The third ball tank from MiniArt's What...if? series is soon to come skiing our way soon.
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Thanks!
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MiniArt: Ball Tank
tatbaqui
News Writer
#040
Joined: May 06, 2007
KitMaker: 2,713 posts
Armorama: 2,451 posts
Posted: Saturday, March 09, 2019 - 09:32 PM UTC
The third ball tank from MiniArt's What...if? series is soon to come skiing our way soon.
Read the Full News Story
If you have comments or questions please post them here.
Thanks!
system
Joined: November 24, 2008
KitMaker: 364 posts
Armorama: 363 posts
Posted: Saturday, March 09, 2019 - 09:58 PM UTC
I love the orange-red scheme. I can see where Miniart got their inspiration.
OldWarloke
Joined: October 14, 2012
KitMaker: 2,663 posts
Armorama: 2,649 posts
Posted: Saturday, March 09, 2019 - 10:27 PM UTC
Aperently they actually built some.
https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.9JGfn08Sw1s5Vz2bqgIwrwHaEK&w=262&h=160&c=7&o=5&pid=1.7
https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.9JGfn08Sw1s5Vz2bqgIwrwHaEK&w=262&h=160&c=7&o=5&pid=1.7
RobinNilsson
TOS Moderator
Joined: November 29, 2006
KitMaker: 6,693 posts
Armorama: 5,562 posts
Posted: Saturday, March 09, 2019 - 11:21 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Aperently they actually built some.
https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.9JGfn08Sw1s5Vz2bqgIwrwHaEK&w=262&h=160&c=7&o=5&pid=1.7
https://worldoftanks.com/en/news/general-news/moon-mayhem/
Available the day after March 31st 2016 ....
panzerbob01
Joined: March 06, 2010
KitMaker: 3,128 posts
Armorama: 2,959 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 04:52 AM UTC
Ball tanks. Yeah.
They actually look pretty cool, and the MiniArt kits, with their full interiors, are really quite interesting.
But I'm older, and much of my library came about perhaps 55 yrs or so ago - lots of old books and pictures and stuff. And just chock-full of the high weirdness of evolving mechanized warfare (why else would a young guy spend a lot of hard-earned on such stuff?). Military and engineer imagination ran rampant, fueled by money, fear, wist for the next best thing to dominate the battlefield. We saw (and my library shows and confirms...) the advent of sloughs of variations on the tracked tank, the wheeled armored-car, the lorry, car, motorcycle, halftrack. It records the first jets in combat, the first "smart-bombs", wire-guided and TV-guided missiles, anti-air missiles and ballistic missiles, the first real, practical "assault rifle", truly effective personal anti-tank weapons, the first "true" submarines (versus surface ships made to sink on command for short periods), homing torpedoes, radar and radar-decoys, night-vision devices and, eventually the first A-bomb. All sorts of often truly fantastic new things for war. The record is truly international - there was no nation which owned any "top" corner on either inventiveness or foolishness in this quest. The books and their pics cover museums and battlefields and junk-yards and development factories and mock-ups and even some paper napkins. There's a LOT of anecdote and lore recorded therein. In truth, a stunning documentation of the myriad ways folks from around the world came up with in pursuit of victory and "a better way".
A LOT of the stuff recorded in those books and pics never saw combat (nor even actual assembly, in many cases). LOTS of it never SHOULD ever have seen combat, even when it did. LOTS of the stuff was pretty odd, from almost any perspective. Some of the stuff was actually "classified" by the victors for many years after the war was over. LOTS of the novel things later re-emerged into the lyme-light of military technology and "innovation", as if suddenly created only years after it really was.
But somehow, my old library seems to have missed out on recording the ball tank!
Dang! How did that happen? 
You don't suppose that our modern technologically-advanced age of photo-shopping, coupled with our penchant for ever-revising "history" to fit whatever current desires and agenda we suffer, might have anything to do with the recent uncovering of the ball-tank, do you?
But it does, from the box-art, look mighty cool! I think that I may have to get one of these!
They actually look pretty cool, and the MiniArt kits, with their full interiors, are really quite interesting.
But I'm older, and much of my library came about perhaps 55 yrs or so ago - lots of old books and pictures and stuff. And just chock-full of the high weirdness of evolving mechanized warfare (why else would a young guy spend a lot of hard-earned on such stuff?). Military and engineer imagination ran rampant, fueled by money, fear, wist for the next best thing to dominate the battlefield. We saw (and my library shows and confirms...) the advent of sloughs of variations on the tracked tank, the wheeled armored-car, the lorry, car, motorcycle, halftrack. It records the first jets in combat, the first "smart-bombs", wire-guided and TV-guided missiles, anti-air missiles and ballistic missiles, the first real, practical "assault rifle", truly effective personal anti-tank weapons, the first "true" submarines (versus surface ships made to sink on command for short periods), homing torpedoes, radar and radar-decoys, night-vision devices and, eventually the first A-bomb. All sorts of often truly fantastic new things for war. The record is truly international - there was no nation which owned any "top" corner on either inventiveness or foolishness in this quest. The books and their pics cover museums and battlefields and junk-yards and development factories and mock-ups and even some paper napkins. There's a LOT of anecdote and lore recorded therein. In truth, a stunning documentation of the myriad ways folks from around the world came up with in pursuit of victory and "a better way".
A LOT of the stuff recorded in those books and pics never saw combat (nor even actual assembly, in many cases). LOTS of it never SHOULD ever have seen combat, even when it did. LOTS of the stuff was pretty odd, from almost any perspective. Some of the stuff was actually "classified" by the victors for many years after the war was over. LOTS of the novel things later re-emerged into the lyme-light of military technology and "innovation", as if suddenly created only years after it really was.
But somehow, my old library seems to have missed out on recording the ball tank!
Dang! How did that happen? You don't suppose that our modern technologically-advanced age of photo-shopping, coupled with our penchant for ever-revising "history" to fit whatever current desires and agenda we suffer, might have anything to do with the recent uncovering of the ball-tank, do you?
But it does, from the box-art, look mighty cool! I think that I may have to get one of these!
barkingdigger
Associate Editor#013
Joined: June 20, 2008
KitMaker: 3,981 posts
Armorama: 3,403 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 04:55 AM UTC
Quoted Text
The third ball tank from MiniArt's What...if? series is soon to come skiing our way soon.
To quote the great Yogi Berra, it's like deja-vu all over again!
Neat kits, but the interior makes assembly and painting a real planning challenge. Still, with skis it should at least stay upright! (Previous versions with wheels roll forward/backward of their own accord...)
RobinNilsson
TOS ModeratorJoined: November 29, 2006
KitMaker: 6,693 posts
Armorama: 5,562 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 09:06 AM UTC
retiredyank
Joined: June 29, 2009
KitMaker: 11,610 posts
Armorama: 7,843 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 10:37 AM UTC
Quoted Text
https://www.argunners.com/kugelpanzer-most-mysterious-and-weirdest-tank-of-wwii/
Texas inventor A. J. Richardson:
https://www.military-history.org/articles/the-tumbleweed-tank-back-to-the-drawing-board.htm
/ Robin
Taeuss
Joined: January 03, 2016
KitMaker: 3,791 posts
Armorama: 3,778 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 12:44 PM UTC
A silly idea that never really had its day. The skis as outriggers I can believe though I still can't take any of this seriously. Orange is really an odd though different colour scheme for a self-propelled rolling baseball.
mudcake
Joined: July 06, 2016
KitMaker: 50 posts
Armorama: 47 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 03:39 PM UTC
Hopefully Miniart will bring out the tracked 2 slice toaster with a 4 slice variant later.
panzerbob01
Joined: March 06, 2010
KitMaker: 3,128 posts
Armorama: 2,959 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 06:33 PM UTC
I really hope that nobody takes "ball-tanks" seriously. Oh, yes, one and another fellow has proposed such a thing from time to time - but not built one. At least Da Vinci built a neat model of his "tank"! So, it's "paper napkins". Or if you prefer, science fiction and fantasy.
And that silliness which keeps emerging in photos from "Kubinka". Really? A putatively-German "mysterious one-off" captured, in of all places, Manchuria, in 1945? When even those dauntless and ever-imaginative (and obsessive record-keeping) Germans have no records of this thing - not even putative conceptual "paper napkins" of such a thing? Right. Pull the other one, it has both bells AND whistles! Oh... Maybe the GERMANS actually erased all record of this thing - out of sheer embarrassment!
And why and how would a possible prototype end up in Manchuria in 1945? No. Nobody spirited it away from a really secret development site in the Reich, managed to destroy all records of its development and fabrication, and tried to... what? Clandestinely roll it across greater Asia to maybe hand it off to the Emperor of Japan? No sales here, friends!
Of course, there are many photos of the Kubinka mystery object. Pretty compelling evidence, right? Fiddle. None of its interior, however... And (hey! Those pics posted in this thread are actually super good for this!) examination of those posted pics leaves me absolutely un-convinced about any likelihood that those "wheels" are (or ever were) actually separate from the body and free to rotate... You can see the welds connecting the "wheels" to the middle portion... I won't bother going further. Frankly, it's pretty crude. But hey! Credulity, wishful thinking, and willing acceptance of truly absurd stuff is a common human behavior! We absolutely LOVE believing nonsense!
But the MiniArt kits are actually quite splendid! And yes, I have to agree that the skis may at least make the build more stable.
Cheers! Bob
And that silliness which keeps emerging in photos from "Kubinka". Really? A putatively-German "mysterious one-off" captured, in of all places, Manchuria, in 1945? When even those dauntless and ever-imaginative (and obsessive record-keeping) Germans have no records of this thing - not even putative conceptual "paper napkins" of such a thing? Right. Pull the other one, it has both bells AND whistles! Oh... Maybe the GERMANS actually erased all record of this thing - out of sheer embarrassment!
And why and how would a possible prototype end up in Manchuria in 1945? No. Nobody spirited it away from a really secret development site in the Reich, managed to destroy all records of its development and fabrication, and tried to... what? Clandestinely roll it across greater Asia to maybe hand it off to the Emperor of Japan? No sales here, friends!
Of course, there are many photos of the Kubinka mystery object. Pretty compelling evidence, right? Fiddle. None of its interior, however... And (hey! Those pics posted in this thread are actually super good for this!) examination of those posted pics leaves me absolutely un-convinced about any likelihood that those "wheels" are (or ever were) actually separate from the body and free to rotate... You can see the welds connecting the "wheels" to the middle portion... I won't bother going further. Frankly, it's pretty crude.
But hey! Credulity, wishful thinking, and willing acceptance of truly absurd stuff is a common human behavior! We absolutely LOVE believing nonsense! But the MiniArt kits are actually quite splendid! And yes, I have to agree that the skis may at least make the build more stable.
Cheers! Bob
retiredyank
Joined: June 29, 2009
KitMaker: 11,610 posts
Armorama: 7,843 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 07:34 PM UTC
Pride is a weakness. I have heard rumors of Russia and Germany developing the "ball tank", independently. I have also heard that Germany attempted to sell the design to Japan. However, it remains a mystery as to what the intent of the tank was. As much as some people would like to sweep contradictory evidence under the proverbial rug, facts are facts.
Bravo1102
Joined: December 08, 2003
KitMaker: 2,864 posts
Armorama: 2,497 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 08:15 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Pride is a weakness. I have heard rumors of Russia and Germany developing the "ball tank", independently. I have also heard that Germany attempted to sell the design to Japan. However, it remains a mystery as to what the intent of the tank was. As much as some people would like to sweep contradictory evidence under the proverbial rug, facts are facts.
Facts do not matter, only my belief system matters. Therefore anything that does not agree with my beliefs is ignored or ridiculed and disbelieved regardless of evidence.
Welcome to cognitive dissonance.
Why do they assume something found in Manchuria is German? Does it have a label "made in Germany "? Wouldn't it be more likely to be Japanese especially with 5 mm armor? Like some oversized tin plate toy?
Dioramartin
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 09:04 PM UTC
Kursk 1943 – 5,000 Wehrmacht Kugelpanzers roll down the slopes towards Prokhorovka, aghast as 10,000 Sharikovyye baki emerge at speed with top-spin from the woods thundering straight at them - the largest pool contest in history with massed caroms, lethal canons (some with tactical backspin) but the result was inevitable when von Manstein went in-off on the black & Zhukov banked the 8-ball. A potted history.
retiredyank
Joined: June 29, 2009
KitMaker: 11,610 posts
Armorama: 7,843 posts
Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 09:08 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Quoted TextPride is a weakness. I have heard rumors of Russia and Germany developing the "ball tank", independently. I have also heard that Germany attempted to sell the design to Japan. However, it remains a mystery as to what the intent of the tank was. As much as some people would like to sweep contradictory evidence under the proverbial rug, facts are facts.
Facts do not matter, only my belief system matters. Therefore anything that does not agree with my beliefs is ignored or ridiculed and disbelieved regardless of evidence.
Welcome to cognitive dissonance.
Why do they assume something found in Manchuria is German? Does it have a label "made in Germany "? Wouldn't it be more likely to be Japanese especially with 5 mm armor? Like some oversized tin plate toy?
I believe it was stamped: "Made in China".
panzerbob01
Joined: March 06, 2010
KitMaker: 3,128 posts
Armorama: 2,959 posts
Posted: Monday, March 11, 2019 - 04:07 AM UTC
I believe that what we have here is a neat-looking kit offered by a pretty respectable model company of a fantasmagorical "What-If" never-actually-made device - clearly labeled by the kit maker themselves as being a "What-If"!
Folks are always free to believe anything that they wish to. Our Founding Fathers here in the USA were so confident of that reality that they didn't even consider codifying that inalienable RIGHT in our Constitution!
The best-established and completely in-contestable facts of this matter are that MiniArt has made and sold a number of ball-tank kits, and it looks like they are bringing yet another such kit out.
The BEST construct about the mysterious ball-tanks is, IMHO, that provided by Tim Martin! An absolute joy to envision, Tim!
Let the Good Times ROLL!
Bob
Folks are always free to believe anything that they wish to. Our Founding Fathers here in the USA were so confident of that reality that they didn't even consider codifying that inalienable RIGHT in our Constitution!
The best-established and completely in-contestable facts of this matter are that MiniArt has made and sold a number of ball-tank kits, and it looks like they are bringing yet another such kit out.
The BEST construct about the mysterious ball-tanks is, IMHO, that provided by Tim Martin! An absolute joy to envision, Tim!
Let the Good Times ROLL!
Bob
barkingdigger
Associate Editor#013
Joined: June 20, 2008
KitMaker: 3,981 posts
Armorama: 3,403 posts
Posted: Monday, March 11, 2019 - 05:18 AM UTC
Of course the Russkies were stymied by the German countermeasure - the Panzer IV LBW Mit Cricket Bat... 
retiredyank
Joined: June 29, 2009
KitMaker: 11,610 posts
Armorama: 7,843 posts
Posted: Monday, March 11, 2019 - 05:33 AM UTC
Quoted Text
"What-If" never-actually-made device - clearly labeled by the kit maker themselves as being a "What-If"!
Bob
Could it be, "what-if it went into mass production"?
panzerbob01
Joined: March 06, 2010
KitMaker: 3,128 posts
Armorama: 2,959 posts
Posted: Monday, March 11, 2019 - 05:34 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Of course the Russkies were stymied by the German countermeasure - the Panzer IV LBW Mit Cricket Bat...
But surely those Rooshians could manage a sticky wicket to keep scores down!
retiredyank
Joined: June 29, 2009
KitMaker: 11,610 posts
Armorama: 7,843 posts
Posted: Monday, March 11, 2019 - 05:34 AM UTC
I see my error. I was thinking of the "kugelpanzer". Obviously, this is not that machine.
RobinNilsson
TOS ModeratorJoined: November 29, 2006
KitMaker: 6,693 posts
Armorama: 5,562 posts
Posted: Monday, March 11, 2019 - 06:00 AM UTC
Quoted Text
..
Folks are always free to believe anything that they wish to. Our Founding Fathers here in the USA were so confident of that reality that they didn't even consider codifying that inalienable RIGHT in our Constitution!
..
Bob
Ummm, I think that was the reason for Mayflower to set sail back in the old days
People in Europe were not free to believe what they wanted so those who really wanted to believe in their own manner packed their things and left
/ Robin
panzerbob01
Joined: March 06, 2010
KitMaker: 3,128 posts
Armorama: 2,959 posts
Posted: Monday, March 11, 2019 - 07:41 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Quoted Text..
Folks are always free to believe anything that they wish to. Our Founding Fathers here in the USA were so confident of that reality that they didn't even consider codifying that inalienable RIGHT in our Constitution!
..
Bob
Ummm, I think that was the reason for Mayflower to set sail back in the old days
People in Europe were not free to believe what they wanted so those who really wanted to believe in their own manner packed their things and left
/ Robin
Sorry, Robin, but I most-respectfully COMPLETELY DISAGREE!
I meant exactly what I said. "Folks are always free to believe anything that they wish to." I noted BELIEVE - I didn't say anything about SPEAKING one's beliefs out loud!Being a far-removed sprout from the Mayflower II voyage (1634, IIRC), I'm pretty "tuned-in" to why those folks left England for the far distant lands... It was about religious persecution, about not being free to openly practice and observe their take on religion and religious beliefs - NOT about BELIEF itself. What those migrants wished to do - quite like folks today who express their opinions and beliefs OUT LOUD for others to hear - was to have the freedom to SPEAK their beliefs OUT LOUD. In fact, almost every part of my lineage on "all sides" came over here for that reason.
NOBODY yet has found any sure way (other than killing folks or at least killing the brains) to stop anyone from thinking what they will! Public expression of what you think has, on the other hand, always been subject to repression and control by others. Hence our 1st Amendment, regarding Freedom of Speech (and of religion, too). It says nothing about freedom of belief or thought. I firmly BELIEVE, and will publicly share my belief, that our Founding Fathers were well aware of the distinction between thinking something and saying it. Maybe it's splitting of hairs and "semantics" to some... That SHARING belief is synonymous with BELIEVING. But they are not. You are always free to think and believe whatever you wish - in private. Hence, one is always free to believe in The Spaghetti Monster being the true arbitrator of the universe. And here in the USA, following our 1st Amendment, one is free to publicly proclaim that belief. And, once publicly stated, others are free to speak in response to that statement - to laud, decry, endorse, rebut it. Publicly stating that belief is, like sharing any OPINION, subject to whatever those around you will accept, and is subject to many strictures, both written and formalized and otherwise.
Cheers! Bob
retiredyank
Joined: June 29, 2009
KitMaker: 11,610 posts
Armorama: 7,843 posts
Posted: Monday, March 11, 2019 - 08:00 AM UTC
[quote][quote]
Speak for yourself. My family was kicked out of every other country they tried to settle in. Ireland kicked us out for being too aggressive.
Quoted Text
It was about religious persecution, about not being free to openly practice and observe their take on religion and religious beliefs - NOT about BELIEF itself. What those migrants wished to do - quite like folks today who express their opinions and beliefs OUT LOUD for others to hear - was to have the freedom to SPEAK their beliefs OUT LOUD. In fact, almost every part of my lineage on "all sides" came over here for that reason.
Speak for yourself. My family was kicked out of every other country they tried to settle in. Ireland kicked us out for being too aggressive.
Mckenna35
Joined: December 04, 2014
KitMaker: 45 posts
Armorama: 43 posts
Posted: Monday, March 11, 2019 - 09:39 AM UTC
And it comes with a set of Finnish markings well!
RobinNilsson
TOS ModeratorJoined: November 29, 2006
KitMaker: 6,693 posts
Armorama: 5,562 posts
Posted: Monday, March 11, 2019 - 10:29 AM UTC
Quoted Text
And it comes with a set of Finnish markings well!
Yep, them Finns are fierce warriors and when they needed equipment they captured it from the Russkis
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