Strato50

Hey all, I worked together a simply 1 piece aluminum shield for the Tamiya sensor to block hits coming from directly infront and slight angles left and right. In our club any TD taking the field is allowed to block it's sensor in front... it hasn't really been tried much because we fight on grass ​so TD's are already at a disadvantage.


I'd like to test it out at the field under different conditions in September.


Feel free to comment and make suggestions, as this is fairly rough but it seems to work.


It`s held on by magnets to the screws on the TBU.

ausf

Looks great.

Best part is it highly visible to opponents as opposed to altering the mirror or something else.

Building the SU-100, I'm especially interested.

cleong

Perhaps losing the fins while keeping the front shield could be an option for the light TDs like the STUG or SU-85, maybe even the SU-100 or JP, it would create pretty interesting strategy where tanks make pretty determined flanking rushes to dislodge a TD.

i fought Bob's shielded JT before. Terrible, terrible thing. It was slow, but the way it advances inexorably towards you is terrifying!

TheBennyB

Not a fan. So you guys would run a SU-76i as an IFA? TFA in my opinion is the best bet for fixed structured tanks. This give you frontal armor up to 10' so

you can at least advance in a straight line. This is just for Tamiya apples though.

Strato50

Interesting so far. I'm not 100% on the acronyms but IFA - infinite frontal armor, and TFA - ..?

...funny my next project is an SU-76i

While it makes sense on a JT from a slightly more historical armor viewpoint the idea within the club is to promote the inclusion of tank destroyers with fixed guns, who would otherwise not want to battle because of the limited mobility on grass.


Hopefully I get some field tests and see what the folks battling against me think.

dgsselkirk

Since we use mostly Clark boards now, the shield could be used in combination with # of hits and damage so it would be no problem to make the SU-76i more vulnerable than a JT by adjusting this. I'm sorry I have no idea about setting Tamiya's...

MAUS45

Tamiya's can be set to Light, Medium, or Heavy, so this would work for them as well.

tomhugill

Nice idea strato! Set the su-76i to a light tank, 3 hits with the IFA. Fun combination all round!

Rustytrax

I'm not a fan of IFA on a medium TD. The Medium already has a high rate of fire and to add in-penetrable front armor is ridiculous. Su 76, 85 and even the 100 was quite easily penetrated by the PZ IV. Even a Jgdpz IV was vunerable to the sherman 75mm.
Implementation of this shield (IFA) should be limited to Heavy TDs like the JpdTgr, Elephant and Jpdpthr. Maybe the ISUs if you wanted to promote the fixed gun tank, but even that is an issue because the PZ IV could knock em out frontally at close ranges.

Panther F

The SU76i and SU-100 are not IFA tanks.





Jeff

Ex_Pat_Tanker

We experimented with IFA a few years ago in Detroit, tho we used the simple expedient of sticky tape across the front!
The battles usually ended with the 2 TD's desperately trying to out manoeuvre one another long after everyone else was dead. The lesson I took from that was it needed a large area with plenty of cover to allow for flanking / sneaking up on the TD, otherwise it was all rather tedious for the other guys to have to sit and wait for someone to make a mistake...

Another problem I've seen is that in a small or narrow battlefield, the IFA tank just backs up into a corner and sits there picking people off. It might be 'realistic', but it sure ain't fun for everyone else involved if they are physically unable to get to it.
With that in mind, you really do have to bend 'the rules' to allow both teams to have an equal number of IFA tanks, or else it simply isn't fair to the team that is without.

Also to add:
What I found worked better was to have buildings which had their windows low enough to allow tanks like the SU's and Stugs to shoot thru without exposing their apples. This way the TD had a limited cone of fire, and didn't gain as much of an advantage as the blocked sensor would when it was flushed out by the enemy.
That way you could set up the TD in ambush position's and your team mates had to protect its flanks - equally as realistic in terms of tactics and history, and makes for a more involving team game, eh?

dgsselkirk

This is all good input guys. The basic concept is to allow the TD's to be more involved and last a little longer in the scenarios than they do presently. I have an L70 and have done what I can to beef up the motors and running gear but still on grass it is tougher than it should be to maneuver around especially since I have removed super spin (Strato and I are removing it from all our vehicles and are going to work to have all the club do the same)
Another thought I have had about ambush positions is to put a time frame a vehicle can remain in a fixed position as ExPat said about putting your back to a wall. Like any ambush position you are going to get zeroed eventually so if you have a time frame. Do this and in combination with reduction of hits I think it could be workable. Keep in mind most of us have Clarks for these TD's so we can set our hits by single digits so when we have my L70 for example, perhaps it is set in between light and medium so 4 or 5 hits to destroy rather than the Tamiya medium 6 hits. I have no experience with the Tamiya so I don't know if the hits can be individually set on them or not.

Keep the input and feed back coming we have a couple more weeks before next battleday to play with ideas!

Ex_Pat_Tanker

Tamiya's only have light, medium and heavy, the DBC I think also has/had a 'super light' setting? (one hit, one second reload).

Another idea for the electonics wizz's:
Have a series of small emitters placed at various points - doesn't need to be anything bigger than a 9V battery and enough circuitry to fire the appropriate pulsed signal at a random interval every few minutes (or maybe they fire once?). Each team gets to place / aim into spots of their choice to prevent camping.
Couple that up to a flash bulb and maybe a smoke pellet to complete the effect of simulated artillery.

dgsselkirk

I like it! Strato, get on that...LOL!

Strato50

Heh I'll work on that right after I finish my heat-seeking anti-tank trebuchet

We'll see how this plays out in battle. Like most things in Can-Am everyone has a slightly different setup and we regularly have to self police things that can give one an unfair advantage. So far we've been doing pretty well.

If it turns out that I can 'troll' the enemy team to a point where it's not fun then I'll change it or remove it :P I still have a feeling that 2 incredibly fast KV's are going to outmaneuver and kill me... so realism is relative here

TheBennyB

I'm just not a believer of being able to fire while completely invulnerable to what your firing at.

Ex_Pat_Tanker

"Innovate the game, not the Toy" is my motto too. Nothing worse than being the eager new guy with his shiny new tank, turning up for his first battle day, and getting his ***** handed to him by a bunch of guys with massively Uber tanks...

Sounds like you guys in Can-Am have a handle on that situation tho, so go experiment like we did in Detroit

thecommander

I agree Martin. We at NEAD & Danville do what we can to make things realistic and fun. If we do not try hard to make it fun for the rookies this hobby it will not grow. I love putting that remote in the hands of a new tanker commander and seeing that smile pour over them. Danny, Dave, Troy, John & Quinn, Herman, Sean, Dennis and more.....we all become kids again. I love to pair up with the rookies and we mentor them as much as possible. We often let them start first and the vets join in later in the game. It levels the playing field. On the IFA I use mine about evey other event and load it out to any who want to try. They either loved driving it of hated it for its immobility. I does ad spice tot he game. I was often amazed by the 8 or so direct hits on the JT and Elefant at APG that just bounced off. WOW.