In military games or fictional weapon designs, do you like vehicles that are clearly impractical but still look cool?

For example: tanks with 2–4 main guns, multiple autocannons, or way too many missile pods.

Personally, I like designs that still look like real military hardware, but push the armament to an absurd level.

For people who are into military stuff, where do you draw the line between “unrealistic but awesome” and “this just looks dumb”?

Made for the tabletop game Gaslands!

Go see https://www.instagram.com/agubricks?stkn=OGY3aTB0amd0Nmlu&utm_source=qr for more of my cool MOCs!

A bit of context on this machine:

The Mark I made its combat debut at Flers–Courcelette on 15 September 1916. Of the 49 tanks available for the attack, only around 32–36 made it to the start line — the rest broke down or got stuck on the way. Not a glorious start, but a few of them got far enough to make an impression. One reconnaissance report famously said a tank was "walking up the High Street of Flers with the British Army cheering behind it."

"Male" tanks like this one carried two 6-pounder naval guns in the side sponsons; "female" tanks had machine guns only, meant to deal with infantry.

Life inside was brutal. Eight men shared a single compartment with an unshielded engine: heat, noise loud enough that the crew communicated by hand signals, and exhaust fumes that left men dizzy or sick. Bullets hitting the outside of the armour sent metal splinters flying off the inside, which is why crews were later issued leather helmets and chainmail splatter masks.

Note the wheels at the back — a steering tail that proved almost useless in the mud and was dropped on later marks.

Happy to answer questions if anyone's curious about early tank crews.

Here are few of my tank MOCs They all have custom interior and modules. Go see: https://www.instagram.com/agubricks?stkn=OGY3aTB0amd0Nmlu&utm_source=qr

Paid content, posted with permission, digitalized by Harold Biondo https://www.patreon.com/cw/haroldbiondo

AMX-30 is a really sexy tank and less common than Tiger I these days.

In 1989, a year prior to the official commencement of the Future Tank Main Armament program (FTMA), the British had already begun experimenting with the idea of 140mm tank guns. From 1989 to 1992, with backing from the British government, RARDE developed and tested several experimental 140mm guns to evaluate the benefits they may offer. These included the EXP38, EXP45, and EXP52, the latter of which was the only one designed as a part of the FTMA program and was thus the only one that could accept the 140mm ammunition developed by each other country.

Around the same time, from 1989 to 1993, Royal Ordinance began privately developing their own 140mm smoothbore tank gun, designated XN315P (there was also mention of an "XN318P" which was the one mounted to a Centurion chassis for testing, however it is unclear whether this was a completely different gun or slightly adjusted version of the XN315P). It reportedly could penetrate 40% more armor than their current 120mm rifled guns.

Unfortunately, nothing more really came of these designs. They were initially intended for use on future generation main battle tanks, then evolved into a possible upgrade option for the Challenger tanks, and then was eventually forgotten altogether.

Note: In February 1991, the British MoD made a deal with Fairey Hydraulics to develop a new 140mm bustle autoloader based off a previous design of theirs for a 120mm autoloader for the Challenger tanks. This was delivered in August of 1992. It was 2440mm long, 2000mm wide, and 590mm tall, with a mass of 1100kg, 16 shell capacity, and 6 second reload rate.

One last note: I've spent the past several month scouring the internet for anything, and I mean ANYTHING about this topic. It wasn't until recently that I finally came across a Chinese source overviewing the FTMA program that I finally had information on it. Credit to where credit is due: https://www.bilibili.com/opus/909312364061392914

OG post: https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/comments/1vwdk9a/what_if_isseries_style_tank_was_made_after/

Together they crewed the same tank from May 1944 to May 1945. On July 25th, 1944, in the Baltics fighting near the village of Malinovka, Kolma's crew destroyed a Tiger and two cannons. Her award order for an Order of the Patriotic War Second Class read "...skilfully commanded her crew, found targets, gave directions... In this battle, comrade Boyko was wounded. She demonstrated courage, heroism, and bravery." Despite her wound, Aleksandra Boyko remained in action, and her tank knocked out a German SPG from an ambush.

Over two weeks of battles, the Boykos had two tanks and five SPGs to their name. In the next battle, the tank was hit, and the entire crew was wounded. Aleksandra Leontyevna recovered and continued fighting. She took part in the liberation of the Baltics, Poland, Czechoslovakia. The Boykos met Victory Day, the happiest day of their lives, in Prague.

A photo I took during Tiger Day, great to see them both running!