The Great Bronze Bunny of Ouargistan El-Ahrairah Soon after the debut of the first landships, Rajah Rabiid, the somewhat addled but forward-looking potentate of Bunrabia, ordered the frame and machinery for the El-Ahrairah from Christiewerke of Germany, and had local craftsmen fashion a hull in the shape of a giant rabbit, an animal which the Rajah venerated. The hull was fabricated of cast bronze and reinforced inside with iron bands, a combination which made the vehicle nearly invulnerable to the jezails of Rabiid's tribal enemies, but which proved woefully inadequate when the Ahrairah came to face the heavy guns of the European land ironclads. Mechanically she was rather similar to SMGS Wilhelmina von Holstein, the main difference being that the single gun, instead of traversing through a slit in the rounded shield, was barbette-mounted to fire out of either eye of the rabbit's face.

Click for larger version

Construction El-Ahrairah's hull is made from a blow-molded plastic candy basket that David found for pennies at the after-Easter sale in the local crafts superstore. The handle was removed and the eyes cut out to function as gunport covers. The hull was painted with a mixture of gold and bronze acrylics and weathered with red-brown and green. A foamcore deck was added, with a windowscreen grating. The treads are full-width pedrail type made from scored plastic sheet with turned wooden toy wheels and a piece of plastic for the bogie frame, fancied up with a dress-catch from the sewing shop.The stack is topped off with a decorative wooden turning, painted bronze. El-Ahrairah is 3" (76mm) from tail to the tip of its cute little bunny nose. It stands 2.8" (71mm) tall, not counting the stack. The bunny sphinxes are the hard-plastic tops from even smaller candy-holders found at the same post-Easter sale.

RETURN to the Landships Page

RETURN to the Major General's Page

Copyright©1998 David Helber. No commercial distribution of images or text from any page on this site without written permission.