Yeah, you can see where it was supposed to go with both photos together. They actually modeled the sides of the piece in question that protrude out but not the 6-10" of solid steel that sits behind the gunshield itself
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As I am looking at it now, this piece seems to be simplified to be this whole gun mantlet structure showed here :
In the game, NERA array covers almost whole plate in the top part of this …:
…But here is like 1/3 of whole plate, behind this you have element “missing in the game” and then the motor. In the game they simplified it, slapped entire structure as an NERA composition and that’s it.
You have even this side plates modelled and its not looking like 12.7mm of armour what so ever:
And turret cheeks NERA arrays have cut of where motor should be placed shown here :
In conclusion, mantlet is modelled fairly good but simplified for me. I don’t know what would happen when they model it like it is, with still unknown number how much RHAe is it and exact NERA composition.
One thing modelled wrongly is the “trunnions” or actual motor itself, should be closer to mantlet NERA and should be modelled as CHA structure from what I can see. That’s why you assumed that there is missing element. With motor being closer and bigger, it looks in good shape with whole turret armor composition. And it looks like there is no room for another piece of armour there.
Using my superior editing skills i ve tried to show it and it look like this:
One thing that concerns me is that plate, definitely mounted in front of the motor itself but it looks like its not that thick, maybe an inch or something like that.
And from my perspective, this is armor that is missing, plate that @Abrams_X showed and correctly modelled motor.
yes. the rotor is mounted too far back in game, giving the appearance of a random gap, most of which wouldnt be there.
Addition to last post, you can clearly see backing plate here :
Motor on IP M1 is modelled closer to NERA array
Another thing is mantlet on IP M1 Abrams is underperforming compared even to base M1 ( or base M1 mantlet is overperforming) as shown here (M900 as a reference point):
IP M1 :
Heading angle is different because constructional slope of the armour is as well different.
Basic M1 105mm
M1A1 (120mm, different gun assembly)
All of the Abrams models in game from M1A1 have the same protection of gun mantlet (except IP M1, not so Improved Protection) so its probably wrong but Its snail and they are lazy to model it right, with volumetric armour and such.
You have
Rolled homogeneous armor (38mm) checks out
External composite armor with NERA elements (305mm) checks out
Rolled homogeneous armor (18mm) this number should be at least 300mm at it’s thickest point since it’s angled.
They did not model the gunshield properly, that’s why it appears as such.
Half an inch is not wide at all. Those side pieces are there just to keep the front shield attached to the inner armor profile. They serve no purpose otherwise.
What they need to do is model the M1A1 trunion. They are using the M1 trunion instead for every abrams with the M256 cannon. Once they’ve done that, they can properly figure out the overall thickness that is missing from the gunshield. There is no dead space between the M1A1 trunion and the external gunshield armor.
Assuming their game dimensions are correct, if we add 38mm, 305mm and 18mm of the gunshield’s xray, we get 361mm total. Now scale the gunshield pack to 361mm and we can get a close approximation of how much armor is actually missing. Extremely rough photo but I’ve drew in what the trunion should kinda look like. Now we can figure out the approximation of how much is missing by scaling the 361mm in cad. Around 260mm by my measurements but again, this is an extremely rough estimate.
If we assume that those measurements are correct. The missing armor would be something like this
Rolled homogeneous armor (18mm)
External composite armor with NERA elements (224mm)
Rolled homogeneous armor (18mm)
OR 260mm of just homogeneous armor.
In addition to the gunshield armor
Rolled homogeneous armor (38mm)
External composite armor with NERA elements (305mm)
Rolled homogeneous armor (18mm)
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usahec.org link to file where these images are from.
ALOG ALMC PAPERS; BOX 2B, FOLDER 18, CHRYSLER, TANK FABRICATION, UNDETERMINED
I am pretty sure NERA array is not up to scale as well and numbers of protection are taken from Swedish trials.Am I right @Conraire ?
@ileaveuptiers You can’t just measure it in CAD, take dimensions from in-game spec and measure the gap behind with it. We assumed motor carriage is modelled wrong, with whole mantlet being a few separate pieces rather than single NERA block with additional plates of unknown material and thickness, and from videos inside the Abrams there is no armour behind the motor what so ever. So Gaijin could, but Gaijin is Gaijin, maybe in few years we will get proper modell