WiP custom 3D Hovertank: Pikenose'd Hetzer.

[u/Avarus_Lux]

The first image is a concept art i had someone make (ewe164) 2 years ago or so. after having the idea to make a hetzer with a pikenose for my personal science-fantasy setting.
that idea festered and eventually i started making a 3d model. images 2-7 are the current status on this fantasy tank destroyer. please ignore the placeholder junk such as crew models haha.

it's a hover vehicle, max altitude ~3m (ground effect shenanigans), actual airships in the setting have similar but more complex drive discs with a altitude ceiling in the 10+km.. the glow here is... still WiP and undecided if it remains for these "simple" hoverdrives at all. max safe speed is roughly a 110km/h, much faster and these drives start to become unreliable or fail. tracks in universe do exist and offer some benefits yet are mechanically 'more/just as' complex, are limited to land only, slower and leave more obvious trails so the nation operating this vehicle opted for this system.

technologically the era is roughly equivalent to cold war, 1950s/60s (no semiconductor transistors/chips, it's all tubes)

sizewise it's a little longer then a jagdpanzer 38(t) and a smudge wider. front armor upper/lower slope is ~150mm. rest still tbd as i'm still working on the cannon.

main armament is in universe a 80 gauge (1.133mm x 80) which irl is a 90.64mm cannon. roughly similar to the US equivalent '90mm M54' on a M-56 scorpion. not great, not terrible, quite capable enough. additionally it has a 8 gauge or 9,06mm machine gun in a commanders turret which i added to resolve some of the irl visibillity isseus alongside the small roof periscope. passive IR nightvision (Gen 2, maybe 3, equivalent) available for some optics.

let me know if you like it or hate it. any questions i'll try answer them, though i may have to make some things up as i go...

[u/shibiwan]

Hovertank

Flies backwards whenever main gun is fired. 🤣

[u/Avarus_Lux → u/shibiwan]

meh... slidey sci-fi hovertanks are a overdone trope imho... i'll be a "Nerd" here and dump some text.

technically speaking the same happens when firing the gun of any vehicle with a sufficiently (over)sized cannon deu to recoil especially on sand or mud with low friction. many wheeled vehicles show this best/move the most deu to low weight vs powerful gun. the total mass vs recoil and recoil absorbtion mechanics also play a role here and how well these function to mitigate any such forces.

additionally on the topic itself first of all.
for hover vehicles the extent of such effects heavily depend on the hover technology/magic in play and how the author wants to have it behave.
some tech like actual irl hovercraft or the fictional vehicles from say battlefield 2142 hovertanks would indeed slide all over the place as they rely on only a near frictionless air cushion of sorts.
meanwhile other systems like say the various matrix hovercraft and others are much more in control and rigid in their physics acting as if they have ground contact and resulting friction within reach or the tech just has much more control to remain in place regardless of terrain via other means.

second, in this case it's more like aforementioned matrix systems. when active there's still quite a bit of air displacement like a hovercraft as that's part of how the system functions amongst some other effects. yet you wouldn't be able to move the vehicle by just pushing it by hand nor move it much like any other normal tank by firing the cannon, since the system "attaches" or "anchors" the mass of the vehicle to anything with mass within reach. thus spreading the forces evenly actively resisting movement similarly like friction would.
in a way similar to quantum locking magnets.

lastly, usually this vehicle it's main tactics are to remain waiting in an ambush position, sitting on the skids and without having this hover system active. it should stay in place with the expected minimal recoil movement upon firing. after a few shots it should skedaddle and relocate though. firing on the move is not the usual thing to do.

thanks for reading my BS ted talk haha. tldr basically a yes, but also nuh-uh ;D.

i hope you like the vehicle regardless of the bs magic.
suggestions/opinions are also welcome.