**** DONE: 1/48 Fw190 D-9 white 12 Jg301 - Your Favorite Aircraft of All Time GB

[rochie]

Cool stuff mate!

I was very sorry when they replaced the trusty 'Slar' with Steyr AUGs in NZ (1992). The reason given was the shorter length being better for bush combat, but we were informed economic logic had a large play in it (wounded soldiers cost money, dead ones don't).
Being semi-autos, no Slars were allowed to be sold on the NZ market either, so they all went to Oz - along with the remaining Brens (I could have cried...)

Btw, did you guys call the GPMG 'Gimpies' aswell?

yes we did, though i called it other names when ever i had to carry one !!!!!!!

 

[A4K]

Never had that misfortune, only had one in my hands once during weapons introduction on the recruit course.

 

[Airframes]

Yep, a whole new dictionary was invented when carrying the 'Gimmpy'. Got a pic of me somewhere, looking like a Mexican bandit, with a GPMG and ammo belts draped all over me !

 

[A4K]

Eat your heart out, Rambo!

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Thank you guys.

 

[rochie]

Yep, a whole new dictionary was invented when carrying the 'Gimmpy'. Got a pic of me somewhere, looking like a Mexican bandit, with a GPMG and ammo belts draped all over me !

had one similar of me Terry but without the tache !!!!!! i do wish i still had all my pics and stuff from many moons ago

 

[Airframes]

Careful mate, or they'll be calling us "The Two Amigos Desperados"!

 

[A4K]

We already do...woops! Did I say that out loud..??

How's the Dora 9 coming Karl?

 

[Vic Balshaw]

I miss my 7.62 SLR...(Great rifle!)

Great work so far Karl!

Bu**er me I must be old, I was weaned on the good old Lee Enfield .303 and then we had to hold the rounds in our pockets, didn't get my hand on an SLR until the early 70s.

 

[A4K]

How did you like her Vic, and how come you didn't get the large ammo pouches?

Btw, had a Savage built No.4 Mk.I myself till it got stolen (fully wooded, no. NZ46168 ). Still got her mags, slipper clip and pig spike bayonet which they didn't take for some reason.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Even, we had to do aircraft guard with the .303 and were given 5 rounds of ammo in a clip which we had to keep in our pockets. Sad thing is the locals (I was in Aden) were shooting at us with rockets and mortar and were not allowed to load up unless given the order. The RAF Regiment (Rock Apes) were the lucky ones who had the new sparkling SLR.

Sorry Karl, I'm stealing your thread. I'll stay mum from now on, honest.

 

[A4K]

What an experience Vic!

Sorry Karl, the hijacking is my fault...back to your build progress intsead.

 

[Lucky13]

Well?

 

[Zaggy]

I was very sorry when they replaced the trusty 'Slar' with Steyr AUGs in NZ (1992). The reason given was the shorter length being better for bush combat, but we were informed economic logic had a large play in it (wounded soldiers cost money, dead ones don't).
Being semi-autos, no Slars were allowed to be sold on the NZ market either, so they all went to Oz

And then some idiot, gave a bunch of near-sighted fear-mongers the perfect excuse to ban our semi's too... So all those beautiful old SLR's (Basically a semi auto FN FAL for our American Friends or a C1 to our Canadian Buddies or an L1A1 to the rest of the Commonwealth) ended up being conviscated (with some reimbursement), cut up and melted down!

Ironically, in the last few years we've been moving back to .308W/7.62NATO for Designated Marksmen Rifles and when that longer reach is required (in Australia, in the form of the SR-25 and now the HK417); not to mention the fact that the F88's never really caught on in certain parts of Army (like SASR, 1CDO, 2CDO, etc), where things like the M4A5 reign. Personally, I like the move back towards .308W/7.62NATO - in the right platform, its DAMN accurate at 900m. But this is straying off topic

 

[Zaggy]

had a Savage built No.4 Mk.I myself till it got stolen

Ah the SMLE; that rifle is a work of art! Ok, we'll over look the war-time TWO-groove Barrel and the lack of detachable mag, but as a looker - yeah! And go that step further with the No.4 Mk.I(T) with the No.32 Mk.II or Mk.III scope and thats a rifle to be VERY proud of! Lets face it, that action ROCKED - it was fast, smooth and unbreakable... So much so since the first world war, Lee Enfield action sniper rifles were replaced with MORE Lee Enfield action sniper rifles. And even when we FINALLY dusted off .303 (.303 British for our American friends) and replaced it with 7.62NATO, what did we do with out Lee Enfield actions??? Rechambered them for 7.62NATO and called them the L42A1 - and those things were STILL being issued in Gulf War Pt1...

Of course the L42A1 was replaced by the EXCELLENT Parker Hale M82 (yeah, thats on my list of 'wants', after I finish my AI-AW project) based on the equally long lived Mauser 98 action, with some modern tricks (in fact, there are a surprising number of Mauser 98 based actions still active in Target Rifle)... Its only in the last 25 years we've really made any serious improvements over the Mauser 98 and Lee Enfield actions, seemingly starting with Accuracy International (for my money the BEST Bolt-guns in the world) and more recently, custom action makers.

Yep, still off topic...

 

[Crimea_River]

Is there a model in here somewhere?

 

[A4K]

Hope so, some great rifles to think of in the meantime anyway

That's a tragic end to the Aussie Slars btw...was it because of that the surfer idiot in Tazzy?

 

[Zaggy]

Hope so, some great rifles to think of in the meantime anyway

That's a tragic end to the Aussie Slars btw...was it because of that the surfer idiot in Tazzy?

Afraid so - we still have a small, but pretty strong Full-bore, F-class and Small-bore movement, but we'll probably never get our semi's back...

 

[A4K]

Nup. We have bank robbers to thank for them being banned in NZ too.

Btw, about that Tazzy idiot. My uncle met a soldier who was there - he said he saw him coming down the street with his rifle and could tell he'd flipped. He decided against suicidal heroics and quickly jumped behind a headstone when the shots started. He was sure rattled (understandably).

How's the model coming Karl, we're going to have start talking about the weather soon

 

[Zaggy]

Btw, about that Tazzy idiot. My uncle met a soldier who was there - he said he saw him coming down the street with his rifle and could tell he'd flipped. He decided against suicidal heroics and quickly jumped behind a headstone when the shots started. He was sure rattled (understandably).

Can't blame the man for that! If someone started cracking rounds off in my general direction and I was lacking an effective means by which to return fire, I too would seek to put as much solid mass between me and aforementioned Tazzie Idiot too! 'Suicidal Heroics' are only to be employed when you've run out of 'Sane Survival' measures!