Mick Modeller

It was sooooo funny one bloke wasn't going to be taught "how to do his work by an effin Tick-Tock", however when I was escorted into the workshop we witnessed a 432 practically airborne by its pack frame!!! I think I did 4 or 5 a day, in a line, when I got one pack out went to the next and so on, by the time I had the last pack out they had the 1st ready to be put back and so on. It only took 2 or at most 3 days to do all the jobs required. But I had to show them silly mods, like the one for the 5th pack bolt where you made a 4" x 3" plate to easily get at the bolt rather than having to take the whole transverse gearbox cover off to get at one bolt. That said my wagons never had the 5th bolt fitted, but I could never say that...... There was some corps pride as I said earlier, but for the most part the lads were more than happy to save a couple of days work! The only point when I did pack work was that when finished the tiffy bloke would inspect and sign off. If you want to see embarassment, what do you think of this???? And yes it is true, how we made hay with this one.......

I like those sort of books, although the well written ones are a bit spookey as what they describe could happen. I remember the first i read describing a Milan section led my L/Sgt Patterson, some what spookily we had a L/Sgt Patterson........in the Anti-Tanks. Did wonders for sales. I've read three versions of the same basic narrative, First Clash, WWIII & WWIII The Untold Story, all set slight earlier than my offering. Aye, I was never Ruin Everything Mainly Engines, although I did a quiet one by teaching/lifting K60 packs for an MBT REME, slightly embarassing for the unit concerned, but as one of their said at the time "Don't have the time to do small jobs". I got 4 or 5 reverse handbags for that job, arriving every morning in my own 432, for a unit that rarely saw mobile 432s it was a bit of a shock to their systems...... I bleed Blue-Red-Blue.

As an additional explanation of military peculiarities, Battalion sized military unit is commanded by a CO (Commanding Officer (Sunray)), however in terms authority there is one on the Bn who is of far higher authority than Sunray. The Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) aka GOD (on Earth), While the Sunray can apply to speak to GOD, the RSM has a direct line and often tells God (in Heaven) what is going to happen. The rank of Drill Sergeant is one that outside of training establishments is a peculiarity of the Guards, each Bn having two Drill Sergeants. Apart from the obvious Drill Sgts are chosen for their accuracy with a Pace Stick (Military Measuring Device) being able to strike an idle soldier at great distances with a thrown pace stick! Additionally they had to have a huge registry of (often crude) phrases (read ARRSE) guaranteed to snap any idle soldiers into instant compliance! They are also God’s deputies passing Gods pleasure or (more often) displeasure to the troops. It is difficult to explain to civilians the close affinity enjoyed by soldiers (current & retired), we may slag the feck out of each other, but when the poo hits the fan all else goes out the window. I was critically injured and when I returned to Bks several weeks later, the first person to meet me, embraced me in tears. Several weeks earlier we'd faught each other to a standstill, try finding that in civilian life. And finally something on topic. In my version of history, God and his deputies would supply the commanders of the 0D, 0E & 0F MBTs to command troop, their job being to provide overwatch for the command group, enabling Sunray to move when he wanted. Effectively Sunrays close protection party.

Long-haired General.....

Hi Mate, Cheers for the input. Kharkiv is the Ukrainian (current) spelling for Kharkov, in the same way Kyiv is Kiev in Ukrainian. Ukrainian independence has changed many place names and becoming more and more common, and is current Ukrainian policy, I visit Ukraine quite often, which gives grounds for some of my description and spelling. "Yellow Handbags" were 6 packs of Herforder Pils and applied correctly covered and eased a multitude of sins. It was a topical item and could be applied before (to encourage an early start to the work) or after work as a reward. My most common use of Yellow handbags was being a Command vehicle driver and when something went wrong I tended to lose my crew, therefore the fitter section coming to my aid tended to have a heavy application of Herforder. Feel free to ask for as many translations of "arcane" terms as you need, "Mil-talk" is difficult to understand and we do tend to return to habit at the slightest opportunity..... Best Mick

Malcolm do you have a link to these items? It would be a variation of what I'm doing, but would work in well.

Last I was in Bovvy they were using Chieftain and Cent ARVs for the museum, the Sherman is probably in the reserve collection, or possibly in Bordon. Sent you a link to some of my photos that you might find handy for T-64s, the first pics show a T-64R and T-64A (Rebuild). I'm also waiting for the Trumpeter kits, I intend to have a T-64B in the collection. I was planning to use two of the AA mechanic figures for the base and the 432 figures for driver and loader and for the commander I'm hoping to find the figure from the original Tamiya Challenger Mk3, you know the one wearing the DPM parka. I'm often in Kiev, so there's another excuse to go to Chernobyl and see what is still there.

Hi Malcolm, No worries for the waffling, we're basically on-topic and adds a bit to the subject. Yellow handbags, magical things!!! Nice avatar, never seen a T-64 DTT before, I've a T-64B & 72B on the long term plans, both dating to 1981-2. Yes, I do remember seeing something about an L60 a couple of years ago, but haven't seen since, the closest was a pack listed as L60, but it was a K60 pack, so somewhat different. Probably gone out of business, I'll ask around.

Hmmmmm, Definatelly Brit army then, Operating Chieftains with Cents for Recy Mechs, then Challenger 1s with Chieftain ARRVs for Recy......... In my day the Regts had Chieftains and FRG had Cents. :shithappens: I was 2 i/c my company fleet, which was Support Weapons + an Infantry Coy, 50+ tracks and with an umbarella merchant for a boss, meant that I was effectively the boss. But I was the Coy/Coy HQ Yellow Handbag supplier and I'd find myself nipping into the bosses office and saying "2 needed" "OK, nip up and collect them". Probably one of the reasons that with the exception of the Drums Plt my wagons stayed on the road. I even had drivers and in some cases crews who would work weekends to get things done properly, unbeatable. Maybe you can answer a question. How often did Chieftains get rebuilt?

Don't forget the yellow handbags Malcolm, guaranteed to sort manys a problem.....

Fair comments Graeme, but in my experiance, you rarely saw a broken down ARV, in my opinion a large part of this was the ARVs saw continual use, often towing a broken Chieftain! Work them hard and and once you've got over the initial probs they'll work. The Leo 1 & 2 thing was real embarassing one!!!! Try doing a 432 pack in the field from a 434! You gotta love German engineering though, my first memory was of a Sqdn of Leo 1A1A1s going past my Company and going faster uphill than 99% of mine could do on flat ground. Sorry I couldnt' find a better pic of the L60 pack, Found a couple of better pics.

Probably a little late to reply, but I'm pretty certain that the 747 and other aircraft in Dunsfold are owned by an organisation called Aces High and their business in renting etc aircraft & related objects for film & TV work. Aces High normally operate out of North Weald and I vaguely remember Weald being described as too small for the 747, but there could have been other reasons.

Hi Graeme, I'm not sure when you talk about Chieftain, until the early 80s I would probably wholeheartidly agree with you, however with the introduction of the 13A pack Chieftain seemed to have turned a corner. When I first worked with Chieftains (4 RTR) we had 3x Chieftains attached and throughout the excrcise had at best we had 1x Chieftain available! However about 6 months later we paired with the QRIH and formed a square CT. When the breakdowns came they arrived with an even spread across the group, both Chieftain & 432 and at the beginning of the exercise. Once the exercise got moving the clouds of smoke lessened and while breakdowns still happened, they became much less frequent and then at End-Ex gave a very creditable account of themselves on the race back to the washdown. Armoured vehicles all had the one nemesis, Track Mileage! My own vehicle had an annual mileage of 1000 miles, but in the last year through a plethora of reasons covered 2500+! But in that year she didn't breakdown once!! Early on her heat-exchanger sprung a leak, this was changed by me during a maintanance period! She did have 2x Pack-lifts, but these were for scheduled inspections. For the same reason Challenger 1 had a debatable history prior to Gulf 1, but once the vehicles began to cover milage the worries disappeared. What I am getting at is vehicles are meant to be used and not cossited in hangers for weeks or months on end! My own Drums Plt had spent 6 months on KAPE duties and hadn't touched their vehicles during this period. Shortly after they returned we had a tip-out and their vehicles ALL broke down before even getting out of Barracks, the last vehicle breaking down outside the CO's office a distance of 730m from its hanger! Does this sound like Chieftain? I will qualify my comments by saying that I was a D&M Instructor who covered app 10000m on 43-series and about 4-500m on Chieftain.

This one is going to be a bit of a maybe it could have happened as opposed to being a what if. 1982 Soviet Union covertly supports Argentina in the Falklands, Household Cavalry sinks Soviet Victor submarine north of Wireless Ridge whilst the submarine was evacuating Soviet advisors. Soviets retaliate by torpedoing HMS Hermes, however the laters armoured construction combined with the smaller warheads on modern torpedoes, leaves HMS Hermes damaged but still serviceable. The attacking submarine later believed to be another Soviet Victor class submarine is sunk by multiple torpedoes from HMS Broadsword and helicopters from HMS Hermes & Broadsword Soviet Union threatens retaliation, Soviet Military swears revenge. Britain & USA greatly expand and rush rearmament programmes, Challenger becomes new British MBT, Surplus Chieftains used to form new Armoured reserve, DRAC planning to reform 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th Bns of the Tank Regiment is overruled by Prime Minister who dictates that the Household Division will be the new armoured force, reforming the Guards Armoured Division. The new Division will see newly formed 3rd Bns of the Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots and 2nd Bn Irish Guards each becoming Chieftain Bns. January 1986 Soviet military rebels against its leadership and a coup disposes of civilian leadership, widespread unrest breaks out in Russia and satellite states, increased tension with USA, NATO & China, Late June 1986 Warsaw Pact attacks Europe. NATO suffers huge casualties slowing WarPac advances, in some areas losses exceed 50%. The first victory for NATO is the great Teutoberger Wald counterstroke aka The Battle of the Teutoberger Wald where the GAD with surviving units from numerous nations decimate the WarPac advance, NATO moral turns with the first victory, GAD and supporting forces rapidly re-capture lost ground. Shipboard units of US Army arrive in theatre, British and other units regroup into coherent fighting units. NATO invades East Germany and Czechoslovakia, CZ forces sign armistice and join NATO, Stiff fighting in East Germany, Honecker regime fights to almost the last bullet. GDR units begin to defect when NATO forces are within sight of Berlin. NATO moves straight into Poland, Polish Military and Civilians rebel against their Soviet masters, which is initially put down, but stronger forces are at work and soon Poland prevails, Soviet forces in Poland suffer a bloodbath at the hands of Poles which is described as being of biblical in proportion. Whole Soviet units flee west into the hands (& safety) of NATO forces. Baltic States raise against Soviet rule. NATO forces advance to Poland’s eastern borders in four days, NATOS biggest problem is fuel, but Polish people alleviate situation by guiding NATO forces to hidden WarPac fuel and ammo reserves. NATO decides to help Baltic States, but to do so and protect it decides to invade Belarus and Ukraine to secure its flanks. US led forces form two army groups attacking into the Baltic States and Belarus, British, German and Dutch forces form two army groups led by Britain, the latter largely for political reasons. After many years of crop failures and near starvation, resistance is relatively light, WARPACs best units lie in West German fields. Unrest hits Soviet Union, with no useful military units to protect them the Politburo collapses, Soviet Union collapses. Northern Army Group liberates Baltic States, Central (US) group captures most of Belarus, but still a dangerous salient exists. Advances in the south continue at an average of 50miles per day, Ukraine, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Georgia & Baltic States join NATO. NATO advances into autumn, its last advance sees German forces capturing Volgograd, heavy rains force an end to fighting until winter, however NATO is exhausted, forming a line from Estonia to Minsk, Homel, Bryansk, Voronezh, Volgograd, Rostov. NATO decides to wait and rearm for a spring offensive. March 1987 US 1st & 2nd (Reinforced) Army Groups and rout Russian & Belarus forces continuing into the Russian heartland to form a security zone. Britain's two army groups, now reinforced with two US Armd Divisions each and the new Ukrainian army drive into the Caucasus rapidly reaching its stop line of the Kazakh border in the east and meeting with advancing Georgian forces in the South. Russia’s new leaders realise that NATO is advancing no further and has no wish for a long war with Russia decides that it must save its eastern frontiers from the Chinese invasion accedes to NATO surrender terms. After a war lasting only 11 months, Europe once more finds peace. T3A of 2nd (Armd) Bn Irish Guards would achieve fame and honoured retirement as the only Chieftain to serve continually from the first shot to the last.

Devilfish, It is always a tricky subject and yes there won't be an awful lot of the donor kit being left....... But I also feel that if you are building a kit you should make it as good as possible, assuming that the add-ons are of sufficent quality. I agree with you TSR-2 is something special, it looks like an airplane, when you compare it with Tornado, the Tornado is a classic case of an aircraft designed by a committee...... If it were 10' longer it wuld have been a totally different plane and wouldnt' have needed that rediculously HUGE tail to give it direction stability. I remember days in West Germany and seeing fins flying low and fast which when they got a LOT closer merged into a Tornado.....

Thanks for the comments lads, it reminds me of things that i need warn Stiggie about. Always handy having a wealth of experiance of where you're going. If you check on Blue 30, I've just added my report on available Vympel R-27 missile AA-10 Alamos. Blue 30s arrived home and despite Stiggie's best packaging the royal mail went to town and the glue will be making an appearance to rectify damage. I'm waiting on Pag-14 plates, missile trollies etc to form the base and some more items to build the airfield base.

Appologies for the delay folks, but here's the promised pics of the Kazan Alamos. I'd say that the Brassin Alamos are the best, albeit without decals a major failure. Probably 2nd best in terms of detail and assembly. Coming 3rd, but very close behing the Miniarms, when you consider that you get 8 missiles, pylons and decals for missiles AND pylons, the 3rd place could be debatable. If the Brassin missiles came with decals the result would be without doubt for Brassin, but the Kazan missiles do make a one stop shop, whereas you'll need decals for the Brassin and Pylons and decals for the Miniarm. Of course if you've got the superb Bagemot Stencil Set you won't be too worried about missile stencils as one of the (3) sheets comes with plenty of missile stencils. The decision is yours.

Now that Flanker Blue 30 is trundling towards the finale the next project about to hit the stocks. Eduard detail bits. Pavla nosewheel bay & CMK canopy correction kits. CMK Exhausts and Airbrakes. Pavla Main wheel bay, Cockpit, Ejector seats & Dream Models Pitot Tube. CMK Wheels. CMK Electronics bay & Scale Aircraft Accs Landing Gear. CMK Control Surfaces set.

Hi Rob, Keep tuned I should be able to put a comparison shot or two of the Kazan Alamo's in the next day or two.

Hi All, Been away for a couple of days and the latest diorama part had arrived.

Hi All, More stuf arrived today. Have to say that I'm a huge fan of Brassin stuf, the model will eventually have 2x of each trolley. BTW, the AA-1 Alkali & B-8M1 Rocket launchers along with the Noy Minitures Pag-14 are surplus and I'm open to offers. Now onto the surplus to requirements section, no sooner had I bought these than I found another (& more flexible) alternative, although I still haven't received the resin Pag-14 plates, by coming as plates will be infinitely adaptable. That said the variant in the pictures is a superb choice for any Soviet/Post Soviet jets, the negative being that a Flanker will only just fit in the available size. More to follow.

Hi All, More bits arrived today.

Hi All, This time Eduard Brassin, Pt No. 648048. R-27T/T1 AA-10 Alamo-B Much the same as the Alamo-A listed just above, with the same pros and cons. The molding of these missiles was better than the Alamo-As, but again the details are superb Finally for this one Miniart, Pt No. A48002. R-27ET AA-10 Alamo-D Here we go a final missile left over from the initial build, you should be able to make a good comparison between the various missiles, sadly I forgot to take pictures of the fresh Kazan missiles, but I would say that the Brassin come first with the Kazan coming a close 2nd and the Miniart trailing in 3rd place, but I have to say that the resin missiles are leagues in front of anything that you can do with the kit missiles. Even after adding the Eduard PE missile set of which you'll need two to fully clothe a Flanker in missiles. I think that is all for now.

Hi All, This time Eduard Brassin, Pt No. 648043. R-27R/R1 AA-10 Alamo-A. Another superb set of add-ons, I was a little unfortunate in that my 4x missiles suffered from some mould lines, but the detail is very good, certainly better than the Miniarm Alamos, but sadly I haven't got the Kazan missiles to do a direct comparison. Each set comes with its dedicated PE fret. You also get a shedload of Launcher rails, 4x AKU-470 & APU-470s. The final addition are 4x Remove befor flight nose caps for the missiles, the down side is that these are solid resin and don't gfit over the the noses, relying on the modeller cutting off part of the missile nose. But being awkward I'm going to have a grovel to my Engineering Stig to see if he will condecent to making me some nose caps on his lathe..... Fingers crossed... The glaring ommission is that there aren't any decals, so it will be back to the trusty Begemot Flanker Family Stencil set.

Hi All, The next update, Aerobonus Pt No 480-024 R-73 (AA-11 Archer) missiles, these are the nicest that I've seen so far, the only thing that is missing is clear seeker-heads for the missiles. Nice set of decals to decal either live or drill missiles. The only slight issue being nose de-stabiliser fins, might end up using the PE items from the Eduard Missile set.