Carins Tank Museum, Australia

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Hello everyone,

ASIA player (and moderator) Mcmole recently visited the newly opened Carins Australian Armour and Artillery museum – there are some pretty interesting vehicles there and he was kind enough to share the pictures. Check this out!

For full version of the picture, right-click it and select “view image”

Chieftain MBT (this one comes from Western Australia)

M47 Patton (this one is from Netherlands)

Australian Yeramba SPG (25pdr on M3 Lee chassis)

Australian Centurion Mk.5/1- Australian Centurions have seen service in Vietnam, this is however not one of the vehicles that were sent there.

M3 Grant

SU-100 (you guessed it, it’s Czechoslovak SD-100, exported to Bulgaria at one point)

T-34/85

Valentine Mk.III

Matilda Mk.II

AC4 Thunderbolt

Panzer 38t

StuG III replica

34 thoughts on “Carins Tank Museum, Australia”

    • Same thought here… First I was wondering if it eventually is actually Carin (as a Name), but yeah, it’s Cairns :)

    • Premium at very worst.
      Some Aussie dudes already looking in ASIA forum if it could fit regular branch. Last time i see it quite plausible.

      Personally, unless all aussie forum warriors band together and occupy Tanitha’s house (or lawn), it still a long way until we see Sentinel and its variants.

      • I don’t see a lot of value in the earlier sentinel variants, given that the AC1 only mounted a 2-pdr gun. The AC4 with the 17-pdr gun would be perfect for a Tier 6 premium MT with preferential MM.

        • Whats wrong with only mounting a 2-pdr gun if it would be a tier 4? It was to be upgraded with 6-pdr anyway, they just couldn’t source them. There is also AC 3 with a 25 pdr. All of them were tried with different engines etc, with so many options premium would be a waste. The would also provide great symmetry to the Canadian tanks one would assume would also appear in a commonwealth expansion to the British tree (Ram, Ram 2, Grizzly). You could even use the twin 25-pdr test bed as a premium, would be entertaining.

          Gonna be like 2017 before there is commonwealth tanks anyway.

          • There was also a model with two 25-pounders (in the same turret). Yeah, multiple guns, so it probably wouldn’t be implemented ever – it was done in order to test to see how the turret and hull would handle 17-pounder recoil. Answer was ‘more than well enough’ – the twin 25-pounders had a higher recoil, and apparently it did well enough in tests that according to one source they were seriously considering making a production model. Don’t know the precise layout of the armour, but it was comparable to the Sherman – the main weakness would probably be the engines (the historical fitting that I know of for the Sentinels was three civilian engines that only totalled about 350hp).

            • for the AC-1 armour is about 50mm base thickness for frontal armour (without sloping taken into account) for AC-3 its 65mm base thickness. 45mm side plate if memory serves. In terms of engines you’re mostly right, the AC-1 had three Cadillac V8 engines in a clover leaf configuration (one engine in rear, two in hull centre) delivering about 330 horsepower, the AC-3 upgraded to a combined system resembling a Chrysler multibank, called the ‘Perrier’ Cadillac (named after the designer) which gave slightly better performance at 355 horsepower. However for the AC-4 it was planned to install either a Pratt& Whitney Wasp radial engine or Guiberson radial diesel engine (the original intended engines for the tank) which would give anywhere between 450 – 600 horsepower depending on the model and other factors

  5. Me like “AC4 Thunderbolt” Me want..! :) Looks sexy…!

    Aka “Sentinel Tank”? 17 Pounder should kick some ass..

  11. The AC4 Thunderbolt is a fake. In actual fact there is only one other ACIII and that’s in the AWM in Canberra, what they have is an AC1 hull with an AC-3 Turret and a 17pr barrel stuck in place of the 2pr. Probably the barrel which was part of a knocked together Churchill dozer that they have/had.

    https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Australian-Armour-and-Artillery-Museum/550740451628887?ref=stream&fref=nf

    https://scontent-a-nrt.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/1618321_655342421168689_1013946841_o.jpg

    https://scontent-a-nrt.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/l/t31.0-8/10339412_681910015178596_4910393967507497921_o.jpg

    BTW, The AC1 Sentinel is in the game as “the Chieftain” has one or did about 2 years ago.

    • If you look at the full set of pictures one of them is of the information board for the AC4. It says that is is a mix as you said above, meant to represent the AC4 prototype

    • The tank they have isn’t a ‘fake’ per say, its a replica really. No full AC4 was ever built as per the drawing board blue prints, AFAIK only 2 prototypes were made, both on AC1 hulls. One was fitted with an AC3 turret (and had the MG port plugged and the driver’s visor cut out of the front plate) with a 17 pounder gun. The other hull was just a hull with no turret and was fitted with experimental torsion bar suspension. Both prototypes were scrapped after the war, with the fully stripped hull of the non torsion bar tank being in Melbourne last check(its a 100% empty shell) .The tank they have is an AC1 hull fitted with an AC3 turret and then with a 17 pounder mounted in place of the 25 pounder. im not sure where they got the mantlet from because when this tank was formerly housed in the now closed Melbourne tank museum it had no mantelet, just a canvass shroud in the front. The only real difference between this tank and the original prototype is the driver’s port and possibly the mounting possition of the barrel, so its 95% right for the most part

  12. Bloody nice looking shed. Anyone who knows Cairns able to tell me how far this is from the the airport?

  15. Hey guys.. So ive been wandering… What are those 3 launcher thingies on the stug? You cab see them very well on the first photo of stug. Also the chieftain MBT has similar things on its turret as seen in the first photo. Thx in advance