AMMS Brisbane has a project running to document surviving military equipment. There are some walkarounds of Queensland WW1 guns in the Artillery section of this forum. The Queensland Museum has the only surviving A7V tank - #506 "Mephisto" - a walkaround seemed like a reasonable idea.
It's very difficult to get images of Mephisto because it's against a wall inside a glass enclosure.
Thanks, Charlie. These are some of the best detail shots I've seen on the subject. I'm not sure why they feel it necessary to enclose in glass, that is, unless its hermetically sealed :)
I think the glass is mostly to keep the weather off the tank - it's a reasonably recent addition - the tank used to sit in an alcove beside the museum entrance until about 10 years ago. The floor the tank sits on has various scraps of WW1 barbed wire and other stuff intended perhaps to give some context to the tank.
Personally I'd rather it was behind glass than left out in the open which was its fate when it first got to Brisbane. There's a photo from the 1920s in the walkaround - the central cupola isn't on the tank so I guess it was open to the weather for many years. The cartoon on the side of the A7V in the old photo was drawn by Australian troops as a reply to the German Mephisto cartoon on the front of the tank. Unfortunately this has been lost over the years although the Mephisto cartoon has survived - although how accurate it is compared to the original is a moot point.
Agreed, Charlie. Best behind glass than in the weather. I couldn't tell if the reflection was from being outside or opposite large windows. I presume from your response that it is the former.
