Bren Carrier Whifs?

[Weaver]

Okay, I had an idea which I'm unlikely to build, so I'm opening the topic up generally.

Take two Bren Carriers and connect them nose to tail with a complicated linkage that includes a drive-shaft.

Front Carrier: plate over the cargo compatments and add intakes and exhausts to imply that it's got LOTS more power.

Rear Carrier: remove the engine bay and driving position to make MUCH more cargo space.

Icing on the cake: a PIAT or Bazooka on a pedestal mount in the rear.

What have you made? A Carden-LLoyd-Volvo Bv.'46 snowmobile, that's what! 

Good idea, bad idea, or more to the point, YOUR idea?

[Mossie]

Not a bad idea at all! 

My idea, take a 1/35 Bren Carrier, modify the top & road wheels, add a 1/72 Turret & ta-dah!, you've got a 1/72 Infantry Tank.  I've mentioned similar before for the Tamiya 1/35 Reanult UE, what you do to one, you could do similar to the other.

[dy031101]

I'm impressed enough by the German efforts to turn self-propelled anti-tank guns out of practically every indigenous and captured vehicle chassis...... wondering if the Bren Gun Carrier could have been armed with something more powerful than Pak 36 or the Australian 2-pounder (at least Pak 38 or 6-pounder, but Pak 40 or Allied 3-inch varieties would have been even better).

[Mossie]

Not a bad idea at all! 

My idea, take a 1/35 Bren Carrier, modify the top & road wheels, add a 1/72 Turret & ta-dah!, you've got a 1/72 Infantry Tank.  I've mentioned similar before for the Tamiya 1/35 Reanult UE, what you do to one, you could do similar to the other.

Vickers did it anyway, their light tanks are very closely related to the Bren carrier.

I'm talking about a scalorama'd Infantry Tank.

[Doc Yo]

I'm impressed enough by the German efforts to turn self-propelled anti-tank guns out of practically every indigenous and captured vehicle chassis...... wondering if the Bren Gun Carrier could have been armed with something more powerful than Pak 36 or the Australian 2-pounder (at least Pak 38 or 6-pounder, but Pak 40 or Allied 3-inch varieties would have been even better).

There was a 25 pounder mounted on a Bren chassis. Other carrier oddities included one with a Smith gun ( a black
powder smmoth bore [3 inch, I think], a PIAT battery ( something like a dozen of the things all rigged to go off at
once ) and something called the Praying Mantis, which had an odd crane-like contraption to raise a machine gun
and its operator, over hedges for firing.

Heh. Re-reading your original post, I realize you're wondering about what the Germans might have parked
atop a Carrier...well, ALAN does make a SiG 33 kit...

[sotoolslinger]

Scuse my ignorance but what is a Bren carrier I know what a Bren gun is. Is the BC an APC armed with Brens? Anybody got a pic/

[dy031101]

Other carrier oddities included one with a Smith gun ( a black
powder smmoth bore [3 inch, I think], a PIAT battery ( something like a dozen of the things all rigged to go off at
once ) and something called the Praying Mantis, which had an odd crane-like contraption to raise a machine gun
and its operator, over hedges for firing.

Off-topic, but what's the effective range of the Smith Gun?  How accurate is it?

Is the BC an APC armed with Brens?

Essentially.  My guess is that the vehicle is named as such because the standard self-defense weapon for the vehicle is a Bren Gun......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Carrier

[Mossie]

The actual vehicle was named 'Universal Carrier' & as such had a multitude of uses, from carrying supplies & fuel to acting as a light SPG, mortar carrier & the flamethrower equipped Wasp.  One of it's common uses was as a mobile machine gun platform, & this is were the name 'Bren Gun Carrier' came from.  Except for heavy equipment, there's not much that wasn't mounted on the Bren Carrier!

Here's a pic of the Praying Mantis that Doc Yo mentioned:


The flamethrower armed Wasp


There's pics out there of all sorts of artillery mounted on them, including captured German equipment & they were used post war as well in many conflicts.  I don't remember seeing pics of Bren Carriers armed with rockets or AAA (doesn't mean it didn't happen!) but those might make a good whiff.

[nev]

Scuse my ignorance but what is a Bren carrier

Whats a Bren Carrier?  Only the most produced AFV of all time! (Approx 115,000 if memory serves)

"The Universal Carrier is typically British - peculiarly British some might say:  A compromise, neither one thing nor the other.  Designed for a role that it never really fulfilled, it was adapted to dozens of others for which it was never entirely suited, in vast numbers, long after it should have been pensioned off.  Granted, it was copied by the Australian New Zealand and Canadian armies, but presumably on the assumption that the British knew what they were doing in the first place...........Yet for all that it was cramped, vulnerable and unreliable with just one merit - it was cheap!"

Actually to call it an AFV is pushing it just a little bit.  As a light utility vehicle it was pretty good, kind of an armoured Jeep.  But it just wasn't up to the myriad of roles we tried to make it do - it just wasn't in the same class as the German Hanomag and US M3 half-tracks which were bigger, more powerful and thus more versatile.

THe above quote is taken from the Osprey book on the UC which has some pics of some interesting (ie crazy) proposals.  From a Canadian 2pdr to a Danish 106mm AT gun...

[starship1]

IIRC, the Germans mounted a Pak 36 on some and I have pictures somewhere of some mounting three of the german version of the bazooka on a pedestal mount.

[JoeP]

Did they ever make it onto the civilian market? I'm thinking bulldozer, front-loader, plow, harvester, tow vehicle.

Paint it in civvie colours as an off-road vehicle.

Paint it in wild colours and numbers as an off-road racer.

[Just call me Ray]

Did they ever make it onto the civilian market? I'm thinking bulldozer, front-loader, plow, harvester, tow vehicle.

Paint it in civvie colours as an off-road vehicle.

Paint it in wild colours and numbers as an off-road racer.

A lot of Weasels (the U.S. equivalent) ended up sold on the civilian market so I wouldn't be surprised. If nothing else there's always the armor collector.

[PanzerWulff]

I'm impressed enough by the German efforts to turn self-propelled anti-tank guns out of practically every indigenous and captured vehicle chassis...... wondering if the Bren Gun Carrier could have been armed with something more powerful than Pak 36 or the Australian 2-pounder (at least Pak 38 or 6-pounder, but Pak 40 or Allied 3-inch varieties would have been even better).

Ya mean somethink like this???




I'm still workin on it I hope to finish it before the year's out
"Panzer"

[dy031101]

Sure why not?

Wikipedia claims that the 17 pounder is too much for the little Universal Carrier...... is it really too heavy, or is it just because nobody bothered optimising the gun for a UC-based SPG?

The same source seems to claim also that Belgians made a 90mm SPG out of it though......

PS: Did a quick google...... almost no mention of the Belgian mod except one that says the gun is a recoiless rifle......

[jcf]

Sure why not?

Wikipedia claims that the 17 pounder is too much for the little Universal Carrier...... is it really too heavy, or is it just because nobody bothered optimising the gun for a UC-based SPG?

The same source seems to claim also that Belgians made a 90mm SPG out of it though......

PS: Did a quick google...... almost no mention of the Belgian mod except one that says the gun is a recoiless rifle......

The 17-pdr was a large heavy weapon (1820 lbs without carriage), mounting one on a carrier would be pointless as you'd end up with a weakly armored vehicle with extremely limited mobility.

Jon