What is this odd helmet-like object? It’s an armored car built by Venezuela. Machinists at Puerto Cabello Naval Arsenal constructed the Tortuga (turtle) over a Ford 6×4 commercial truck chassis and usually armed it with a Vickers 7mm machine gun. They built only twelve because the Tortuga was hard to steer, poorly ventilated, and offered limited visibility to crewmen. This is one of twelve weird tanks and armored vehicles highlighted at Oobject. Check out the rest at the link.

Link -via Gizmodo | Photo: William A. Kirk

German artist Nik Nowak is prepared for the worst DJing assignments. His tank is an enormous sound system mounted on the chassis of a tracked dumper. When he’s in position, he can lift the body of the tank forward to make his speakers face the audience. All the controls that he needs to drive or manipulate sound are in the cockpit. So who has a request?

Link -via DVICE

Allegedly, this video shows a Russian T-90 tank firing its 125mm gun. A specialized camera called a Photron, usually used in scientific research, captured the action at 18,000 fps. -via Gizmodo | Photron Website

What happens to all of our tanks, planes and ships when the war is over? It seems that a lot of them are left on the battlefield to rust and rot as seen in this interesting collection of photos. See the full gallery at the link.

Link

Phil Pauley’s decidedly imaginative and optimistic proposal for an oceanographic research vehicle is a submersible tank. A three-person crew would pilot a lithium battery-powered boat for two to four weeks at depths of up to 4,000 meters below the surface of the ocean.

Link via DVICE

Andrei Melanyin, seated with his legs crossed, watches the tanks practice from inside a beige tent in the bleachers. As the director of The Invincible and the Legendary, he’s looking for mistakes with a practiced eye. Melanyin is the head of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of Russia, which includes the world-famous Bolshoi Theater, and a professor at the Institute of Modern Art. “They asked me to come in and do something theatrical,” he says of the government organizers of the event. “They wanted something more than just a technical demonstration.” The show he produced skips like a fake gemstone across Russian history, from the violent founding of the nation out of the Kiev city-state in the 12th century to demonstrations of hand-to-hand combat, set to the music of Ravel’s Bolero, by modern paratroopers. The program also includes a reenactment of a raid  on a terrorist camp by attack helicopters, a display by combat dogs and a parade of heavy vehicles running obstacles. And the tanks—not just jumping ramps, but choreographed in a synchronized dance routine.

It’s part of the Russian Arms Expo going on this week. Read more about the tank ballet at Popular Mechanics. Link -via Boing Boing

English Russia reports that during the 1950s, the Soviet Union developed floating tanks. Engineers attached pontoons to T-54 tanks and drove them into the water:

PST-U consisted of five pontoons that were filled with plastic foam. Total weight of the device was 10 tonnes. Buoyancy reserve (with T-54 tank) was 40%. Maximum speed of tank with the floating device was 19 km/h ashore and 12 km/h afloat. The floating device was equipped with its own fuel tanks with a capacity of 500 litres; equal to coverage of 60-80 kilometers distance without any tank’s fuel consumption.

At the link, you can find more pictures and diagrams.

Link | Photo: English Russia

Here is a huge list of some of the world’s largest and strangest tanks ever built. You’ll need to scroll down a bit to see them all.

Link: Ramugita (deleted – shame on this blog for copying)

Original Links: Part 1 and Part 2 at Dark Roasted Blend