Lari challenged me to create a massive vehicle that was capable of operating on land and water, and also could be used as forward base.
So here it is, the Crocodile. This massive ship-like structure is kept over 10 giant independent track modules. When it need to operate in water, it's massive 8 turbines inflates enormous hovercraft cushions under the hull, making it not only floatable but also capable of keeping the speed of an average ship of it's size.
The Crocodile can transport land vehicles or small hovercrafts inside it's hull, opening a jaw-like door for them. In the upper part, three separated hangars can keep unmanned drones, attack helicopters and transport/medivac choppers.
As a defensive/transport/base, this vehicle don't have many offensive guns, relying in goalkeeper-like turrets against missiles and rockets, anti-air missiles and two massive naval turrets, made for artillery support to the troops and smaller vehicles it carries.
(Model done in Sketchup 8, rendered in Twilight, additional pictures taken from Wikipedia commons and previous works)
`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
Sta.sh
^.^ No its the whole God damn us army!
Oh yes! It does! I can hear the Hell March in the background just by looking to it
(speechlees)
Now, just a couple of suggestions. I would recess the turrets, all of them, into the hull, giving the pilots more room to maneuver about during takeoff and landing. Where the turrets and missile batteries are now will cause a whole lot of ouchies if anything goes wrong. Second, with the arrangement of lift fans you have currently, the rear half of the ship would have much more lift to it than the front. This may be intentional, but I would even them out in any case, just to be safe. And finally a minor critique on terminology, it would be "Amphibious" not "Amphibian".
Oh yes, Amphibian... my mistake
Well, good ideas! I will surely do that in the next mobile base I make
Well, I think a Land Battleship would be useful as a moving forward post, maybe a helicopter landing pad that can move to new locations or a mobile barracks and vehicle repair place... but in the frontlines I think it's just too overpower.
I was reading once that the soviets really did considered to build some land battleships in the end of WWII, but they gave up because it would consume too much fuel and not be useful in battle...