Paintball tank
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Paintball tanks are mechanized vehicles used in various types of the sport of paintball, usually with the intent of military simulation. Paintball tanks are commonly used for woodsball and scenario paintball games. These props are often commonly referred to as 'Paintball Armored Vehicles' (PAV), or simply 'mechs'.
While then are many difrent appearances of PAV's out there, most all of them will fall into one of three major categories. The first is the 'heavy tanks', which are automobile-based machines which are typically the largest and heaviest tanks. 'Medium tanks', the second category, are typically built on smaller vehicles, such as a golf cart, or an ATV. There is a third category which contains what might be called light tanks, but these tend to be little more than glorified personal armor.
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[edit] General
Armament
Paintball tanks may be armed with anything from a single paintball marker to many paintball markers, even to carbon dioxide-powered cannons, usually grenade launchers but sometimes even rocket launchers.
Markers used are usually trained upon the players of the opposing team, while the cannons are used primarily against the paintball tanks of the opposing team. The markers can pretty much be any marker available. The air cannons on the other hand can be a bit more ambiguous.
Many different types of projectiles have been used over the years under many various circumstances. In the early years of paintball tanks the 'tank cannon' was simply a PVC cannon that shot a load of paintballs that were typically a special color to indicate they were a cannon load. These days the use of such paintball loads has declined and Nerf Pocket Rockets seem to be the most common projectile used for tank cannons. These Nerf cannons though are hardly the only version of tanks' main cannons out there. Most field owners and scenario game producers will only allow paintball or Nerf firing cannons.
An illustrative example of the variety tank cannons' ammunition is that even Hostess Twinkies have been used for the purpose. Relatively new to paintball tanks is the formal adoption in some locations of 'marker based' cannons. This is a paintball marker that uses a special color paint like the older paintball load cannons but unlike their older cousins these are nothing more than a regular paintball marker that only shoots a single paintball at a time. Due to their very nature these newer marker based cannons may be considered to be the safest form of tank cannon available.
Rules and Game Involvement
Paintball tanks usually have special rules to adhere to for each event. These rules change from field to field and from scenario producer to scenario producer. For example some places will not allow PUG style tanks and some will not allow the automotive heavy tanks. Speed limit rules are generally considered among the more important rules for paintball tanks, especially the heavy tanks. The variations of rules that concern paintball tanks is really only limited to the number of fields out there that use paintball tanks.
[edit] Heavy tanks
Heavy tanks are relatively rarer than tanks of the other two brackets. This is due to the very high degree of involvement in their construction, maintenance, et cetera. These tanks are usually owned by one or more devoted individuals. They put a lot of time, money and effort into them and take pride in their creations.
[edit] Medium tanks
Of the three tanks a player may encounter on the field the medium tank is probably the most common. Being built on anything that moves it is not uncommon to see golf carts, ride on lawn mowers (even professional landscaping mowers), ATVs (of all types from the typical four wheeler to the rarer multi wheel 'Argo style' vehicles), go-karts, wheel chairs and occasionally a true tracked vehicle such as a Cushman trackster. Some highly skilled individuals have gone as far as completely building their paintball vehicle from scratch.
[edit] Light tank
Despite their small stature and light armament, the light tank section of the paintball tank family is quite possibly the closest to their real life counter parts when it comes to the way they are used tactically and strategically in paintball battles. This is due to the fact that like real tanks PUGs can usually go anywhere on the field since they do not have to worry about running over a paintball player hiding under some leaves the way a medium—or even more importantly, a heavy tank—needs to worry.
[edit] Rules
Due to the risk of death or injury to people or property, extreme caution and care must be taken while using the tank. The game of paintball is meant to be a safe alternative to real Combat. so every tank in the field must follow these rules.
Note: these rules are meant to serve as a general guideline, and may differ depending on where you play.
1. tanks must be accompanied by ref or a neutral "tank-walker".
2. ref must have remote ignition cutoff switch in case of emergency (ie: rc remote control)(note: this rule is no longer practiced anywhere and is, itself, considered an extremely dangerous modification. This poorly concieved rule was only required by one insurance agent, who no longer insures paintball tanks.)
3. ref must have walkie talkie communication at least with tank
4. tanks can shoot guns in semi auto mode only with one shot per trigger pull
5. tanks may travel no faster than walking speed
6. tank owner and operator must have liability insurance of at least $300,000 and name the field owner and promoter as additional insured one week prior to event. ( can be purchased from insurance agent for off road use only)
no mortars shot out of tank 1. mortars are not allowed on NPA insured fields as the danger of knocking off a mask is too high and the price of an eye is too high.
Laws rockets or similar toys 1. rockets or similar toys may be used against buildings or tanks only to eliminate only if no human beings are around. Can be shot at the building to destroy but not thru windows to eliminate players. At no time may one of these be pointed and fired towards players. Ref control is mandatory over players with these items.
