COBRA C-88 Medium Gun Tank, Tamiya kit body

🇬🇧 United Kingdom (1954)
Medium Gun Tank – Concept Only

Project Cobra was one of many unique and ingenious armored vehicle designs to come out of Britain’s Royal Military College of Science (RMCS), School of Tank Technology (STT). This particular project was drawn up in the 7th Technical Staff Course, which took place at the STT in Shrivenham, in November of 1954. The aim? To create a new medium gun tank. The result was Cobra, boasting a powerful main gun, heavy armor, and an oscillating turret with an automatic loader. However, like the majority of the STT projects, the Cobra also went no further than the drawing board. Even so, multiple elements of its design were ground-breaking and would influence future armored vehicle designs.

What is a Medium Gun Tank? The term medium gun tank is a uniquely British designation. It refers to the gun’s size and power, not the tank’s size and weight. Medium gun tanks, such as the Centurion, were specifically designed to counter enemy armor of a similar weight class and work closely with friendly infantry to exploit breakthroughs. Combating heavier enemy armor would fall to the heavy gun tanks, such as the Conqueror. Designed as such, the Cobra would have fulfilled a similar role on the battlefield as the existing Centurion.

The School of Tank Technology had a penchant for applying grandiose names derived from myth and legend to their vehicle projects. However, ‘Cobra’ is a rare exception to this. If nothing else, the serpent-inspired choice of Cobra keeps up the British tradition of giving their tanks names beginning with the letter C.

Fast forward 72 years. . .🐍

Decided I liked the idea of an R/C tank based on that humorous group of cartoon characters, whose EVIL organization trying to rule the world. . .No, not that group, I mean COBRA! 🐍 I'm sure Dr. Smoov could have given you a hint. For size I used the Logitank by SLI to get the scale right. Next I used Sonn0853's design for the C-88, while adjusting the turret to reflect the drawings from the college to reflect the spacing for the main armament. Used Labape's Cobra logo to give the desired finishing touch! I did add some space to add headlight and tail lights, because lights are cool.

I'm printing both the body and turret this weekend for size testing, just need to order a Tamiya tread system to see if I can remote control this.

Information found here at TANKS-ENCYCLOPEDIA dot COM to learn more. This tank never made it off paper in 1954, maybe we have the power to change that! =^)