Paintball Tanks !?!

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".

An example of a medium paintball tank; note the Paintball Turret on the rear, the central air system on the hood, and the Paintball Marker ports on the side windows.

A Funtrak "Paintball Panzer"

Paintball tanks may be armed with anything from a single paintball marker to many paintball markers, carbon dioxide-powered cannons, grenade launchers and 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 are most often standard paintball markers places in shooting slots in the tank's armor. The air cannons on the other hand are not standard, and are often home-built to suit their particular use.

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, colloquially known as "Buckshot", that were typically a special color to indicate they were a cannon load. Recently, the use of buckshot has declined and Nerf Rockets have become the most common projectile used for tank cannons. These Nerf cannons though are not the only version of tanks' main cannons out there. Most field owners and scenario game producers will only allow indirect-fire paintball (Mortar) or Nerf firing cannons.

An illustrative example of the variety tank cannons' ammunition is that even Hostess Twinkies have been used for ammunition. Relatively new to paintball tanks is the use of "marker based" cannons. This is a paintball marker that uses a special color paint, much like the older paintball load cannons. However, unlike their older cousins these are nothing more than a regular paintball marker shooting a single odd-colored paintball. Due to their relatively safe 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 personal-armor ("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 only limited to the number of fields out there that use paintball tanks.

A heavy paintball tank at Oklahoma D-Day. It measures 12 feet wide, 9 feet high and 22 feet long (not counting the barrel).

Heavy paintball 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 paintball 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. Heavy paintball tanks are often built upon a truck chassis, with a smaller number built with a custom chassis. Common construction materials consist of plywood, with some using sheet metal for an outer shell.

A personal-armor ("PUG") light tank

Despite their small stature and light armament, the light paintball tank section of the paintball tank family is quite possibly the closest to their real life counterparts 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, light paintball tanks or "walkers" can usually go anywhere on the field because they do not have to worry about running over paintball players that are hiding under leaves the way a medium or a heavy paintball tank needs to worry. Walking paintball tanks such as the Panzer-Ultraleicht-Gepack (PUG) are also not subject to the insurance costs that can make a heavier tank prohibitively expensive to use, thus a team can field an entire squadron of tanks for little cost. The PUG bears only a passing resemblance to a real tank however, and in operation is more like very bulky body armor (hence the name "Ultralight Backpack Tank").