...is amazing. While written in Russian, with cyrillits letters difficult to decipher for average forumite (or I underestimate you?) it contains lots of cool pictures.
First the Rhomboids in Russia: http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/WWI/Mk/
Index page for WWI tanks is here. In Russian, so just click the links and look what appears. All are WWI tanks, so time won;t be wasted. http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/WWI/
There are also some "books online" on that site, even from '20s. I downloaded them, but still have to look inside. I'll keep you informed. Cheers! G.
Just one slight cautionary note. Be careful as not all the detail on some of the drawings is completely right. For example the LK II is shown with a Maxim protruding from its door whereas the door only contained a pistol port - far too small to stick a water cooled gun through but in general the drawing is fine. So some slight care needs to be exercised if you are going to produce models from these drawings
eugene wrote: I can translate ukrainian since I am ethnically Ukranian
Thanks Eugene I know I for one would love to read the text in English (miserable monoglot that I am). What I'd actually meant was I must find an automatic translator for my PC (I suspect that Babel fish won't be up to it).
One of the pictures in tank predecessors shows a traction engine with Diplock feet. This was actually tested by the Royal Artillery in about 1850. It actually worked very well on soft ground but the feed broke on a good (but hard) road.
Sorry Robert, they were Boydell feet, which predated Diplock by nearly fifty years. The engine was a Burrell, hence the machines with footed wheels are sometimes referred to as Burrell-Boydells.
A James Cowan proposed in 1855 placing an armoured body atop a Burrell-Boydell and sending it to the Crimea, an early steam 'tank'. I did a scale drawing some years ago, based on a Burrell-Boydell tractor.
Roger Todd wrote: Sorry Robert, they were Boydell feet, which predated Diplock by nearly fifty years. The engine was a Burrell, hence the machines with footed wheels are sometimes referred to as Burrell-Boydells. A James Cowan proposed in 1855 placing an armoured body atop a Burrell-Boydell and sending it to the Crimea, an early steam 'tank'. I did a scale drawing some years ago, based on a Burrell-Boydell tractor.-- Edited by Roger Todd at 13:34, 2005-12-15
You're right I shouldn't just quote from memory. The Burell I think was steered from the front by a man standing behind what looked like a ships wheel. But surely this isn't the motive power for Cowan's 'steel helmet with sythes on the wheels design' - the wheels would be wrong -or was there another Cowen design.
Ahoy Robert! You're right, there are a couple of pics of Boydell machines, a rather ramshackle four-wheel job, and a really natty looking three-wheeler, which is what I think you're referring to...
Now, I did my drawing of Cowan's helmet-like vehicle based on the four-wheeler, which I believe dated from 1854, whereas the three-wheeler dated from 1857 (IIRC)...
I'll post in the morning! Bed...
EDIT: This is the Burrell-Boydell tractor:
And this is a rather magnificent machine of 1857; I don't know the maker, but it has Boydell wheels (he produced them for several builders, not just Burrell):
The picture I have is a drawing in Military Transport of WW1 (Ellis and Bishop pub Blandford 1970) This shows a vehicle somewhat like your picture of the four wheeler but with a man in a full top hat steering with a proper vertical ships wheel. I haven't rproduced as I guess D Bishop the illustrator is probably still alive and kicking and might be jealous of his copyright.
It seems that two of these were used at the Woolwich Arsenal