XB2178 - Tank Research

 As part of my research I have looked at a wide variety of World War 2 tanks from both allies and axis to see how tanks in the past have been created and decide upon what aspects I wish to carry over to my own design.

Firstly I quickly modeled tank hulls and turrets that I found to have a recurring design trend to see which of these designs I liked best and which could possibly influence the shape and design of my own tank.

Note: Turrets were no chosen or placed to match a tank hull. I just decided to pick 10 turrets and10 hulls.

Once I had quickly modeled what I needed I then began to remove the parts that I didn't like or felt didn't make much sense.

These hulls did not make the cut as I felt that their shape was quite boring and dull to look at.

After eliminating some hulls that I did not like I looked at the remaining hulls and decided upon which of the remaining hulls I did not like.

These were the hulls to survive the first cut as I liked their shape and interesting design.

These hull designs did not make the second cut as I felt that whilst they weren't terribly boring to look at, they weren't the most exciting ones to look at either.

I then decided to take a more detailed look upon the final 3 remaining hull designs which I may or may not use to aide me in designing my tank hull.

I quite liked this design as it makes the tank seem quite aggressive with it's massive front end and long body.

This design I really liked as it made plenty of different shapes in its silhouette and shape making it look quite interesting. Additionally it also has an aggressive look to it with its large frontal proportion.

The final hull that I decided to look at I found very interesting as it had a very odd silhouette to it with a very large, almost awkward, back end where the turret was housed.

I did like the weird silhouette this last design gave off and it reminded me of the Scorpion tank from the Halo series.

Also the turret at the back gives the feeling that the tank would've been best suited to providing support and overwatch for infantry units as it has a higher vantage point than most tanks. Furthermore if we simply flip it around and have the turret to the front and allow infantry to dismount at the back which can be seen in the bottom right corner.

Having sorted out which tank hulls I wanted to look at it was then time to look at the turrets and decide which of the designs I would possibly incorporate into my final design.

Turrets that survived the first cut. Other turrets were simply too dull and boring.

As I intend to create a scene featuring a a supporting tank such as an APC then generally I won't need a large heavy hitting turret as it is a support vehicle and not a main battle tank.The turrets above are all quite small and robust almost and seem fitting for a support vehicle.

A number of these turrets had more than one barrel, hinting that they would have a higher rate of fire than other tank guns, with each shot doing less damage which I quite liked.

Additionally I quite liked the look of turrets with short, almost "snub-nosed", turrets as again the emphasised that the tank is a support vehicle and doesn't carry a lot of firepower with it.

I like the shape of the turrets in the front as they are not typically rounded and are a little bit low to the tank, which would further emphasising the support role of the tank.

In conclusion thens, my final design will feature a small multi-barrelled turret effective against infantry and possibly light vehicles and the hull of the tank will firstly have to be big enough to carry, say 10 people, must not look too aggressive as it is a support vehicle and have a high placed turret for a good vantage point.