"Tzar tank" Topic

I didn't know that Lebedenko's tank was reproduced and wasn't quite aware on the scale of the monster.
There's a replica in T-34 museum near Moscow, I was there many years ago but it wasn't there back then.
museum-t-34.ru/eng
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That is great!

I am very sorry I missed this museum when I was in Moscow in 2007. Looks like it would have been fun trip.

I like the idea of live firing the weapons from the photo gallery. Not something that would be allowed in the US.

It is huge. I've 3D printed it in 1/144 scale for an imaginary WWI game where all the nations that produced or designed "monster" tanks for the war or 1919 are on the table. Able to 3D print ones for the US , UK Flying Elephant, French Char 2C, Italian Fiat 2000, German K-Wagon and Russian Tzar and Mendeleev Rybinsk. Most not really practical, but impressive looking.

While this beast is loads of fun to imagine in a VSF context, the fact that it somehow got past the sketchpad stage in real life is bizarre to me. Whatever its offensive potential, and not even considering whatever vulnerability to enemy action it might have, it is obviously going to be stopped by the first river it encounters – very few Russian, Polish, or eastern German bridges would have been wide enough at this time for it. Nor is it railroad-transportable, unless disassembled somehow.

One of the recently popular theories is that it was an enemy diversion to relocate much needed financing from real stuff ;)

It is like a bicycle with armored driver and so impractical and so unlike robust fool-proof typical Russian engineering design that this theory even might be true.
It was supposed to be powered by 2 Maybach engines while we were at war with Germany.
The story mentions that the emperor was very impressed with the model, but still somehow the inventor have received the audience with monarch in the first place…

I'd want to fire a round of chain shot at those back wheels. Did anybody bring any chain shot?

Not something that would be allowed in the US.

Not at a museum but you can in Las Vegas. ;)

I had thought the large wheels were at the front of the tank and the smaller roller was the tail end.

dBerczerk, you are correct.

The story mentions that the emperor was very impressed with the model, but still somehow the inventor have received the audience with monarch in the first place…

This story might tell more about the judgment of Nikolai II than the merits of the vehicle design in question.

That said, this being early 1915, any vehicular design with cross-country potential might have been of interest – the tracked tanks were still something unknown to the world.

The problem with it was an incorrect balance of weight in the design. It rolled OK until it rolled onto soft ground where the rear wheels sank in and the vehicle could not be moved or retrieved.

Last summer there was an expedition to the forest, where the machine was assembled,they have used drones to look for tracks, as they thought they were deep enough to still be traceable. They have found a couple of kilometers of old tracks, so it moved during the trials…but just a bit. Probably it could work on a frozen ground without snow…but there's too many limitations for the machine which was supposed to be a breakthrough.

Must have been quite some tracks left, if they can still be detected after a century.

Regarding soft terrain, the ground pressure might have been quite significant, especialyl on that rear wheel.

Can't find the last year expedition page, but got the one of 2015.
They say the tracks are still 30 cm deep, so I guess they could have been like 50-60 cm originally, so no wonder it couldn't move on wet terrain.
t-444.ru/g17a.html
While looking for expedition info I've found a report by Red Army inspection which was a death sentence to machine. Basically it says the same as we have discussed here – vulnerable, engines not powerful enough, only a few bridges can withstand the weight, boiler steel instead of real armour.