King Tiger

I LOVE the Pactmaster figure. I must admit the price tag was a bit of a shock, but upon seeing the size I can understand it. I suppose I'll have to rethink my ideas I had for this guy as a "human" villain in my D&D campaign.

On the modern battlefield mobilty is important, but it no longer comes close to protection. The reason for this is the fire control system in MBT's today. Tanks are so accurate with their fire and at ranges around 4,000 yards it really dosent matter if your vehicle can go 50 mph. If you can't defeat a hit your dead. Mobility as a defensive factor was pretty much outdated by the 1960's. As evidence of this compare two tank designs of the time period that were developed along the lines of protection vs mobility. The French army developed the AMX series which was very fast but lightly armored. The French subscibing to the theory that mobility could still be used as a viable form of defense. The British OToH devloped the Chieftain series. A tank with average mobility at best but, had massive armor. The Chieftain performed brilliantly and its crews loved it for its ability to survive hits from the new Soviet designs mounting 125mm guns. The AMX was a death trap that could not even withstand hits from 100mm guns on older Russian models like the T-55. All the battlefield experiences learned from the various Israeli vs Arab wars proved time and again protection is king, followed closely by firepower (hitting power plus accuracy) and then mobility. As a final note a tank with effective armor also improves crew morale dramatically. I mean think about it if you know your in a machine that can take a hell of alot of punishment you're feeling pretty damn confident driving into harm's way. Abrams' crews today are evidence of that. Or ask a Tiger crewman how he felt when he was confronted with a Sherman (more mobile) vs how even a Platoon of Sherman's crewmen felt when engaging a Tiger.

Greetings and salutations and stuff like that, oh an welcome to the boards!

This is actually one of the things that brought me to posting this thread. One of the reasons tracked vehicles are so much heavier than a wheeled counterpart are the weight of the treads themselves (the other main reason being the tracks have a higher surface contact area, and thus can support a heavier vehicle for the same pounds per square inch). Anyway, almost all tracked combat vehicles have very heavy metal mechanical track sections. At some point, I have to believe this will change - some materials engineer will figure out a better material to make the track from - right? But what kind of alternatives might be possible? And how will those possibilities change the look of a track? I'm not too sure how much farther track evolution will go in appearance or function. Assuming a material can be designed that is lighter, yet just as strong as current metals I'm not sure that would necesitate a radical redesign of tracked vehicles. I think one area of design improvement that you could explore would be designing protection for a vehicle's tracks. Perhaps encasing them in some sort of armor so only the portion that is in contact with the ground is exposed. This would, in theory, make it much more difficult to damage the tracks with anything short of some ground mine. I guess i'm describing some kind of "super skirt design" If you're familar with the "skirting" concept for tanks. Again the reason no nation has yet bothered with such a design today is the massive increase in cost and weight it would add to a vehicle to armor it in such a way. This would mean, to keep performance the same, you would have to design a more powerful engine which gobbles even more fuel... lord knows that's the last thing today's armies want heh.

A year or two ago I saw some drawings of a vehicle the army is considering as a replacement for the Abrams perhaps mid century. The vehicle had a VERY low siluette. As I recall its height was about the equivalent of just the Abrams' hull! This was going to reduce the size and weight of the vehicle to something in the neighborhood of 40-50 tons. Considerably lighter than most modern MBT's today

Most impressive, two thumbs up for sure.

Positively gruesome... I love it!

Medusa has always been a favorite subject of mine... no doubt watching Clash of the Titans as a kid had something to do with that heh. I like your interpretation, the pale skin certainly lends to the concept of not seeing much daylight. Your other job is also charming I think. Puts me in the mind of a gypsy somehow.

Looking to work in a public library, or at a school district/university? If its the latter there is often jobs to be had in schools south of the Mason Dixon line. However the unions there are very week. So working at a school in the South isnt always the greatist experience by a long shot.

It's like the "Hotel California" You can "...check out but you can never leave..." WB!!!

I love your choice of colors and overall the piece is really nice. You might want to add a dull coat to the armor and cloak. Would make the leather and cloth look a little better IMHO.

Somehow I'm picturing a Care Bear as the pilot ...I'm just saying.

If you look at the two primary modes of vehicle propulsion wheeled vs tracked you get the following advantages/disadvantages. With wheeled vehicles you get greater mobility and less cost with easier maintanence. Though mobilty of wheeled vehicles can be greatly hampered by terrain. You might think taking a wheeled vehicle over open terrain is always easy, but after an hour or two of getting bounced around your crew will be exausted. So tracked vehicles can be more mobile in areas where roads are uncommon. The Germans discovered this during Operation Barbarossa against the Soviets. The USSR's road system was so poor that the German armies, who depended a great deal on wheeled transportation, often found it difficult to move across the Russian steppes. Especially when weather conditions included snow or rain (mud). Tracked vehicles tend to have heavier weights which can lead to 2 serious problems. One is fuel consumption. Because they tend to weigh significantly more they consume a heck of a lot of fuel compared to a wheeled vehicle. Also, crossing bridges can be problematic for tracked vehicles. Finding a bridge capable of handling 30, 40, up to 70 ton vehicles aint always easy. I agree with the earlier posts on siluettes. "Standing tall" on the modern battlefield is a death sentence. Though their are ways to try and compensate for that. A force shield of some kind capable of defeating incoming fire would adress this. Also armor of some kind capable of withstanding direct hits from an opponent is another solution, if your dead set on operating high siluette vehicles. A few folks have already posted on the inherent vulnerability of wheeled vehicles tires. While that's true many modern military vehicles are capable of running even after the loss of a wheel. Also tires that reseal themselves after small arms hits are common today. Very similar to the "fuel bladders" combat fighters started to use during WW2 to help prevent fires and explosions when fuel tanks would get hit. Ok I've rambled enough...

Wonderful work. No doubt her expression is priceless!

Nice work. She has that satisfied "about to be another dead orc" expression I think.