Tank Guidelines

[USArmyManOfWar]

What are the guidelines for tanks at scenario games? I know each game is different, but let's keep it to MPP sponsored scenario games. Specifically:
1. Can a tank be used on a car/truck chassis or should it be a golf cart/dune buggy?
2. Is it possible to have an actual Tank, AFV, or APC? (Not that I am going out to buy one right now, but something to shoot for)

Some of us here in Mississippi are thinking of building our own tank and thought we’d check with the gurus before heading down this road. Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Keith

[Spook]

im not a guru or anything but what ive noticed is a lot of them are built on golf carts, 4 wheelers, lawn mowers, and things of that sort. paintball charleston has 2 built from truck chassis. all you need is a golf cart, with a wooden body, with netting for windows. and a turret the shoots small nerf rockets with co2, muder holes help also. but a truck is really not needed since you can only drive at a slow speed at about a walking pace. but talk to the blackhearts they are masters of tanks and anti tank weapons.

[MrWizard]

The exciting and confusing world of tanks. First the largest forum on tanks is at warpig.com. Keep in mind it's mostly above the mason dixon line people.

Car chassis or something smaller? There was a push several years ago for some fields (insurance driven) not to allow any vehicle that ever had a VIN number. And the fields that did required a 100$ ins. deposit which you got 50$ back after the game. Not sure what ever happened with this and some fields do charge an Ins. charge for the big rigs. This does not ever seem to happened on southern fields though. The choice is open then for what type of chassis to use. Without swaying you one way or the other let me list the pros and cons of each comparing a small chassis (golf cart, atv, mule,big riding mower) to larger chassis(truck, car, small 4x4)

Pros:

Big: Easier to make look tank like. More room for imagination when building.Carries more people: dedicated driver, gunners and turret operator. Smooth ride and generally quiet.

Small: maneuverability, you can off road and go where the big rigs can't. Big rigs are famous for banging into things...ask bobio and grendel. Non-one charges extra and insurance worries are nil. Cheaper to build and transport. Lighter and safer since it's hard to hurt someone with an ATV by running over them.

Cons,

Big: The Blackheart tiger is very expensive to tow, so now it lives at BearClaw. A small tank can be made to fit in a pickup or a garden trailer. Think hard about how you're going to get your toy hundreds of miles to a field. You have to stay on roads you're so big and an easy laws target. A good tank like design is HARD to drive with poor visibility. Works against a lot of things.

Small: tippy and very busy for the driver/gunner/cannon operator: With the weight of guns and the turret up high I'm always watching my CG. The evil bug introduced at Benghazi was a solution to this and cost 60$ to build over an ATV. As a driver of a one man tank you're are going to be a very busy boy.

Whichever way you go it's a blast. Ask Junkie. It's very easy to build a bad tank too...I've seen a lot of designs only come to one game for various reasons. Usually one of the Con's above. Go to a good tank game with your notepad and talk to the tankers. We love to talk about our babies. Ask to ride in each too if you're really serious.



Pick a chassis and know how to get it to the games.
Pick a design and build a breech loading laws cannon.
Build it and paint it.
Come have fun.
Have a good place to keep it between games.

[USArmyManOfWar]

Thanks for everyone's advice. I was at Kursk last year, though the thought of building a tank had not yet occurred to me. I plan to be at BearClaw for Operation Sea Lion, so hopefully I will be able to get some good ideas and talk with the other tankers.