What kinda of ship is this?

It is a Lorainne class land cruiser in 1899 fit for the Third Franco-Prussian War.

Really neat design.

named for the Little Yanky Cheese Box on a Raft. They where called Monitors Read Epic Battles IronClads North and south Fought to a draw One made entirely out of Iron and one made from a Burned out Steamer Warship and Salvaged Scrap plate Iron over a Oka Frame which was common back then only the outer shell was Iron.
Excellent Model Steve

Awesome Bro. Good work :)

That is a great piece.

Excellent.

Great model!

Made me think of Toyota...

Admirably designed to eliminate shot traps ... though the tripod mounted deck is vulnerable. I see no wheel on the open deck, so presume it is in an enclosed deck underneath. I think, though, an armoured cupula for a pilot house on the main deck would be a good idea.

An armored wheel house, especially not on the deck, wouldn't be in keeping with naval design of the period. If I had more time I would have added a wheel and telegraphs to the open bridge position. There is a full helm in the enclosed portion of the bridge.

I don't know about the period. But I seem to recall that Union gunships on the Mississippi (which were only slightly less radial than the Monitor) had an armoured cupola as a sheltered wheel house, and only used the exposed one for routine sailing.

I'm very aware of what the various armored vessels of the WotR did, but those were very much the exception as open bridges and helms were very much the standard for blue water navies well into the 20thC. Seriously armored helms largely only came about with proper dreadnaughts and open bridges were still common into WWII. Even the USS Iowa and New Jersey went to war initially with open bridges, though the helms were deep inside the armored citadel

It all comes to what you want to do...

Oh, that thing is awesome!

This is so damned fine!

this is cool and it looks great...

V.

Nicely done. Looks like a scaled up version of the Simms Motor War Car.

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

Just to throw reality out the window, Is there anything technology wise that could save this idea? was it's lack of speed it's only downfall?
would a sci-tech version of this do any better? Just looking at I would say it would do better in cities and other paved areas. Just to brainstorm a little bit, what if it was jet powered? or at least had a pair of gas-turbine engines? when I first saw the hull, I imagined one of the modern navy's three cannon turrets commonly seen on Jersey class battleships to go over the hole. Sometimes it's fun to imagine things that cannot be...

Speed and size. Simply way too easy to hit from the air. And general artillery was getting better too, notice how no one was making conventional forts any more either. If you are suggesting direct jet propulsion, how would jets in any way help? Turbines would give it a better power/weight ratio, making it friskier.

Hit from the air? with what? Unless I am mistaken, the first bombers to be built as such did not come to be until 1913, with the Caproni Ca 30 and the Bristol T.B.8 (from wikipedia)

but yes, the age of Castles had finally passed, and thusly Forts are now present only in name, as they are now hard targets in war. If we rearmed the forts, we would only make them targets.

I am curious if certain things would be any help. if the Caterpillar company can make the 797F, could the drive trains and suspension systems be used to make a moving fortress? Probably so, but at that point you're still a target. it would have to devote a large percentage of itself to anti-aircraft, (Germany with the 2 cm Flakvierling 38 and America with the M45 Quadmount) and if you have to include anti-orbital, the cause graduates to the BOLO class of tank and is the sole provision of the Dinochrome Brigade.

So. are technological advances on the battlefield a good thing? Depends on whom you ask. the French Knights who became Bodkin pincushions would probably say no, and the English Archers who shot them would probably say yes.

You were not paying attention, with with the previously mentioned attack Zepplins.

Vive la France!

I wondered a bit about the fore and aft turrets (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14436117/), but then I thought, "Oh, snap, the cannon can't clear the legs of the flying bridge!" This is perfectly good practice, in keeping with half a millennium of fortress design. A bastion was built to cover as many angles as possible, with the next one covering the first bastion's back, as it were.

Ah, where has the elegance gone? The willingness to throw economy and usefulness to the wind in favor of sheer fearsomeness? The scrap heap of history, to be sure.

Looks really good! It's really come together.

Brilliant execution! May we beg you for a profile view?

Excellent work. very nicely done. I'd think, though there would be some Naval infantry sharpshooters up there to keep the fuzzy wuzzies from looking up Milady's skirt and causing mischief. (or is this a simple training cruise in uncontested territories?)

The three 5-barrel 37mm Hotchkiss guns on the bridge ought to do.

Ah, yes. Those would work. XD

that big turret gun is gonna turn that old "War Wagon" inside out.

cool stuff. What might have been if the generals hadn't been so thick-headed and had a mentality for armored vehicles BEFORE the Great War...

Actually, the land cruiser fad had pretty much run its course by the end of the century. It would be dreadnaughts that would preoccupy attention for the next dozen years before the Great War (driven in no small part by the very firms that had lost their ground bound cash cows)

Nice job, particularly on the figures...1/160 scale, I think you said earlier?

Yes. Modified Bundesbahn figures from Preisser(sp?)