UK Phantom STGB - 30 Aug to 30 Nov 2025

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

10 minutes ago, Captain Glumbo said:

Count me in too - will be doing FG.1 Phantom No.111 Squadron, Royal Air Force Leuchars, Scotland, September 1989

Now on the current list which is in the post directly above you. 

[Retired Bob]

Received my ResKit 1/48th MJ-4 3D printed kit today, most of you will be saying "What?"

It was a specialised vehicle designed to load weapons onto the Phantom, the RAF had a couple for each squadron, it was know as the armourers taxi and I'll be adding it to my Phantom build.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

3 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

Received my ResKit 1/48th MJ-4 3D printed kit today, most of you will be saying "What?"

It was a specialised vehicle designed to load weapons onto the Phantom, the RAF had a couple for each squadron, it was know as the armourers taxi and I'll be adding it to my Phantom build.

 

aka "Jammer" .   

[Retired Bob]

1 minute ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

aka "Jammer" .   

Yes, all I need now is 1/48th scale, 23 year old figure of me to operate it with a SUU-23 gun pod on the head, ready to load to the centreline station of a 19(F) Sqn Phantom. 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

1 minute ago, Retired Bob said:

Yes, all I need now is 1/48th scale, 23 year old figure of me to operate it with a SUU-23 gun pod on the head, ready to load to the centreline station of a 19(F) Sqn Phantom. 

 

Luxury!   Plumbers on Tornado squadrons had the Type W ("Wendy") loader which was a British built equivalent of the jammer.   The Jaguar fraternity had the V loader.  But the rest of us poor sods on Harrier squadrons had the R loader.  I can't tell you how many times I put my back out trying to crank the engine of that damn thing!!!    Mind you, it was still better than the Y loader.  That was just pure evil!    Just like a Tesco shopping trolley, it always had one wheel which was knackered...  

[Retired Bob]

52 minutes ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

Luxury!   Plumbers on Tornado squadrons had the Type W ("Wendy") loader which was a British built equivalent of the jammer.   The Jaguar fraternity had the V loader.  But the rest of us poor sods on Harrier squadrons had the R loader.  I can't tell you how many times I put my back out trying to crank the engine of that damn thing!!!    Mind you, it was still better than the Y loader.  That was just pure evil!    Just like a Tesco shopping trolley, it always had one wheel which was knackered...  

We didn't just use jammers for Phantom weapon loading, there were R loaders to put the Sparrow/Sky Flash on and off, but we couldn't use the diesel engine in a HAS, so it was manual pump all the time.  On Buccaneers we had R loaders and Y loaders, strike weapons were loaded with Y loaders, they were changed for strike loading by adding a bonding lead (and all the wheels worked).  My last tour on Tornado F3 with the W loader, it was more reliable than the Jammer but not as versatile.