"Lookout Bongolesia, Libya has the Bulldozer Battleship!!!!" Topic

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Fleets of Land Battleships sweep across the deserts of Africa as militias arm themselves with makeship Tanks and APCs.

Looks like some great gaming potential.

You sure they aren't just coming to sell some scavenged droids?

It's cool, but other than having a prow how does it resemble a battleship?

I want one. It would be great for rush hour traffic.

Cool toy! Who is going to make a model of it?

I think its an old A7V.

Several AK47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers sit inside next to water bottles and bananas.

It's the bananas you've got to watch out for…

Doug

Not if you've received the proper training:

Really? I was thinking that water might be dangerous. They could have imported it from Mexico y'know! The ultimate terror weapon!

"It's cool, but other than having a prow how does it resemble a battleship?"

Well! You know how the Media gets about misidentifying military hardware…. If it's a jeep, hummer or attack helicopter. It's a tank! If it's a tank or a handgun, it's an assault rifle! but if it's an old bus with sheet metal and a plow welded to it, then it's a battleship! And of course, if it's a battleship, it's an submarine! amirite?

Awfully big target with flat sides. Reminds me of the SCW where they built armored cars in the garage.

Make sure you get the "lucky hat" to go with it!

oooh…

..where did I put my styrene sheet?

"and a helmet full of hand grenades."

Grenades INSIDE of the Bulldozer Battleship? Party foul. Once his pin has been pulled out, Mr. Hand Grenade is no longer your friend.

You wouldn't want to be inside of the Bulldozer Battleship with Mr. Hand Grenade when he's angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

I love it.

The Kiwis could have sold them some Bob Semple Tanks.

Another angle of it:

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"It's cool, but other than having a prow how does it resemble a battleship?

I think its an old A7V."

That's what I was thinking when I saw it. Battleship? Well, if you're talking WWI/Victorian sci-fi style "landships" then okay. It does have some of the look of the German A7V.

Looks neat, but to a real AFV it's a nice, juicy target.

But to some die-hard, it looks like the old "infernal machine"! Yeah, the Libyan Civil War is the kit-bashers dream.

"Awfully big target with flat sides. Reminds me of the SCW where they built armored cars in the garage."

That's sums it up pretty well I think. Lots of improvised AFVs. The technical war!

The battleship it most resembles would be your 18th century battleship (complete with broadside from the look of it).

Very much the SCW or Bob Semple approach.

"The contraption is built around a bulldozer covered in sheets of steel and concrete armour. "

That's off the second article. I think there was a crazy fellow back in the 90s who built something like that? The police couldn't deal with it so the national guard got it stuck in a ditch and actually called an airstrike in on the thing.

"It's cool, but other than having a prow how does it resemble a battleship?"

I think it resembles a battleship closer than a 70s vintage Mercury Grand Marquis resembles a battle cruiser.

Now just think of your next game of AK-47 Republic when hurtling down the street at a terrifying speed of 8 mph this battleship with khat chewing crew firing their AKs up in the air and pointing their RPGs at wary pedestrians while a column of technicals back you up. I'd hate to be manning the roadblock on the receiving end of that.

Next picture an urban battle with both sides using these things, mix in some modified radio controled car anti-tank drones and that'd be one helluva day in Bongolesia!

I keep thinking it looks a lot like the VSF stuff that gets built for miniatures wargaming.

Only one, kyote?

Wow, I'm impressed.

It's like steam punk meets islam.

Nonsense: it was invented first in Bongolesia, and the technology shared in the spirit of international friendship!

As others have remarked, this is indeed a similar concept to the New Zealand 'Bob Semple' tank of WW2, also built on a bulldozer:

Credit for picture: Pratt, J, fl 1974 :Photograph of tank designed by Robert Semple, [between ca 1940 and 1941]Reference Number: 1/2-050790-F "Photograph of a tank designed by Robert Semple, known as `Semple's tank' or a `mobile pill box', and built by the Ministry of Works at Temuka. Photograph taken between 1940 and 1941, by an unidentified photographer." link

Looks like something the Quar would deploy!

Apart from the prow, it likely resembles a battleship mostly in the way it handles! Mind you, My Granddad also called the Ford Zypher mkIV as aircraft carriers due to their huge flight deck sticking out the front and their turning ability.

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As a general combat vehicle, its likely not that good, for barging through barricades, properly perfect.

yes there were a few Spanish civil war lash-ups one a similar principle with a similar look.

I suppose when you take a dozer, and lash armour on it, you will wind up with something generally looking the same as you are usually looking for something else than designer flourishes!

But to be honest, I'm also seeing a family resemblance to the Sherman BARV

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BARV

Used to tow, or even barge/push swamped or stuck vehicles out of the way during D-Day operations.

I can see the arms race starting now. The competing factions fabricate a "technical" out of a Uke Mining Truck that carries an 800 mm German WWII railway gun.

Now we know where the A-Team went for their summer holiday…