WW1 Tank Crews

• ww1 tanks

• jg

  jon gawne

  2/6/23, 9:20 PM

  Somethign I htink would work very well for the digital range is WW1 Tank crews.  On one hand, everyone likes tanks, and there are now some very nice 28mm tank models available, so include a really good Renault file that is free.   Which is why I went looking for some WW1 French and US tankers.  But it strikes me that no one will buy boxes and boxes of tank crews, but most everyone into WW1 will end up with some tanks- and any of them with a 3D printer is going to make at least one FT.  Hence there is a need for small runs of these figures, and no one else will probably make them.  Even for the FT you could do an open hatch woith commander that could be put on the current (free FT) model.    Even if you never use the figures in a wargame, it would be very nice to have a few crewmembers to stand next to the tank when it is on a shelf.    

   

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  JTam

  2/6/23, 10:27 PM

  @jon gawne 

  Great idea.

  Looks like the use of specialized tanker uniforms was relatively limited in WW1 as opposed to later.  Some use of leather jackets, coveralls, and special helmets.... 

  

  But it looks like just as many (if not more) fought in a uniform very similar to the Infantry.  

  

  (Sidenote: Naming your giant tank "Wotan" is baller as f*ck).

  You could do a couple coverall and jacket bodies. 

  And a bunch of arms doing tanker "stuff" and some heads to convert the plastic WGA WW1 Germans and French.

  French tanker head:

  

  German tanker helmet and face shield.

  

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• ADC

  Alessio De Carolis

  2/7/23, 8:59 AM

  The first to wear mail 's masks were the british, to avoid the "spalling", early tanks' armour wasn't done properly, so when hit there were always a lot of splinters & bolts that were very dangerous. STL files would be  a great idea for converting existing minis, f.e. for a diorama of a damaged tank and the crew that had to bail out and fight with their infantry.

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• MD

  Mark Dewis

  2/8/23, 12:04 AM

  Ah yes. The A7V.

  20 were made, it was rubbish, and the Australian infantry stole the one they captured and shipped it back home as a trophy.

  Here are some pictures of representitive AFV crews of the war:

  

  

  

  

  

  (I will concede that the A7V wasn't totally useless on open ground and roads. And it is sort of cool that all 20 are documented... and named! But it should not be forgotten that there really weren't many of them. The Germans had about 40 captured British tanks... but the British and the French had thousands of the things)

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• ADC

  Alessio De Carolis

  2/10/23, 8:59 AM

  The germans had a sort of megalomaniacal obsession for bigger & bigger tanks, not only the A7V but there was also the K-Wagen

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-Wagen

  How did they tought could've worked? They were short of pratically everything at the end of the war, to build the 2 prototyphes they had to dismantle some ships' armour, plus their chronically shortage of fuel.

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  JTam

  2/11/23, 10:43 AM

  @Alessio De Carolis 

  Size (length) is directly proportional to trench crossing ability.  Essential in a WW1 breakthrough tank.  

  Perhaps the out numbered and out resourced Germans knowing they could never match their enemies for production numbers turned to quality.  Similar to the Imperial Japanese Navy knowing they could never out build the Americans and British for ship numbers sought to make each ship qualitatively superior. 

  Moreover tank design was still in it nascent phase.  The final form and layout of the tank was very much in flux.  The British, Russians, Germans, and French would all build similar "land cruiser" tanks post war.  

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  JTam

  2/11/23, 10:51 AM

  

  https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/france/fcm-2c.php

   

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