Metal and wood hand made toy tank
Vintage military toy tank hand-crafted as trench art from metal and wood. It has been painted with green and brown in a camouflage style.
It features a metal body or hull with the front being slightly higher than the back. The metal extends underneath to cover both ends of the flat wooden base.
On the lower half of each side, it has three wooden circles bordered by a stadium shape (rectangle with semicircular ends) representing the integrated tracks. Above this is a rectangular raised area to which the turret and central gun is attached. The main turret rotates 360 degrees while there are two smaller fixed turrets - one on either side.
There is a rising sun badge and an 'Australia' metal shoulder title attached to the rear of the raised platform supporting the main turret.
There are two grooves underneath which hold two black wheels in each - front and back. The wheels appear to be made from an early plastic or resinous material which resembles the back of vintage dominoes
Each of these wheels has the name 'PEACE" written in raised letters, and one of the wheels is cracked and missing a piece, revealing a flat metal centre.
It has a metal loop for pulling along at the front. and the wheels underneath so that it could roll forward.
The whole tank shows signs of age related wear.
Having contacted The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum, it is believed that this item is not modelled on any particular tank, rather that it has been made as trench art either in the inter-war or World War Two era.
Their initial assessment was that it most closely resembled a British 'A1E1 Independent Tank' Circa 1926, which is a multi-turreted vehicle. They went on to say 'These type of 'Multi -turreted' tanks were more of a classification of weapons fitted, with both Anti-tank or Anti-infantry weapons that were placed in additional turrets with differing calibres of guns. They were were used in multi role scenarios based on Trench warfare. The smaller side mounting turrets could fire along the Trench line, whilst the main gun could be used against other Tanks for fortifications.
Multi turreted tanks still appeared at the beginning of WWII, housing machine guns or flame throwers but were eventually phased out, utilising ball mounts to serve as a differing weapons platform.
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