Talk:Kugelpanzer

Comments
A free illustration can be found at ru:File:Mashina nabludatelya.JPG --Ghirla-трёп- 00:38, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

I've edited most of the "info" on this off, since the page listed is not credible source and spots no sources inside the page.

Can anyone find any reliable sources for this? It clearly exists, but the page cited is of very suspect reliability, and the text is very, very similar to the article. Bart133 t c @ 17:51, 5 August 2010 (UTC)
 * text very close - could be interpreted as copyvio. GraemeLeggett (talk) 06:41, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

negative description
"The Kugelpanzer is simply listed as Item #37 and is painted gloss gray." "no metal samples are allowed to be taken from it"

Isn't it really negative description of the museum? I mean all museums are enlisting items, however part of Kubinka collection is described here like "unique artifact lost to the civilized world". If you wanted to mention Kubinka, you could say something about great job they are doing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.70.158.137 (talk) 03:05, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Not a negative description. It just illustrates how little information is available about the artefact. 88.217.46.80 (talk) 05:45, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

Request for deletion
There is no way that this contraption could ever be considered viable by anyone with the slightest bit of sense. Witness the welds holding the wheels onto the chassis. Not a hoax, merely a folly. The mayor of Yurp (talk) 23:52, 29 April 2016 (UTC)


 * On second thoughts, I reckon the Kugelpanzer is likely to be a crudely made hoax. In any case, there aren't any reliable sources available to me at the moment, and the only one listed in the article is self-published. Even the Russian wiki page expresses doubts about the vehicle's provenance and lists only two Web sources; one is a flight of fancy article and the other refuses to load.


 * Here is the machine translation of the Russian wiki article:

''Machine observer «Kugelpanzer» (it «Kugelpanzer», «tank-ball.") - A light armored vehicle, designed in the Third Reich in the 1930s, allegedly by Krupp. According to the staff of the museum in Kubinka armor, machine is designed as a mobile observation post to adjust artillery fire. As of 2009, the origin and destination of the machine is not precisely determined. Kugelpanzer equipped with radio, weapons are not established. Housing welded closed. To enter the cabin hatch installed in the stern. The housing is supported on two driven wheels and rear wheel steering. In front, at the level of a seated eye, it is an observation slit. At the present time it remained the only copy in the armored museum in Kubinka. The armored car was made in Japan, and was captured by Soviet troops in 1945 in Manchuria (according to other sources [1] [2] - captured on kummersdorf Wehrmacht with superheavy "Mouse"). It is an experimental model. Participation in the fighting did not take.''

Going to have to be bold and delete all unsourced content. The mayor of Yurp (talk) 20:26, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

Not agreeing to page deletion, the artefact obviously exists. But yes, could easily be a hoax. There's no reliable source/information about any of the claims (1. built by Nazi Germany, 2. in the 1930s, 3. exported to Japan, 4. used by Kwantung army, 5. captured by the Soviets, 6. in Manchuria). The only sources currently listed are (citing here for reference): https://books.google.com/books?id=s09yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT285 Hitler's Secret Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Nazis' Plan for Final Victory, Michael FitzGerald, September 10, 2018, publisher: Arcturus Publishing "...the Germans pioneered a small one-man tank with a spherical shape known as the Kugelpanzer. There is little hard data on this project, but the tank finished it's journey in Manchuria and was captured by the Soviets. It remains in a Moscow museum and has never been examined by any scientists outside Russia. There is no record of it having been involved in conflict and it remains a fascinating enigma. ..." The book references no source here. Being written in 2018, the source could easily be Wikipedia itself. https://books.google.com/books?id=iM-CDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT137 Modelling German WWII Armoured Vehicles, Robin Buckland, January 21, 2019, The Crowood Press "...the little one-man tank design, the Kugelpanzer ('Ball tank'). At least one of these was actually built and resides in the Russian collection at Kubinka. There is a 1/72 resin model of it in the range from Attack Hobby Kits ..." The book references no source for it's claim that "one of these was actually built". Being written in 2019, the source could easily be Wikipedia itself. Otherwise the book is about scale model kits. 88.217.46.80 (talk) 07:08, 15 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Those books could equally be sourced not from wikipedia - Buckland has been covering scale models for years. GraemeLeggett (talk) 09:50, 15 December 2020 (UTC)