Baudet-Donon-Roussel proposed to build a tank with the general outlines of the Char B1, including a high return track run, but with seven road wheels per side that unlike the B1 did not require a daily greasing, instead using sealed ball-bearings. The track was to have a continuous rubber (Pendelastic) inner lining. The project was to have the following dimensions: a length of 556 cm; a width of 280 cm and a height of 285 cm. It thus was the largest and heaviest of all proposals with a weight of 28.5 tonnes. Track width was to be 35 cm. The normal wading capacity was to be 145 cm; BDR thought it also possible to make the tank fully immersible to cross rivers while being guided from the river bank. It was planned to install an air-cooled Potez 12V 320 hp engine, placed transversely in the hull. The transmission was petro-electrical and of the Gebus-Roussin type. The fuel tank was to have a capacity of 520 litres. The armament was to consist of a 75 mm SA35 howitzer in the hull with 70 rounds. In the 1937 configuration, the tank was to have an APX4 turret with a 47 mm SA35 gun with 102 rounds. As the hull was wide enough to place the 75 mm gun in its middle, the turret should have been moved to the left, but this was forgotten in the proposal, as the commission pointed out.
When the commission issued its changed specifications calling for a 75 mm main gun in a turret, the BDR project threatened to become much too heavy as the hull was already so large. The commission in the summer of 1938 urged BDR to remedy this somehow, but the problem proved to be insurmountable. A proposal to install a more powerful 350 hp Renault engine only partly compensated for a drop in mobility due to the weight increase. It transpired on 13 April 1939 that the intended ARL3 turret, bringing the proposed tank's height to 325 cm, could not be fitted without making the design too wide for rail transport, and further that the weight, now projected at 37.5 metric tonnes, would exceed pontoon limits. The BDR project was suspended on 10 September 1939, even though a prototype had been ordered in March 1939 by the Ministry of Defence. A wooden mock-up was all that was finished – and even that could not be shown to the commission because it was for security reasons constructed in an enclosed room lacking a sufficiently large exit; no complete prototype was ever built. However, from the Char G1 B project the ARL 40 tank destroyer project subsequently was developed.
The file contains the unit and pcx files. Model is not my own creation. Wyrmshadow helped with the animation files. I merely put the pieces together and cleaned up the model for CivIII and added some what if pieces. A big thanks to everyone that helped out!
When the commission issued its changed specifications calling for a 75 mm main gun in a turret, the BDR project threatened to become much too heavy as the hull was already so large. The commission in the summer of 1938 urged BDR to remedy this somehow, but the problem proved to be insurmountable. A proposal to install a more powerful 350 hp Renault engine only partly compensated for a drop in mobility due to the weight increase. It transpired on 13 April 1939 that the intended ARL3 turret, bringing the proposed tank's height to 325 cm, could not be fitted without making the design too wide for rail transport, and further that the weight, now projected at 37.5 metric tonnes, would exceed pontoon limits. The BDR project was suspended on 10 September 1939, even though a prototype had been ordered in March 1939 by the Ministry of Defence. A wooden mock-up was all that was finished – and even that could not be shown to the commission because it was for security reasons constructed in an enclosed room lacking a sufficiently large exit; no complete prototype was ever built. However, from the Char G1 B project the ARL 40 tank destroyer project subsequently was developed.
The file contains the unit and pcx files. Model is not my own creation. Wyrmshadow helped with the animation files. I merely put the pieces together and cleaned up the model for CivIII and added some what if pieces. A big thanks to everyone that helped out!
