COBI Vickers A1E1 Independent Set 2990

COBI's Vickers A1E1 Independent is a 1:35 model built from 887 blocks, 21.5 cm long, developed with The Tank Museum. All five turrets rotate — a main turret with a 3-pounder gun and four smaller ones with Vickers machine guns. A British tanker figure with a printed Royal Tank Regiment badge is included, plus a plate carrying the set name and the museum's logo.

One man cannot command five turrets

The multi-turret idea looked unanswerable on paper. A tank with guns facing every direction could engage several targets at once and could not be flanked.

In practice it failed on a human problem rather than a mechanical one. The commander had to decide what each turret should shoot at, tell each gunner, and keep track of five separate engagements while also directing the driver — through the noise of a tank, on intercoms that barely worked. Nobody could do it. The turrets ended up firing at whatever their individual gunners could see, which is not the same thing as a coordinated tank.

The vehicle was also enormous, which made it a target, and expensive, which is why Britain built exactly one. That single prototype is at Bovington.

Everyone copied it anyway

The Soviet T-28 and T-35 and the German Neubaufahrzeug all appeared in the following years with layouts strikingly close to the Independent's, and design solutions from it turned up in the British Medium Mark III and Cruiser Mark I. Every one of those programmes ran into the same problem and was abandoned.

Specifications

Pieces: 887 · Figures: 1 · Scale: 1:35 · Five rotating turrets · Developed with The Tank Museum
Model dimensions: 21.5 × 8 × 8 cm (8.5 × 3.1 × 3.1 in)