RE: Name that doodad, greeble, keg of beer, or whatever.

Ndege Diamond wrote:
> ... Anyone else had the flash problem?

Yep -- most of my DSII figures are Geo-Hex "Future Wars", and there has
always been a surprisingly large chunk of flash on the back ends of the
vehicles.

> The thing is that they both have a thing on the front that looks like
a
> 55 gallon oil drum.  ... The big question is what could they possibly
be?

Why, it's obviously part of the grav-field generator! 

The AFV manufacturer, BAT Industries, sub-contracted the grav engines
for
those vehicles to Constellar Planetary Engine Works. CPEW was one of the
leaders in developing grav technology, and those vehicles used the
Type-42
Dual-Vector Anti-Grav Propulsion System, their first generation of grav
engines.

The Type-42 Dual-Vector engine (42DV) consists of two anti-grav devices;
one
pointing downward which creates the "levitation" effect, and one pointed
forward which creates velocity. When the forward anti-grav device is
activated, it creates a miniature gravity well in front of the vehicle,
into
which the vehicle is constantly "falling" as it moves forward.
Deceleration
is accomplished by reversing the field, and turning the vehicle is
accomplished by pivoting the field generator inside the "barrel".

The "barrel" is an armored container for the forward anti-grav device.
The downward anti-grav device is contained in a similar barrel below the
vehicle. Due to the nature of the forces involved in generating
anti-gravity
fields, BAT Industries decided that the crew would be best protected by
mounting the anti-grav devices outside the vehicle. The more recent
versions
of anti-grav AFVs use better shielding for the crew compartment, which
allows the grav engines to be mounted inside the hull.

Later generations of grav engines use the Multi-Vector Anti-Grav
Propulsion
System, which combines all the necessary anti-grav devices into a single
generator.

-- Rick Rutherford