Do you want to see the Type 98 Ke-Ni B being implemented ?
Type 98 Ke-Ni B, Light Tank, Japan, Rank 1
The sole documented image of the Ke-Ni B
The Keni Light Tank, developed by Hino Motors and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was designed as an improved successor to the Type 95 Light Tank. It featured increased armor thickness and a more streamlined design for better defense. The Keni A, developed by Hino, and the Keni B, developed by Mitsubishi, were both prototype versions. However, after performance comparison tests, only the Hino-produced Keni A was adopted as the official Type 98 Light Tank. The Mitsubishi Keni B remained as a prototype and was not mass-produced. Both versions had similar armament and mobility characteristics, but the Keni A had superior performance, leading to its adoption by the Japanese military.
Some noticeable differences exist between the A and B prototypes.
(The Ke-Ni in War Thunder is an A model).
- The B model was Japan’s first tank to utilize the Christie suspension, chosen to address vulnerabilities in the bell-crank suspension design by concealing the suspension components within the vehicle. However, the conventional bell-crank suspension was ultimately favored by the Army due to perceived superiority and ease of maintenance.
Regardless, because of this the Ke-Ni B was able to reach a maximum speed of 55 km/h, making it the fastest tank of the Imperial Japanese Army.
- The B model lacked return rollers.
- The B model features notably longer fenders.
- The front towing hook has a distinct shape compared to the A model.
- The positioning of the headlights differs from the A model.
- Additional round optics are mounted on both left and right side of the turret of the B model similar to the turret of Type 2 Ka-Mi.
- The front hull of the B model where the driver sits adopts an angular shape, departing from the rounded design of the A model.
- The lower frontal hull of the Ke-Ni B is angled, unlike the curved plate of the Ke-Ni A.
3D Rendering between the two prototype.
A on top and B is below
Vehicle specifications:
- Crew: 3 (commander, gunner, driver)
- Weight: Approximately 7.2 tons
- Length: 4.11 meters
- Width: 2.12 meters
- Height: 1.82 meters
- Main Armament: Type 100 37mm tank gun
- Secondary Armament: One 7.7mm Type 97 machine gun
- Engine: Mitsubishi A6120VD air-cooled inline 6-cylinder diesel engine
- Power: 130 horsepower
- Speed: Up to 55 km/h on roads
- Range: Approximately 250 kilometers
- Armor:
- Front: Up to 16mm
- Side: Up to 12mm
- Rear: Up to 10mm
(Based on the Ke-Ni in the game. Regarding the front armor, due to the additional platting on the frontal plate of Ke-Ni A, its front armor is 22mm in total. Ke-Ni B doesn’t seem to have additional plate so i guess it is about 16mm like the production Ke-Ni)
Scale model
Type100 37mm Tank Gun
This is the same gun as the Ke-Ni A in the game and has only one ammunition of Type 1 APHE.
Sources
九八式軽戦車 ケニ
http://gunsight.jp/c/type98-2tank.html
九八式軽戦車 - Wikipedia
Shikenkai (Representative: Tomio Hara), 1982, “Shikenshi: Army 4th technical research institute”
四研会 (代表: 原乙未生), 1982年, 『四研史: 陸軍第四技術研究所の歩み』
(Shikenkai is engineers of 4th institute.)
4 Likes
It’s here! ※(^o^)/※
I really want this in the game, I love light tanks and I love Japanese tanks. I think this would do well as a replacement for the Ha-Go Commander pack.
btw is the type 97 coaxial? and can the type 100 gun receive any other better shells?
5 Likes
The prototype Type 100 and improved Type 1 37mm tank guns are mounted in a mantlet designed for mounting both a main gun and a coaxial machine gun so yes it should have the type 97 as a coaxial mg like the ka-mi or ke-ni.
Currently we have the best shell for the ke-ni which is the Type 1 APHE.
But apparently the Type 1 APHE is bugged, where it loses penetration too fast the further it travels.
This problem also affects the Type 1 37mm gun where the slower Type 94 APHE has better penetration than the faster Type 1 APHE beyond 1000 meters.
Reported 4 years ago.
The lower frontal hull of the Ke-Ni B is angled, unlike the curved plate of the Ke-Ni A.
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Ha-Go was never a pack? it would be a good substitute later on though.
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I got the Chi-He starter pack mixed up with the Ha-Go Commander somehow facepalm. But it might make a good premium anyhow
Not really.
The Ha-Go Commander is just a Ha-Go with smoke discharges that don’t work like they should. Or at least i’d assume they don’t but at this point who even knows.
On the old forums there was a old post talking about how some Chi-Ha;s had smoke launchers in them apparently.
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You ought to make a suggestion/bug report that Gaijin will take years to implement!
For smoke discharges? chances are they are designed the way they are.
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Didn’t want to bring this up because this model is inaccurate. The hull is based of Ke-Ni production, the headlight position is wrong, the fender lenght is wrong, the shape of the frontal hull is wrong.
Additionally it has a cylindrical shaped turret of the prod. Ke-Ni.
WG basically using the Ke-Ni production model and slapped Christie’s suspension on it.
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Oh you’re totally right, I didn’t even notice that. I just put the pictures here without looking closer (ᵕ—ᴗ—)
The Ke-Ni B has that protruding part on the superstructure; the turret is totally different as you said.
I’ll leave my comment there so no one else gets confused
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But it’s good that you’ve bring it up, as it allows everyone to understand the shortcomings of the Ke-Ni B in WoT.
Hopefully, the developers will take notice to ensure they don’t repeat the same mistakes.
2 Likes
Edited photo that shows a bit more detail. The part where the driver sits appears to be curved out, rather than angled. But it may be a trick of the photo editing
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In the original image, it’s evident that the center of the upper hull and the lower hull are angular, with only the hull cheeks curved out. You can even see in the CG image how the upper hull extends outwards.
Which does make sense, especially considering how the production Type 98 also adopted this design. However, the hull cheeks were redesigned to be angular instead.
So although the Ke-Ni B was not adopted, it still had some influences in it.
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I totally agree that the upper and lower hull are angular, I was just talking about the part where the driver sits, around his hatch. Honestly, in the CG, it looks like there is more of a “curve” than a sharp angle from the welding of two plates.
Sidenote: I’ve seen people call this image the Ke-To. But in this case it doesn’t really matter since the Ke-To and Ke-Ni Production shared the same chassis anyway. Too bad they were all scrapped after the war, so we have to guess on stuff like this (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
Additional images from the book @tester188 for his bug report of the Ke-Ni Prototype
Also you can clearly see the angularity of the driver’s area.
You can see more clearly what @_N4MELESS was talking about, in how the curved superstructure cheeks meet the angled part of where the driver sits. I feel dumb for not seeing it earlier, but this is most clear picture I’ve seen of this tank (－‸ლ)
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