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Design by Committee: An Inter-war Armored Fighting Vehicle Design Quest

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Wouldn't a steam engine need a coal shoveler?

[X] Plan: High Speed, Low Drag

Steam punk would be fun, But I feel like this tankette already has its boondoggle, and fitting a steam engine in a tankkete might be stretching it.
 
frostgiant said:
Steam punk would be fun, But I feel like this tankette already has its boondoggle, and fitting a steam engine in a tankkete might be stretching it.
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Not to even mention how much of a death trap the tank will be with a steam engine, if something pierces the armour and hits the engine (and let's face it, this will probably have 6-13mm of armour), it will fuckin explode. Add the fuel for the flamethrower for that and you got yourself an even bigger explosion.

There is a good reason not even WW1 tanks used steam engines.
 
If i remember correctly there were actually World War 1 tanks that used steam engines but none of them saw combat.
 
[X] Plan Steam Team
[X] Plan: No Frills
 
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Wilgus04 said:
If i remember correctly there were actually World War 1 tanks that used steam engines but none of them saw combat.
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As far as I remember it was mostly the Americans that tried to make a steam tank and yeah, as you said none saw combat but I think they did ship one to France? I'm also like 90% sure they only made prototypes in the single digits since it was just easier to make copies of the FT-17.

Edit: It also just hit me, but wouldn't a steam tank be slow unless we made a giant fuck off engine, which would make it too big to realistically be a tankette?
 
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Sir_Travelsalot said:
it takes a painfully long time to start up
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don't worry I have a genius solution for this if we use some kind of high energy exothermic reaction like thermite to quickly heat up the water then we can get it up to pressure quicker. We wont need an extra guy to shovel coal if we have our engines be oil, gas, or alcohol fired so it may have the same advantage of diesel engines where it can use any kind of oil to run. or hell maybe we can use some of those warm metal the curie couple discovered to heat our water.
I'm referring to polonium 210 when I say warm metals
Another advantage the boiler is a portable stove so tankers can have a nice hot lunch when they are out on patrol.
 
[X] Plan: No Frills

Making the driver have to shoot too doesn't seem like the best idea. The dedicated gunner can probably handle two weapons, it's not like any of the weapons here need particularly accurate aim.
 
so idea for this chassis after we get reality checked about the flamer. we could rip out the flamer and convert into into a squad or section scaled APC.

edit: Wait, or we could turn it into a mortar carrier.
 
Silversun17 said:
so idea for this chassis after we get reality checked about the flamer. we could rip out the flamer and convert into into a squad or section scaled APC.

edit: Wait, or we could turn it into a mortar carrier.
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Could work, the Carden Loyd tankette was used as a basis for the Bren Carrier as far as I am aware. So worst case we at least get an open top apc from this.
 
I think the vote has gone on a little long.

And i took a look at flamethrowers available in 1930 and came to the conclusion that unless we've made our own we would be useing one from ww1 and as shuch i propose that the flamethrower used in our tankette is the Wex.
 
Wilgus04 said:
I think the vote has gone on a little long.

And i took a look at flamethrowers available in 1930 and came to the conclusion that unless we've made our own we would be useing one from ww1 and as shuch i propose that the flamethrower used in our tankette is the Wex.
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Huh it has a much better firing range than the M2 Flamethrower, that's kinda neat, was afraid we'd have fuck all for range.
 
[X] Plan: High Speed, Low Drag

We want to license the engine obviously. That lets our people tinker with it to fix flaws and kick starts our industry.

Diesel is also good for boats and tractors, both of which fit our existing industrial base.
 
Voting closed.

FWIW @Wilgus04 if you're going to complain about how long the vote has been open you're welcome to find a different quest to read. I don't have the time or patience to deal with people being pricks about something I do for fun in my spare time.

Adhoc vote count started by Artificial Girl on Mar 29, 2023 at 2:48 PM, finished with 49 posts and 29 votes.
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Finishing Touches
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    • After some consideration and heated debate, it's decided that a diesel engine, while more expensive to get hold of, will be more economical in the long run and allow more flexibility for logistics amongst your vehicles. Additionally, it gives more horsepower and will hopefully drive the vehicle faster.

    On the other hand, it's a bit bigger, so the chassis will need to fit the damn thing. Ah well, a problem for the drafters.

    Looking over the weight already allocated, you come up with the following numbers.

    The engine takes up a weight of 300kg.

    For the crew, you will need an allowance of 150kg for each man.

    Between the fuel tank for the diesel (45 liters), the tank for the jellied flamethrower fuel (60 liters), and the weight of the fuel itself, you estimate that you'll need to allocate 200 kg.

    Both the machine guns and their mounts will together be about 150 kg.

    Altogether, you have now accounted for roughly 1.1 metric tons of the vehicle's weight, leaving you 8.9 tons of leeway in the remainder of the design. This of course means deciding the layout of the vehicle and how to armor it.

    Your current industrial technology and capability does not allow for the casting of the whole hull and so it will be of necessity, a riveted or bolted design.

    The requirements given to you indicated that it should be thick enough to stop small arms fire and shrapnel, so that means you need a minimum of 6mm of steel plate armor for most of the vehicle.

    You will also need to decide how to lay out the crew compartment and decide the dimensions of the vehicle. You are required to make it no more than 2 meters in width and have no other restrictions.



    How thick will you make the armor? Where?

    [ ] Speed is armor, armor is speed: 6mm of armor all around.
    [ ] All forward: 6mm on the sides and back, with at least
    -[ ] ??mm on the front.
    [ ] Write-in: A minimum thickness of at least 6mm is needed to ensure proof against most small arms fire. More armor means more weight and potential losses in mobility.

    What dimensions should the vehicle have?

    [ ] Long and flat: 3.8m long by 1.4m wide by 1.2m tall
    [ ] Tall and fat: 3.25m long by 2m wide by 2m tall
    [ ] Write in

    How should the crew compartment be laid out?

    [ ] Write in.
     
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    • How about in line crew seating. Driver up front, gunne4 raised up a bit and behind the driver?

    This might let us get a bit more slope to our armor.

    Edit: or we can put them in a 1.5 meter long and 1 meter wide armored bathtub inside the tank.
     
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