I’m sorry, it’s been a while since my last post, if you’re curious why it was so long, I’ll explain it at the end, but now let’s quickly get back to the series with one of the new styles that I have to cover.
Varanus – Object 780
Another big AA gun on a tank, which doesn’t bother me at all, firepower and protection are always important. I’ve seen this one being described as 12,7 mm machine gun by WG and… How can you make such a mistake? It’s clearly way too big to be a .50 cal, it’s even smaller than the 14,5 KPV. What we’re looking at is actually a 23 mm autocannon. What’s interesting is the fact that this weapon was a part of the ZU-23-2 system, consisting of two of these guns on a trailer. There was a prototype single-barrel version, the ZU-1, but it never went into production… But neither did the Object 780, who knows, maybe if heavy tanks (including this one) were still used, a gun like that would be needed. Another interesting thing – based on the muzzle device the same gun was used instead of a coaxial machine gun.
Would it be possible to mount something like that on a tank (as some people doubt it when it comes to other 3D styles)? Well, the ZU-23-2 was mounted on trucks, so there would no problem with that.
I wasn’t able to identify this emblem, it looks somehow similar to real ones, but at the same time it has that “WG-made Battle Pass emblem”. Still the position of the emblem is realistic as you can see below.
That lamp is of course not historical, but it was based on the real rear light displaying the tactical number. Such devices were already included (usually with the number “28” on them), maybe the designers had that idea for a while and were dropping hints. Below is a photo of a Serbian T-72M with a similar lamp, you may notice that it’s able to display only 2-digit numbers. I haven’t seen many 780s with that style while playing, so I wonder how wide that lamp is for numbers 10 000 – 15 000. I was able to get myself a relatively low number and I’m happy with that. If you want to share your number with us, feel free to do it in the comments.
Some pieces of equipment stored on the side of the turret. We have a standard SSh helmet that we’ve seen many times before, some metal boxes, a snorkel and a wooden crate. At this point I started to think – Object 780 was designed as a succesor for the T-64 and it looks like some details were taken exactly from later models of that tank. You can see exactly the same metal box, snorkel and even the storage box on the back of the turret on the T-64 in the photo below.
As for the crate – it’s rather hard to see what’s written on it, especially when it comes to the numbers, but I was able to find out that it’s a crate for RGD-5 grenades, bascially a model Russian grenade crate – no joke, there are stock photos showing an example awfuly similar to this one, just painted green.
Side skirts with some kind of mount on them. Correct me if I’m wrong, but to me they look very similar to the late T-64’s side skirts, which were able to hold pieces of the Kontakt-1 reactive armor.
The drums on the back of the tank look a little bit like WW2 smoke generators, but they are actually regular fuel drums – you can see that they are connected to the another fuel tank on a left fender. They just got bigger as the gas turbine engines of newer tanks, including the Object 780 project, needed more fuel that the T-34’s or KV-1’s engine.
Another AKS rifle, just as we’ve seen before. Still we shouldn’t blame WG for reusing the details here, after all the AKS was designed to provide the AK’s firepower wherever a more compact weapon was needed – a perfect weapon for a tank crew.
Tucha smoke grenade launchers, another piece of equipment present on later T-64 models. There were multiple different configurations, but i was able to find a tank with the same one – two quadruple launchers on the left side of the turret.
The whole turret roof and most of the sides of the turret are covered with additional armor plates. If you take a closer look at the photo above this one, you’ll notice that similar armor was actually used. As for the pins on the side – I believe that they were used to mount Kontakt-1 armor, they look close enough to the real thing shown below (the difference in their positions may be caused by the shape of the turret), while the mounts for the spaced armor were different.
Conclusion
I believe I’ve said it before – it’s good to be back! As for my absence – I’m currently working on my master’s degree, in fact I will (hopefully) graduate next week. I’ve been really busy with my thesis recently so I had no time to work on these posts (and what makes it even worse is the fact that there are still like 5 new styles). Right now my thesis is being reviewed, so there are probably some small fixes and a short presentation left, after that there will be more time for posting. I’m really sorry guys, I think you’ll understand that it’s an important thing, but still I feel that I owe you an apology as some you were here from the beginning, for almost a year.
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