Achilles

[David Herbert]

I agree with John but there may be more going on here than outright misreprisentation. Some years ago a friend converted an OT810 halftrack to look like a WW2 German one. He later sold it (described accurately) and a couple of years later was talking about it to the new owner who was now adamant that it was real. He had evidently convinced himself that the illusion had turned to fact. My friend decided that it was better to walk away.

Has the "Achillies" got the proper 5 speed gearbox and if so why does he only use 1st gear? The classic reasion for having no brakes in a Sherman is that someone puts EP90 into the transmission which very effectively stops the brake bands gripping ! This one did seem to steer ok though in the earlier videos so probably not that cause. I think it was probably just driver error developing into panic. Luckily the guy riding on the rear decks (a very bad idea as demonstrated here) had the sense to not try to jump and laid down behind the turret till they stopped. Had he jumped he could easily have fallen back against the moving tank as happened to someone I know with life changing results.

David

[Ed Storey]

Canadian Military museums are full of vehicles on display that have been painted or altered to be something that they are not. So, in order to 'stir-the-pot', what is wrong with this fellow's restoration? Just asking.

I agree, the fakes and reproductions need to be recorded as such, and that fabricating these examples only muddies the waters for those who actually care about and study these machines.

[David Herbert]

Originally Posted by Ed Storey

So, in order to 'stir-the-pot', what is wrong with this fellow's restoration? Just asking.

I think that the issue is that it's not a restoration or even a replica ! It is home made with genuine running gear. It has no meaningfull history. As John said it is a great achievement to build something on this scale but it is not an accurate reproduction and from the video evidence does not work very well - though that could be more the driver. I can certainly see the point of building replicas of interesting vehicles but unless they are identical to the original they are just look-alikes and of no historic value. Other views are available !

David

[Harry Moon]

Well this is a dark side of our community! You can "restore" an airplane from the serial number out but pull pieces off of a range and only use what was salvageable, very little in this case and you got shot down. People don't come here for that crap, we have a pretty good crowd, obviously there are exceptions.

[David Herbert]

I am sorry Harry if I have offended you. Are you disagreeing with my reason for criticising this guy claiming it to be a restoration or are you objecting to any criticism of anyone for anything? I will leave the last word to you as I don't intend to get into a public argument here and as I said my previous comments were just my opinion. I might add that I have spent many hours removing stuff from ranges (with correct permissions) and know very well what hard work it is and how much effort goes into arranging each trip. I also have great respect for the expense and hard work that went into creating this vehicle but I stand by my comments above.

David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Well, changing the subject completely...at noon tomorrow a float is coming to move my Fox and UC to a show. After watching these videos on U-Tube and the 'tank fail' ones (of tanks falling off floats or crashing into things) that followed I'm getting a queasy feeling.

Thanks guys.

[Russ Gregg]

Personally I feel that if it is documented as a replica and not misrepresented to be something it is not then it serves a purpose. If the owner/builder is happy with his work and displays it as an honest reproduction he is at least opening peoples eyes to history to which they might have previously been unaware. Lets face it, I'm into my second half century and I'm probably pulling the average age on this forum down. If a guy builds a decent representation of a tank that brings younger blood into the hobby or even just raises public awareness to military history beyond the pathetic level it is at he has achieved something. As long as he isn't trying to sell it as the real thing or doing crazy stuff to cast dark shadows on history or legitimate hobbyists I don't see a problem.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Bruce Parker

Well, changing the subject completely...at noon tomorrow a float is coming to move my Fox and UC to a show. After watching these videos on U-Tube and the 'tank fail' ones (of tanks falling off floats or crashing into things) that followed I'm getting a queasy feeling.

Thanks guys.

From personal experience, the split second that things go wrong is when you are going up or down the ramps of the flatbed, and are right at the point of balance. With only inches of track on the deck rather than 10 feet or more, the vehicle gets extremely sensitive to an imbalance of power, be it braking or acceleration. Any attempts at correction just make it worse.....at some point you brace yourself for the ride down and hope it doesn't hurt.