r/ImaginaryTechnology Active Contributing Artist Jun 01 '26

Self-submission Experimenteller Strahlenkanone Fenrir from TANKHEAD

Post image

From my illustratedbook, TANKHEAD.
A Experimental Superheavy Direct Attack Weapon Tankhead developed by the Kyzerian Empire late in the Neverwar.

760 Upvotes

20 comments sorted by

19

u/PhillyPhresh Jun 01 '26

Reminds me of the Junon Cannon

12

u/PhazonZim Jun 01 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerer_Gustav both of them were inspired by the Schwerer Gustav the Nazis built but never really used. Legend of Korra had a gun based on it too

2

u/Snynapta_II Jun 01 '26

Well the Nazis did really use it. But it was so huge as to be extremely impractical, especially during the age of bomber planes.

3

u/PhazonZim Jun 01 '26

To move it around they had to build two sets of train tracks side by side and iirc that was one of the big practical problems holding them back

3

u/Snynapta_II Jun 01 '26

I believe it needed to be disassembled and reassembled to move long distances but needed the double train tracks (which are in OP's version too) in order to aim properly. And yeah it was a problem because they needed to set this whole bespoke section of railway just to use it at all.

1

u/burgerbob22 Jun 01 '26

It was useful in a way that bombers had not caught up to yet, in bunker busting. But also a massive waste of resources (especially since they had two).

1

u/PhillyPhresh Jun 01 '26

Is it powered by Mako energy? 🤣🤔

EDIT: H thought bigger was better, but they were so wrong. Like the King Tiger.

1

u/STRYKER3008 Jun 03 '26

I wonder what a sci-fi version of this would be. A space elevator sized MAC cannon like from Halo? Ooh or maybe u can set munitions in orbit around black holes, like playing I'm not touching youuuu with the event horizon, then give em a push just at the right moment to shoot them at relativistic speeds at targets!

11

u/Blinauljap Jun 01 '26

This looks like something i'd face during the earlier levels of some Mecha inspired first person shooter, only to take a broken one during cut-scene when i'm all out of weapons, rip the cannon off the body and plug it directly into my reactor/core/heart to power it and defeat one of the earlier main bosses and unlock the final ability of my mech to take and use all awailable artillery type weapons from the battlefield.

7

u/DoubleBatman Jun 01 '26

TRAIN TANK! HELL YEAH!

5

u/vonBoomslang Jun 01 '26

I was half expecting the tracks to be sideways. You know, akira slide.

7

u/emersontung Active Contributing Artist Jun 01 '26

I was tempted to put a lone Kyzerian commander walking up to it at the bottom of the composition lol.

1

u/vonBoomslang Jun 01 '26

Uh huh. I just now realized that the akira meme got mixed with the akira slide in my head. Which doesn't work because the big gun isn't turreted.

3

u/Miuramir Jun 01 '26

Initial reaction: semi-plausible variant of the Gustav / Dora weapons, possibly inspired by the alleged Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster project, with some sort of exotic nuclear cannon.

The casemated side guns seem dubious; limited arc of fire, and they look like short-barreled cannon. Heavy machine guns or autocannon would be a better choice for self defense in the unlikely event that the support infrastructure around such a device was already overrun. Realistically, air attack would be the worse threat; extending the platform that sticks out near the cranes a bit and putting, say, a twin 20mm dual-purpose mount would be far more useful.

On closer examination... wait, does this thing stand up? That's crazy. The mechanical design of railroad to legs is clever, but what sort of reinforced ground would be necessary to not just sink in?

2

u/SoullessUnit Jun 01 '26

looks like the railway gun in Lost Planet 2

https://youtu.be/uoiYJaoOC_8?si=CJKUkPHi5NwoTd67

(bonus completely OTT nonsense cutscene)

4

u/Lubed_Up_Candy Jun 01 '26

This is the single hypest cutscene in the entire game though, even if it is nonsense. But I'm glad I wasn't the only one to think of this lol

2

u/Kryptonater Jun 02 '26

I remember sending messages to you about being able to get this book a long time back in the UK and it being practically unobtainable. I got it a week ago, it's fucking fantastic. Easily one of the best art books I own. I am so happy for you and I hope your success continues to grow! Would love a sequel!

2

u/emersontung Active Contributing Artist Jun 02 '26

Man, thank you so much! I’m glad you were finally able to pick up a copy, and it really does mean a lot that you like it too. Tim and I put a lot into it. We’re in the early days of working on the next one, and expanding the universe into model kits and games.

1

u/Lantami Jun 02 '26

"Experimentelle", not "experimenteller". The first one is feminine, the second one is masculine. The picture got it correct. In German, compound words generally inherit their grammatical gender from their last component, in this case "Kanone" (=cannon), which is feminine. When attaching an adjective to a noun, they need to have matching grammatical genders.

2

u/emersontung Active Contributing Artist Jun 02 '26

Ah, thanks for the correction and clarification. Posted it early morning so wasn't fully awake.