"Kids run after us like we're the ice cream man when we take it out"

April 8, 2008 8:25 AM

College student builds a tank.

Some more home made tanks:
Homebuilt FT17 / M1917 3/4 Scale Tank Newsreel
1/5 Scale Sherman Tank
And this outlier.

posted by Burhanistan (39 comments total)

College students have a tank? Well, clearly the solution to the potential danger this poses is to give every college student a tank, perhaps concealed, so that they can respond to any potential tank-based violence with the appropriate force.

Charleston Heston, we need your uncompromising vision now more than ever!
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:30 AM on April 8, 2008 [6 favorites]

"Kids run after us like we're the ice cream man when we take it out"

Probably because it is Tank No. 420.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:33 AM on April 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

fun thing to do and probably a great way to get into the right college program (hey, beats a cv) but did he have to build a wwII nazi tank?
posted by krautland at 8:40 AM on April 8, 2008

wwII nazi tank

I see your point, but I think I can excuse it on the grounds of AWESOME!
posted by Bookhouse at 8:44 AM on April 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

That'll show all the rich kids who had to have their parents by them tanks!
posted by brevator at 8:48 AM on April 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

by=buy
posted by brevator at 8:48 AM on April 8, 2008

I know it would have been less interesting, but I would have liked it better if it were a fishtank. Sigh.
posted by bettafish at 8:49 AM on April 8, 2008

I know it would have been less interesting, but I would have liked it better if it were a fishtank. Sigh.
posted by bettafish at 8:49 AM on April 8 [+] [!

Eponysterical?
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:52 AM on April 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Panzer parking. Violators will be totaled.

This gives me hope for the future of our country, if/and not its college fraternities. This FPP is full of air-pressurized awesome.
posted by not_on_display at 8:55 AM on April 8, 2008

He's so matter-of-fact in the video. 'Yeah, I pretty much built a tank. It was alright. Well, time for lunch.'
posted by echo target at 8:57 AM on April 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

I wasted my time in college.
posted by Pecinpah at 9:01 AM on April 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

He's simply exercising his right to bear build arms.
posted by LordSludge at 9:01 AM on April 8, 2008

That kid is gonna have to beat off Nazi hookers with a STICK!
posted by Dizzy at 9:01 AM on April 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

probably a great way to get into the right college program

through the wall.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 9:06 AM on April 8, 2008 [5 favorites]

Take this manual. You'll need to know how to drive your tank. (from Tiger armor, via the munkey)
posted by boo_radley at 9:07 AM on April 8, 2008

posted by bettafish at 8:49 AM on April 8 [+] [!

Eponysterical?

Somewhat, but not as much as this:

but did he have to build a wwII nazi tank?
posted by krautland
posted by Burhanistan at 9:13 AM on April 8, 2008 [4 favorites]

'Its camouflaged plywood exterior'

So no chance of a killdozer style rampage then? Pity.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:16 AM on April 8, 2008

Here's another sort of outlier for you.

That lazy guy simply refused to make his own tank, so he stole one and took it for a crazed ride through San Diego, California.
posted by redteam at 9:17 AM on April 8, 2008

fun thing to do and probably a great way to get into the right college program (hey, beats a cv)...

Well he's been in a college engineering program of his choosing since 2006.

But, yes, it has already landed him a summer job.

"After listing [the tank] on his resume Foster was recruited by armored vehicle maker Force Protection Inc. for a summer co-op job that he starts this month."

posted by ericb at 9:21 AM on April 8, 2008

This seems ready made for some aspiring college filmmaker to take, and do an avant-garde style crossover, I'm thinking Revenge of the Nerds meets Band of Brothers.

Perhaps Revenge of Easy Company: Nerds in Paradise or some such.
posted by quin at 9:26 AM on April 8, 2008

did he have to build a wwII nazi tank?

I'm at least as anti-Nazi as the next person, but everyone knows that the Nazis had the best tanks. They were vile, mass-murdering scumbags, sure. But they made awesome tanks.
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:27 AM on April 8, 2008

Redteam's video made me want to go play Grand Theft Auto again.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:37 AM on April 8, 2008

I don't suppose it would be well-advised to draw a distinctions between the Wehrmacht and the Nazis at this point, would it?

Yeah, probably not worthwhile to go there.
posted by Flem Snopes at 9:39 AM on April 8, 2008

Marzipan is chunky, moldable goodness you can eat.
Play-Dough is chunky, moldable goodness that will make you sick if ingested.

Question:

Is Marzipan
a) The Wehrmacht, or
b) The Nazis?
posted by Dizzy at 9:58 AM on April 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

i'm curious why the URL is "..../post_moto_kid_death_story_here.html"

moto kid death story?
posted by rmd1023 at 10:23 AM on April 8, 2008

Two fish are in a tank.

One turns to the other and says...

Do you know how to drive this thing?
posted by cosmac at 10:35 AM on April 8, 2008

SAT test: Given that it typically took four Shermans to knock out a Tiger, how many 1/5-scale Shermans would it take to knock out this half-scale Tiger?

everyone knows that the Nazis had the best tanks

Tell that to the Russians.
posted by stargell at 10:44 AM on April 8, 2008

When I was in college, I built a bong.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:59 AM on April 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Killdozer.
posted by Relay at 11:25 AM on April 8, 2008

Generation Kill -- "Marines call exagerated displays of enthusiasm --- from shouting Get some! to waving American flags, to covering their bodies with Marine Corps tattoos--- "moto"."
posted by acro at 11:35 AM on April 8, 2008

SAT test: Given that it typically took four Shermans to knock out a Tiger, how many 1/5-scale Shermans would it take to knock out this half-scale Tiger?

10? Unless we're getting into volumetrics, and I just don't want to deal with it then.
posted by LionIndex at 11:35 AM on April 8, 2008

rmd, I noticed that too. Confusing, perhaps wrong story placement?
posted by phyrewerx at 11:53 AM on April 8, 2008

Kalamazoo's 1/2 scale model of Poland just got very fucking nervous.
posted by jimmythefish at 12:06 PM on April 8, 2008 [7 favorites]

Tell that to the Russians.

Ah, the Nazi's still had the best tanks... just that Ruskies where a hell of a lot easier to build and maintain. And they built a hell of a lot of them.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:14 PM on April 8, 2008

This is a sterling example of why you should always try to live in a college town, as close to campus as possible. Yes, the kids can be annoying, and they always want you to free Tibet or not eat something. But it's so much safer.

The campus cops at my school were pretty much all retired NYPD who had moved down to Florida and were doing this to supplement their pensions. I'm sure they all thought we were idiots, but we thought they were Awesome!! Absolutely NOTHING fazed these guys. No matter what dipshit stuff people got into, they'd just shake their heads and make sure order was maintained. Unlike the local cops, who were SWAT-crazy psychopaths.

One of my fondest memories of college was the campus cops actually STANDING OFF against the locals when someone got wigged out on something highly illegal, running around shrieking and freaking out, and the local PD had chased him back onto campus. He was hiding in some odd corner of a dorm somewhere, and the campus cops would not let them pursue him onto campus for fear they'd shoot him, or other students would intervene and it would all go tits up. They held their line, didn't let the locals on campus and went in and brought the guy out themselves. But it was pretty tense for a minute. They were fucking amazing guys in retrospect.

My point being that in any number of non-college towns, when someone went "holy shit a tank" and called the cops, this guy would have ended up shot in the head just to make sure.
posted by Naberius at 2:05 PM on April 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Ah, the Nazi's still had the best tanks... just that Ruskies where a hell of a lot easier to build and maintain. And they built a hell of a lot of them.

Especially in Chelyabinsk, also known as Tankograd.

A city built more-or-less from scratch by Stalin, using machinery from disassembled factories loaded onto trains as the Germans advanced, Tankograd churned out T-34s around the clock.

This enabled the Russians to field 3,600 tanks against the Germans' 2,700 in the decisive battle of Kursk, the largest armoured battle in history, and effectively the final nail in Hitler's coffin after the German defeat at Stalingrad.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:07 PM on April 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

You have to wonder who or what he shoots the paintballs at, and I'm thinking it's guys on Segways.
posted by Tube at 5:20 PM on April 8, 2008

You have to wonder who or what he shoots the paintballs at, and I'm thinking it's guys on Segways.

Actually guys in golf carts (as stated in the article and video clip).
posted by ericb at 5:23 PM on April 8, 2008

but did he have to build a wwII nazi tank?

Probably because it's fairly square. Easier to replicate with plywood.
posted by Harald74 at 2:31 AM on April 9, 2008