1990s,although the Cold War has winded down and every nation were disarmed at some point,but Halim Army were seeking a long range project to replace Halim's older tank to meet the future threat in 21st Century,the project involved many bureau and design companies from across the country to meet specified requirement for long term future MBT expected to be entered into service in 21st Century.Thus Project Futura was born.

Project Futura were a completely ambitious project that pushed technology into its own edge of practicality in every point.although the project were halt around 2004 into 2008.In 2008 The Project Futura were resumed and deadline were set to have the new tank entered the service around 2018-2020,with many design criteria such as more than 600mm of frontal armour,excellent protection and most notably modularity of the hull to be interchangable with other vehicle to make the MBT chassis the universal all around fighting platform

Futura additional requirement were also a completely automated/unmanned turret and some ability to carried infantry in its MBT version

Various design scheme were tested which narrowed down into 3 versions,2 with front mounted engines and 1 with rear mounted engines,after a long and serious debate within the board of commission and army,which insisted on infantry carrying capability to be retained thus the frontal engine variant were choosen



Although relatively unknown for public,finally in 2018 Independence Day Parade,All brand new Project Futura based 48 t platform were debuted to the public eyes,with their official name 'Kot' or Cat,the Kot presented the newest evolution in Halim Armoured Industry



The Main Battle Tank variant or Type 18 Kot based on their introduction year,were based on Futura Universal Platform and armed with Sena 120mm L/47 smoothbore gun that were capable of firing wide range of ammunition both guided and unguided and were feed by autoloader that located in unmanned turret with 5 second of reloading,thus enabling a rapid rate of fire,also supplemented with coaxial 7.92mm Machine Gun and a 13mm LKMS Machine Gun in independent RCWS.All system were manned by 3 crew located in front section of hull in enclosed armoured capsule that ensure maximum crew safety against catasthropic explosion.There is also an Infantry Carrier Compartment in armoured capsule located in rear that could accomodated up to 4 geared infantry

Kot MBT Armour also featured two types of armour to protect itself,both Active and Passive,Active armour were a 12 heavy state of the art Mayhem APS located in fixed turret ring that could defeat a tank round and even a missile and also a 12 lighter Kosmik APS located in 2 rotatable launcher in upper turret side.Meanwhile the Passive Armour is provided by Ratnik Reactive Armour and also a Virgo Passive Defence System that consisted of jammer and other things to protect the tank from ATGMs

Various vehicle were developed from Kot Platform such as



Kotminator Heavy Infantry Fighting Vehicle that were armed by 76mm Mayhem Autocannon and 4x Magis ATGMs with a superb protection from Active and Passive armour,with capability of holding 10 infantry



Kot Special Anti Tank Missile Carrier which carried 30 state of the art Anti Tank missile which were located in rearside VLS and have a range of 30km.



Kotchanka Self Propelled Gun with all new 155mm gun capable for sustained high rates of fire,Automated ammunition handling and loading and embedded command and control

Specifications – Kot Main Battle Tank

Type: Next Generation Main Battle Tank
Origin: Halim Republics
Manufacturer: Mrovanka Militariy Kaprik
In Service: 2018,wide scale 2020s
Units Built: 40 (2019)
Mass: 60.3 tonnes
Length: 9.2 m gun included
Width: 4.3 m
Height: 2.7 m to turret roof
Crew: 3
Armour: 900mm at best
Main Armament: Sena 120mm L/47 smoothbore gun, automatically loaded
Secondary Armament: 1x 7.92 mm KP/78 coaxial, 1x 13mm LKMS HMG in RCWS
Powerplant: Bryanks 2,000 hp
Power/Weight: 26hp/tonne
Operational Range: 500km
Speed: 70km/h on road, 45km/h offroad

Also once again sorry for boring single uniformed colour as i didnt have much time to think about colourful camo like others

FV5571 ‘Castellan’ Main Battle Tank


Development of the Castellan series of main battle tanks began in 1956 with the aim of producing a vehicle that could replace both the 68 tonne Cataphract heavy tank and the 50 tonne Cougar medium tanks.
While it was initially hoped to produce a 45 tonne vehicle using modern armour concepts and metallurgy, the requirement for a heavy 120mm gun and sufficient armour to defend against peer threats rendered this impossible, with the final vehicle coming in at just under 51 tonnes. Consequently the mobility of the vehicle suffered with the RHE-816 530kw V8 multi-fuel diesel being unable drive vehicle at the desired 60km/h road speed.
Achieving the desired armoured protection in light of the increasing effectiveness of hollow charge ammunition required some outside the box thinking in the form of siliceous-cored armour which was applied in a limited fashion to the lower glacis and turret mantlet to reduce the weight of these sections while maintaining effectiveness against chemical energy weapons. Protection on other sections of the forward arc was provided by extreme armour angling far in excess of that found on the Cougar, this required the driver to be positioned in an extreme supine position.

Armament was the new L551 120mm rifled gun which was though provide a reasonable compromise between the 84mm gun of the Cougar and the 138mm monster fitted to the Cataphract. Ammunition was initially HESH and a range of APDS rounds based on the ammunition developed for the lighter 84mm Model 1948. however later a special HEAT round with a decoupled liner was developed for use with the rifled gun allowing it to successfully engage armoured targets at far greater ranges.
This was coupled with a coaxial 7.5mm L22E4 Tank machinegun and on the production E1 version a 13.2mm L18E3 ranging machinegun.
The vehicle commander was provided with a powered cupola fitted with a filtered searchlight capable of emitting both white and infrared light and a 7.5mm L22E4 Tank machinegun. This cupola replicated the Hunter Killer capability of the Cataphract heavy tank but lacked it’s independent rangefinder, requiring the gunner to determine distance either with the optical coincidence rangefinder or the RMG after the commander designated a target.

Night fighting capability was limited to active image intensification enabled by either the TC’s cupola searchlight or a large dismountable 1.5 million candle power xenon searchlight on the mantlet.


The production E1 version of the Castellan had a number of minor improvements over the initial run of pre-production vehicles ranging from sheet metal dust skirts and external fuel tank brackets, to a larger 13.2mm coax for use as an RMG and a horseshoe shaped feed box from the TC’s cupola MG that wrapped around his hatch.
These vehicles entered service in 1966 and were primarily used in training roles as units slowly converted over to the new vehicle and learned how to use a Main Battle Tank.


In 1972 the E2 upgrade was rolled out to the fleet and principally concentrated on improving the fire control systems.
This consisted of removing the existing range finding equipment and replacing it with a Perspicacia Instruments LRS-2 Laser Ranging Sight mounted in the right hand rangefinder blister, the 13.2mm RMG was replaced with a standard 7.5mm MG to improve ammunition stowage and reduce logistical burden. A muzzle reference system was also fitted to tie the weapon into the new ballistic drive to best take advantage of the longer range the LRS provided.
Dual salvo 10 round smoke grenade dischargers were also fitted to either side of the turret to provide a more instantaneous smoke screen then could be provided by the exhaust smoke system.




A range of support vehicles were developed based on the Castellan’s hull including a scissor type armoured bridge layer, armoured recovery vehicle with a 20 ton capacity crane, and a combat engineering vehicle fitted with a 165mm demolition gun, A-frame jib crane and a dozer blade.


The XFV5570/4 trials vehicle was part of a program to develop a next generation fighting vehicle using the very latest in shaped charge and guided weapons technology and consisted of a modified turret fitted with IR and Laser emitters for guiding the supersonic missile fired from the XL71E2 165mm gun launcher.
As the program developed it became clear that the resulting vehicle would be extremely expensive compared to a standard ‘gun’ Castellan and so it was scaled back to one squadron of missile Castellans per armoured battalion. To many within the Armoured Corps this seemed suspiciously like a return to the days of the Cataphract and the Heavy Troop and all the logistical problems that entailed and in light of the ever increasing technical problems enthusiasm for the project evaporated by the early 70s.


The Castellan Powertrain Improvement Programme vehicle was built as part of UAWs next generation MBT project, and consisted of a modified Castellan forward hull mated to a newly designed rear hull segment with a gently sloped engine deck and rear hull plate, that provided enough room for the VTW 761-41 Series I V-10 710Kw turbo-charged diesel engine and RHE HTT-650/A Gearbox which substantially improved the Castellan’s mobility both on and off road.
While this was not intended as a realistic upgrade for the legacy Castellan fleet it did lead to the development of the Castellan II.


The Castellan II was developed by UAW in the late 70s as a private venture to provide a next generation MBT for the export market as well as entice the Armoured Corps into replacing the Castellan I in front line units. To this end they set out to fully capitalise on advancements in armoured vehicle technology, and included full passive night fighting capability enabled by improved image intensifying sights and a Low light level TV camera mounted on the right hand side of the turret mantlet. Protection wise the vehicle made extensive use of space composite armour in both the turret and hull. Mobility was provided by the Powerpack developed fin the Castellan PIP coupled with new independent Hydrogas suspension.


While the Castellan II ultimately proved far too expensive for the Laritaian Government at the time it did see reasonable export success around the world in a variety of configurations as the Castellan IIE, such as this Asturian example which has a 105mm gun, rubber skirts and a periscopic commanders sight instead of the low profile weapon station of the developmental vehicle.


The E3 upgrade programme began in 1981 and sought to make general improvements to the Castellan’s combat capabilities, especially in the realms of night fighting, this was achieved primarily by the adoption of advanced passive image intensification system, a new digital ballistic computer and the installation of the NOGS LLLTV camera on the gun mantlet. The ability to mount the searchlight was retained, but once crews became acquainted with capabilities of the Night Observation and Gunnery System this was only done infrequently.
Also upgraded was the powertrain which was beginning to struggle with the increased weight of the vehicle, and the ammunition for the 120mm gun, which saw the adoption of a Wolfram heavy alloy LRP round

A separate program that took place concurrently with the E4 upgrade lead to the installation of ‘Lamellar’ Reactive armour on both the turret and hull of the non Hybrid tanks to try and increase protection against the increasing threat of ATGMS.


The E4 programme was essentially an attempt by the Armoured Corps to get a new tank past the money conscious Conservative government of the time, by mating new Castellan II welded turrets to older Castellan I cast hulls, resulting what were termed by their crews as the ‘Hybrids’ and featured significantly improved digital fire control and the return of the venerable 13.2mm L18 Heavy machine gun to Armoured Corps vehicles this time in a low profile commanders weapon station. however even this proved to be more expensive then the treasury was willing to bare and only 225 vehicles were produced.



Delays in the Future Battle tank 90 programme lead to the ‘Stallion’ programme which fitted technologies developed under FBT90 to the existing fleet of Castellan MBTs resulting in the E5 and E6 variants, which featured advanced thermal imaging and fully integrated fire control systems allowing them to fire accurately on the move, as well as depleted uranium LRP ammunition to enable them to go toe to toe with increasingly well protected opponents.




In the early 2000s FV6531 ‘Contender’ began to arrive in sufficient numbers to supplant the Castellan as the Armoured Corps premier main battle tank, however it was as ever judged that sufficient funds would not in the medium term be available to replace every vehicle in service and as such the Castellan would continue to solider on in the reserve yeomanry units. To that end the E7 was developed to reduce the logistical cost of the reactive armour equipped Castellans by replacing it with NERA modules on the turret and hull.
While this program was under way it was decided to further reduce the Armoured Corps logistical burden by phasing out the legacy rifled 120mm gun and therefore liquidate it’s stock of spare parts and ammunition onto the export market, this resulted in the final variants of the Castellan main battle tank to see service in the Laritaian Armoured Corps, the E8 and E9 which featured a modified version of the same 120mm L691 ‘Super Velocity’ smoothbore gun as the Contender.




Two separate weapon carriers were developed based upon the Castellan hull for use by the Artillery. The first of which was the FV5576 SPAAG which featured a massive 30mm gatling gun and all weather optical and radar targeting capability, this was later augmented with a three round rack of Hail infrared guided missiles in 80s as part of the E1 upgrade.
The second weapons carrier was the FV5574 ATGM Tank Destroyer which was developed as a way of defeating numerically superior armoured assaults with having to rely on air support.
The ‘Giraffe’ as it became knows would position itself behind a tree line or other such terrain feature and elevate it’s mast mounted turret till the commanders periscope sight was exposed, from this position it could covertly observe the enemy and launch devastating salvoes of missiles.
However the advance of missile technology and the development of heavy attack helicopters by the Army Air Corps rendered the ‘Giraffe’ obsolescent and it was withdrawn from service in the early 90s.

Poll is now up! https://forms.gle/EAB43wB6xANU7TG68

Thanks to Aiseus for sorting. Please note the poll will be open until 23:59:59 UTC on September 5th (extending by one day due to delay getting poll posted).

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

Sincere apologies for the delay. Here are the results of the main battle tank challenge!



Congratulations to Pegasus206, the overall winner of the challenge. The excellent Hellcat 2, with its array of interesting variants, received the highest score in the drawing quality and design realism categories. In the suitability category, it tied with the TheGrumpyKestrel’s Redback for first place. Three submissions share the highest score in the kitbash factor category: Charguizard’s Bolwerk, my F82 Laloumena, and Kattsun’s BECTA. The latter was judged to be the most original design. Regardless of score, I think all participants can be proud of their work. There was a lot a variety in this challenge, with designs ranging from the interwar period to the distant future. We had designs resembling iconic vehicles from the real world, and unique concepts like SCRandall’s Kleinkolmuskeljaatkat. Great work everyone!

yay

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The Chinese people are not to be cowed by U.S. atomic blackmail. Our country has a population of 600 million and an area of 9.6 [million sq. km]. The United States cannot annihilate the Chinese nation with its small stack of atom bombs. Even if the U.S. atom bombs were so powerful that, when dropped on China, they would make a hole right through the earth, or even blow it up, that would hardly mean anything to the universe as a whole, though it might be a major event for the solar system.

Congratulations to all

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Themax

Current projects :
- Belmantverse AU

Congratulations.

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Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!