Love the book steal tread, it really brings the inside of the tank to life. I think i remember the commander told the sponson gunners which arc to cover, and whilst out of combat they scanned their arcs back and forth. Great video chief
Regarding the suspension, there's no guarantee that the tracks don't move in relation to the main body of the tank. Also, I've seen images of the Rogal Dorn tank which are have wholly different proportions and are almost twice the size of the model compared to the pictured crew. Maybe the Leman Russ works on the same principles.
agreed - I've also seen illustrations of Leman Russ and Chimeras and they physically massive compared to a Guardsman and with plenty of space between ground and armor plate. As said the miniatures are designed to look a certain way and to suit the scale of the tabletop. If the scale were true, wither infantry models would be tiny or vehicles a lot bigger (obviously)
Some points I think you missed. Side sponsons: Side sponsons present a number of additional problems. First of all they present a weakness in the armor, making the tank more vulnerable to enemy fire from the front, though it's not like the Leman Russ armor is anything to write home about, with 235mm of LOS frontal armor. The sponsons also make the tank much wider, which makes it more difficult to manoeuvre in urban terrain, in forests, and might even make it somewhat awkward to pass on the road. Escape Hatches: The sponsons also hide 2 of the crew hatches! Without sponsons, the Leman Russ has a crew of 4-5 with 6 escape hatches, which means escaping the tank in an emergency can be done quite quickly. But add the sponsons and now you have 6-7 crew members with 4 escape hatches, which is pretty bad. Also, it's not True that modern tanks don't have escape hatches on the bottom, some do. Turret: In the lore the gun is only 120mm. Even so though, this makes the turret too small. Nevertheless, it makes me wonder if the models can even be 'trusted' to represent the vehicle entirely accurately, even beyond the scale being wrong. What if the turret is 'actually' a bit bigger? In that case you could possibly fit a 120mm gun, though making it very cramped for the crew, and it likely not be the most powerful 120mm gun (which the short barrel already suggests) since the recoil length would have to be short enough not to slam into the commander.
To play the devil advocate, with the proper context, I think the tank is fine, not great, but fine. For the suspension, it might actually have one since the Char B1 and Tog 2 both had suspension despite the WW1 style track layout. I don't think GW ever meant any part of the model to be "to scale" because the actual given stats of this tank is absolutely gigantic (7m long, 5m wide, and 4.5m tall), fitting 7 people inside of it is doable although the crew layout would be attrocious. The weapon configuration is very interwar/ early WW2 adjacent, having a gun in a hull plus sponsons and another gun in the turret is fairly "in vogue" for landships of that era. In terms of pure stats, its a weird mix, but in overall its not "too" bad. The engine is a HL230 v12 from a King Tiger, which is weird, but its still an engine that can push 700 horsepower so the power/weight isn't too far off from what tanks from the 1960s were working with at the time. The main gun is a 120mm, people probably would jump straight to the Abrams but I think its either a howitzer or closer to the 120mm on the M103 or Chieftain from the 1960s, the hull cannon is awkward but its a fancy laser gun that you probably don't need to carry ammo for it since it runs off the main power supply. The side sponsons would be a touch useless, but given they are basically souped up space Mk19s, at least now you absolutely can make sure there are no pesky RPG gunners brave enough to try to take potshot at your side armor. The apparent crew layout and optics are nothing short of a travesty, very interwar. In overall, I'd say the Leman is what a real world nation state would actually build in the 1960s in an alternate universe where WW2 never happened, thus everyone still have WW1 on the brain because Blitzkrieg never existed. This thing would absolutely die if something like an M1 Abrams shows up, but M1 Abrams don't show up in the 41st millennia, and the majority of the opposition to the imperium of man don't even have very good tanks period, it really doesn't matter a whole lot if you have a tank and the enemy don't, you are going to win.
Being equiped with lascanons for anti armor work, it is feasable for the leaman russ main gun to only fire large calibre HE rounds at comparetively low velocities compared to afpds rounds, so you could make some svaings on space here for things like breach recoil and so on. Isn't the vanquisher specifically the high velocity gu variant? Hm, na, this is all starting to sound to reasonable for 40k.
Heroic scale, the gun becomes way oversized. Looking at some designs like the Victoria Miniatures tank turret guns in realistic proportions really show that...
Nice one! It's more the ankles, I have glass ankles after rolling them countless times with pack on. I discharged way back in 2009 and ankles have never got better!
Not sure it it would change the analysis, I believe most imperial projectiles are more akin to rockets than actual ballistics. There was a time when these rocket propelled projectiles were used if memory serves me. I believe they required much less space as there was little to no recoil to absorb.
Good point, probably also way more accurate with advanced guidance tech in them. A 25cm rocket would still be a huge thing to move. Probably be like 60cm long as well!
Watching it now, but my first question about the Leman Russ, aside from the out of scale size and unglodly gun bore size, is how is there room in that turret for the gun and the commander?
Love the book steal tread, it really brings the inside of the tank to life. I think i remember the commander told the sponson gunners which arc to cover, and whilst out of combat they scanned their arcs back and forth. Great video chief
Absolutely, may give it a listen again! Much love TC Glen!
I loooved that book. It reinforced my love for the guard, I think it was one of the first 40k books I read too.
Pls do this with the rogal dorn too 🤘🏻
Absolutely, I may try to get a family friend who is in British army to give his perspective. He commands Challenger tanks so would be an expert!
Regarding the suspension, there's no guarantee that the tracks don't move in relation to the main body of the tank.
Also, I've seen images of the Rogal Dorn tank which are have wholly different proportions and are almost twice the size of the model compared to the pictured crew. Maybe the Leman Russ works on the same principles.
agreed - I've also seen illustrations of Leman Russ and Chimeras and they physically massive compared to a Guardsman and with plenty of space between ground and armor plate. As said the miniatures are designed to look a certain way and to suit the scale of the tabletop. If the scale were true, wither infantry models would be tiny or vehicles a lot bigger (obviously)
You should consider doing a follow up focusing on the Solar Auxilia Leman Russ and how some of these problems have been addressed.
Ha, love these. I’ve long thought the leman Russ would be terrible in real life. Great breakdown. Chimera next?
Great minds think alike, that topic is next on the agenda!
Some points I think you missed.
Side sponsons: Side sponsons present a number of additional problems. First of all they present a weakness in the armor, making the tank more vulnerable to enemy fire from the front, though it's not like the Leman Russ armor is anything to write home about, with 235mm of LOS frontal armor. The sponsons also make the tank much wider, which makes it more difficult to manoeuvre in urban terrain, in forests, and might even make it somewhat awkward to pass on the road.
Escape Hatches: The sponsons also hide 2 of the crew hatches! Without sponsons, the Leman Russ has a crew of 4-5 with 6 escape hatches, which means escaping the tank in an emergency can be done quite quickly. But add the sponsons and now you have 6-7 crew members with 4 escape hatches, which is pretty bad. Also, it's not True that modern tanks don't have escape hatches on the bottom, some do.
Turret: In the lore the gun is only 120mm. Even so though, this makes the turret too small. Nevertheless, it makes me wonder if the models can even be 'trusted' to represent the vehicle entirely accurately, even beyond the scale being wrong. What if the turret is 'actually' a bit bigger? In that case you could possibly fit a 120mm gun, though making it very cramped for the crew, and it likely not be the most powerful 120mm gun (which the short barrel already suggests) since the recoil length would have to be short enough not to slam into the commander.
To play the devil advocate, with the proper context, I think the tank is fine, not great, but fine. For the suspension, it might actually have one since the Char B1 and Tog 2 both had suspension despite the WW1 style track layout. I don't think GW ever meant any part of the model to be "to scale" because the actual given stats of this tank is absolutely gigantic (7m long, 5m wide, and 4.5m tall), fitting 7 people inside of it is doable although the crew layout would be attrocious. The weapon configuration is very interwar/ early WW2 adjacent, having a gun in a hull plus sponsons and another gun in the turret is fairly "in vogue" for landships of that era. In terms of pure stats, its a weird mix, but in overall its not "too" bad. The engine is a HL230 v12 from a King Tiger, which is weird, but its still an engine that can push 700 horsepower so the power/weight isn't too far off from what tanks from the 1960s were working with at the time. The main gun is a 120mm, people probably would jump straight to the Abrams but I think its either a howitzer or closer to the 120mm on the M103 or Chieftain from the 1960s, the hull cannon is awkward but its a fancy laser gun that you probably don't need to carry ammo for it since it runs off the main power supply. The side sponsons would be a touch useless, but given they are basically souped up space Mk19s, at least now you absolutely can make sure there are no pesky RPG gunners brave enough to try to take potshot at your side armor. The apparent crew layout and optics are nothing short of a travesty, very interwar. In overall, I'd say the Leman is what a real world nation state would actually build in the 1960s in an alternate universe where WW2 never happened, thus everyone still have WW1 on the brain because Blitzkrieg never existed. This thing would absolutely die if something like an M1 Abrams shows up, but M1 Abrams don't show up in the 41st millennia, and the majority of the opposition to the imperium of man don't even have very good tanks period, it really doesn't matter a whole lot if you have a tank and the enemy don't, you are going to win.
Being equiped with lascanons for anti armor work, it is feasable for the leaman russ main gun to only fire large calibre HE rounds at comparetively low velocities compared to afpds rounds, so you could make some svaings on space here for things like breach recoil and so on. Isn't the vanquisher specifically the high velocity gu variant? Hm, na, this is all starting to sound to reasonable for 40k.
I cant wait until you analyze the Dorn, which basically is an interwar-early ww2 tank, that has some modernish features
Absolutely, it's up next!
Absolutely, it's up next!
Heroic scale, the gun becomes way oversized. Looking at some designs like the Victoria Miniatures tank turret guns in realistic proportions really show that...
You were in the Australian army right? Look forward to your take on this
Love the real-world analysis videos! Have you read Gunheads by Steve Parker? I liked it even more than Steel Tread!
Oh nice, I will get a copy!
Take a read of Steal Tread by Andy Clarke. Great book about the crew of a Russ demolisher.
Agreed, really enjoyed that book. May give it a listen again!
a fellow AJ... i'm A Pog though so still got my knees xD
Nice one! It's more the ankles, I have glass ankles after rolling them countless times with pack on. I discharged way back in 2009 and ankles have never got better!
Not sure it it would change the analysis, I believe most imperial projectiles are more akin to rockets than actual ballistics.
There was a time when these rocket propelled projectiles were used if memory serves me. I believe they required much less space as there was little to no recoil to absorb.
Good point, probably also way more accurate with advanced guidance tech in them. A 25cm rocket would still be a huge thing to move. Probably be like 60cm long as well!
The Emperor Protects
and a loaded bolter doesnt hurt, either
Loved it when I was a kid
Now kinda hate it as a tank lover lol
Still looks ok, (I have 10 of them sooooo.... )
Haha me too, although I only own 6 😀
Watching it now, but my first question about the Leman Russ, aside from the out of scale size and unglodly gun bore size, is how is there room in that turret for the gun and the commander?
Great minds think alike Chosen Man!
autoloader solve the problem of the ammo, you dont need the loader, only the gunner, so 1 people less, about the power of the cannon space magic XD
Good point, no doubt the tech of the 41st millennium would have that mastered!
Hmm, of course, trying hull down with the lascannon, the primary anti tank weapon on a russ, not brilliant.
Comment for the comment god
Much love!