78 replies to this topic

[F34rmen00bz]

Soviet_Union, on Feb 02 2012 - 04:16, said:

that was the t-50 lol

Oh.... >_>

[Liberation]

Anyone else find it ironic they have two garbage bags in front of the museum's sign? lol.

Great pictures and thanks for sharing the experience with us. If I ever am in the Moscow area I'll certainly plan to drop by.

[Starzfan]

Would love to visit a place like that...  a military buffs dream trip.

[Racapes]

Great Review, I'd love to check it out some time.

[ChaosRain]

It seems strange that the place is so... basic and "unpolished", yet they've got so many interesting and unique vehicles there that people go nuts for, and on top of that they keep it unnecessarily hush-hush because they don't want people reverse engineering cold-war era tanks? Russians are silly.

[zergdramon]

I was hoping I'd see a captured Stug III. But those tanks are amazing...

[sarkinc]

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by the maus comment :s?

"Oh, to answer the question of “Is the Maus really as bad inside as they say?” the answer is… well…"

[TheRonmasteh]

To be honest, this is the first chieftain hatch review I've bothered to read it 100%, totally focused...    AND LIKED IT!

I REALLY want to go to Kubinka someday Some interesting tanks are there. Not even mentioning the, literally, one-in-a-kind tank in the whole world.

Unfortunately, its kinda bad the Russians only keep the museum maintenance at the very minimum and so basic and simple. Well, at least its clean...        no, seriously, I cried on the inside when I saw the Maus.

And I lol'd when I saw the Maus rear and the comment was "... what? Everyone takes photo on the darn front!", indeed, good point.

I'm off to sleep. This review is a good story to sleep...    in an interesting way and not as boring. No sir.

[ChaosRain]

I'm also kind of shocked at the total lack of upkeep on the Maus' interior. For something as rare and significant in German WWII armor history as the largest enclosed fighting vehicle ever constructed, you'd think they'd actually bother.. cleaning it or something. Were there other tanks you could see inside that were in the same state of disarray?

[GearaDoga]

ChaosRain, on Feb 02 2012 - 08:59, said:

I'm also kind of shocked at the total lack of upkeep on the Maus' interior. For something as rare and significant in German WWII armor history as the largest enclosed fighting vehicle ever constructed, you'd think they'd actually bother.. cleaning it or something. Were there other tanks you could see inside that were in the same state of disarray?

Looking at that pic, I think it's less a matter of cleaning the inside and more a matter of there IS no inside.  The Maus is big, but I don't think it was designed with such great big empty compartments inside it!

Unless I'm mistaken, it looks like the Maus is pretty much a gutted shell.

[MalSuperSonic]

Thank you for Sharing  

[Christojojo]

whitedragonking, on Feb 02 2012 - 03:27, said:

That was cool on the selected tanks. but i do feel annoyed on the big Russian logo on the Mark 5. hey next time you go to a tank museum can you stand next to the tank so we can see the scale on how big it is?
thanks for showing use this collective of tanks

I agree. It would be nice to see a proportional shot. I was even thinking of one for the thickness of the armor on the mause using a quarter or such.

Don't worry if you must remain secret use a Stand in Chieftain.

BTW EXCELLENT JOB!!! I agree one of the best reads to date.

[Gigaton]

brian333, on Feb 02 2012 - 05:17, said:

How does the driver see out of this thing?

Driver is in the turret.

GearaDoga, on Feb 02 2012 - 09:27, said:

Unless I'm mistaken, it looks like the Maus is pretty much a gutted shell.

Remember that they basically improvised that Maus together from parts Germans didn't blow up.

[dj508]

super coool

[floppytechie001]

sad to see the Maus's state.
Man,that is NOT how you keep the biggest tank of the WW2 era  


But a good read all the same

[SACEUR]

[quote name='The_Chieftain' timestamp='1328146105' post='1381864']
Continuing.


No obvious signs of restrooms or other sources of snacks. There are a couple of outdoor points of interest, to include an armoured (and quite well armed) railcar, but most everything was in the buildings. Exit out the gate you came in, get your souvenirs from the (rather pathetic, frankly) booths out front, and go home.

So, let’s review.

They have a heck of a lot of vehicles which you will never see anywhere else. Bring spare batteries, spare memory cards. Bring spares for the spares. It’s actually within a reasonable distance of somewhere you might happen to be at some point in your life. It is a definite ‘must visit’ on any tank enthusiast’s list.

So why am I still ambivalent about the place?

Mainly because one comes out feeling a little let down. The thing could have been so easily a better experience simply by nature of allowing you to look at the vehicles instead of just visit them and read a placard. What other musea confine you to the front of a vehicle so that you can’t see what’s around the side? The day I visited, one of the pavilions was actually closed off entirely, which would have been disappointing had we not gotten special permission to get in. Now, granted, the museum is really more of a collection of vehicles maintained by the Russian military than a museum in itself, but really, is it that hard?

And then you have the various restrictions placed upon you to access the place to begin with. You need to apply weeks in advance (I submitted my passport number), and be escorted around. Supposedly there are limitations as to the type of camera you’re allowed bring in. There are some special event days which are more of an ‘open access’, but you still don’t want to advertise that you’re a foreigner too much.

Don’t let this dissuade you, though. It’s still a heck of a place.

[/spoiler]
[/quote]

I was one of the lucky few who got to go to Moscow last year for Ural Steel and I must say I was both excited and disappointed. I am grateful to WARGAMING & URAL  for the chance to go. It was truly a ONCE IN A LIFE TIME opportunity that I am so very glad I did not let pass me by. The tanks on display at the site were plentiful, unique and breathtaking in both quantity and quality. However the lack of upkeep was far far below the standards you would see at ANY other similar location in the world. Here you have a collection of your countries Armored accomplishments with dust bunnies the size of REAL bunnies. At the very least they could hose them down or take a shop broom to them once a month. Thanks GOD they are out of the elements, otherwise a large number of rare tanks would have been lost.

  Oh and there was a "restroom" there but thanks you lucky stars that you overlooked it. I have traveled the world and have NEVER seen anything that disgusting. The stench was able to knock out a goat from 30 feet any. Needless to say I held it. If you get a chance to visit, then I would go.

[theshiyal]

Wow!

I will go next time I'm in Moscow if I can.

p.s. in the meantime is there an online photo album with a few more of your pics and captions?

I'd love to see it.

[Eliminateur]

Chieftain, interesting, i see some differences from when we got to travel there (wii ural steel FTW!) and i have a TON of photos and videos, in my case the problem was that the flash capacitors wouldn't recharge fast enough for the group's pace!!!!, i also decimated my battery but managed to get a ton of pictures

For example some differences:

• they repainted/cleaned the IS7, it was in a quite dirty/drab matte dark green paint when we saw it, now it's SHINY!
  for reference, here's my IS4 photo and you can see the IS7 dirty behind it: [
  you can see it better here, way better now: http://youtu.be/mhdtPgZ7oMs
• the goliath wasn't there behind the maus

Also, did they removed the SIDE of the maus for you to see?, how?, when walking around all i could see was a solid side plate!(or maybe it was a paint trick).

short show on the front: http://youtu.be/bOgt8dWXS4Q

sorry my digicam only films SD res


you should have also posted the front pictures of the maus showing the holes left by the soviet penetration testings!

Also, y u not photo IS4!, hahahaha

[CCC_Dober]

Chief I know exactly what you mean, not being able to go around them and 'read the manual'. Some years ago I was able to visit the Imperial War Museum in London as part of an exchange. You could easily get around (and even inside some) vehicles. The collection wasn't limited to tanks but had a broad spectrum ranging from simple firearms over smaller armored vehicles, tanks, airplanes and some real big hardware. You are greeted by 2 gigantic battleship cannons at the entrance, which I found to be rather intimidating tbph. Interestingly, these in turn were also dwarfed in size by the monstrous german railgun. If you happen to be close to London by chance, might just pay them a visit and see what's on offer =)

[vit12345]

I want the Obj-770 in the 5th pic of the 1st spoilerhttp://forum.worldoftanks.com/public/style_emoticons/default/Smile_Default.gif