From: Think Tank Subject: Think Tank Vol.0082 15/07/2001 Think.tank@tesco.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS' INDEX 1: Staghound AA 2: Galaxy 3: Falklands CVR(T) 4: CVR[T]s in the Falkalnds 5: Re: Indo-China markings 6: Photograph posting to TT 7: Lost books 8: KERRS 9: Paypal 10: White Scout Car -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: New Tankette back issue rates -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Mike Cooper [coopmik1@hotmail.com] Subject: Staghound AA Dear All Now, that's interesting. I've got the World at War episode on tape, so I'll have to check. However, I picked up the old Almark book on US armoured cars (I'm building an NZ Staghound in Italy) and in the back there is a 1944 vintage Belgian Staghound AA. I'll root out details, but it's a rare beast both ways. Mike Cooper Reading UK I recall the Almark book and that is the only one I have seen with markings. However, I have never seen the photo on which the painting is presumably based. They must have been received and disposed of between July and December as they are not on the RAC returns for 30th June and the only Staghound AAs in 21AG by 31 December were nine in the ARG. Having now had the opportunity to view the rest of the tape, there is also some footage of M4A1s with the rear part of the sandshields fixed to the corners of the rear decks for stowage retention, which seems to have been a 4AB trait. Later in the same episode is a series of clips from the famous German newsreel shot on the road near Poteau in the Ardennes, albeit chopped into bits rather than in one run. It even shows "the bloke that isn't Peiper" in the schwimmwagen while a colleague points to the map. At the end is some nice coverage of LCMs on tank transporters and LVTs at the Rhine crossing. Robert -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Bonini S.r.l. [bonini@bonini.com] Subject: Galaxy Hi, Grant Parkin, Yes, I know "Galaxy Toys" - found two kits of their range (all 1/72) about 1 year ago in my local hobby shop: the first is a T-72M1 - excellent moulding, no flashes, precise vinyl tracks... looks like a downscaled Tamiya T-72 - very good! The other is an Abrams M1A1 - seems a copy of the old Revell/Matchbox kit: acceptable, but the vinyl tracks are for a Challenger!!! The other kits in their range, as listed on the boxes: Merkava (N°YH 115) - Challenger (YH 125) - Leo2 (YH 135) - M 60 (YH 145) - Leclerc! (YH 155) - T-72 (YH 165) - T 80U (YH 185) - Type 90 (YH 175) - Type 90-II (YH 195) - M1A1 (YH 205). On the boxes, there are pictures of a "Patriot" launching complex (3 vehicles), in 1/72 scale, without references. The address is : GALAXY (FUJIAN) TOYS Co.Ltd. Qian Yu Street (Fuxing outlet for Investment) Gu Shan Fu Zhou - Fujian - CHINA Tel.: 0591 - 365.92.88 / 365.45.57 Fax: 0591 - 365.76.66 Maybe you can contact them, in order to know who is selling their products in U.K.; otherwise, if you think it may be helpful, I have also the address of the Italian importer, but it seems that import of these kits is not regular. Hope that helps - if you need any further information, feel free to contact me. Greetings from sunny (!?!) Northern Italy, Giusto Gallas -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: MALCOLM IRESON [ireson@carltons36.freeserve.co.uk] Subject: Falklands CVR(T) Recently, I was down in Portsmouth and I visited the Royal Marines museum, and they have quite a lot of Falkland Island bits there, you could try contacting them, or the Imperial War Museum, the latter of which I have always found most helpful. Sorry it's not much, but I hope it helps. Malc. Not got around to the RM Museum yet, but will try them as well. Last time I went there was probably before the war actually took place, so that might have explained the lack of material at the time. Thanks. Robert -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: Mick Bell [mick@the-belfry.demon.co.uk] Subject: CVR[T]s in the Falkalnds Dear Bob, I can't offer any info on the Falklands CVR[T]s during the conflict, but do have some knowledge of one later on. By the way, what's a KERR? When I was at MPA [RAF Mount Pleasant aka Mount Pleasant Airport aka The Death Star] from Dec '87 to April '88 the Samson was on the establishment of the REME Joint Force Workshops. JFW provided the second and third line servicing support to the unit's MT fleet, particularly Army peculiar vehicles. The Samson was one of their recovery assets, though I do not recall it being used 'in anger'. The other recovery assets were a Bedford MJ Recovery Light and a Militant Mk 3 Medium Recovery. The reccy mechs would also use any other suitable vehicle such as a Land Rover, their regular mount being a 1 tonne Land Rover 101" FC with van body [probably ex-radio or workshop] with the internals removed, the extended wheel arches used as seats for personnel and odds and ends of recovery gear stowed wherever. However, back to the Samson. When I arrived at MPA it was undergoing a fairly major service. When it went into the workshops it was called 'Blue Balls'. When it emerged a couple of months later it bore the name 'Squatter Squasher', derived from the REME blokes' derisory nickname 'squatters' for us RAF types. It implied that we had to squat to pee, i.e. that we were a bunch of girlies. Somehow the hierarchy learnt the meaning of the name and it was ordered to be renamed. The Samson re-emerged as 'DILLIGAF', which translates as Do I Look Like I Give A F***, a popular expression at the time. So it remained until after I left. I can let you have pictures of DILLIGAF in [I think] March '88 if you're interested. Mick Bell KERR is a kinetic energy recovery rope. It looks like a thick manilla rope with lops on each end and has an element of elasticity, so it can be used to jerk a bogged vehicle by storing energy as the towing vehicle moves off and then releasing it suddenly. Great for recovery but not recommended for towing over long distances ;-). Robert -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: John Maze [jmaze@neo.rr.com] Subject: Re: Indo-China markings >Can anyone enlighten me as to the colours of a French unit marking in >Indo-China? It was a five-pointed star with a different coloured border and >either a letter 'S' or a number '5' inside. Can anyone provide more details >or information? Neal, I contacted Jim Mesko, who wrote the S/S Armor in Vietnam book, he had this to say (slightly paraphrased): "The stars are left over from WWII Allied markings (mostly ex-US equipment) that there was no time to overpaint. The French added a regimental crest and a name on the side of the vehicle. There was also a small French flag and a "serial" number added to the front of the vehicle. All the vehicles within a unit (not sure what "size" unit, though) had names starting with the same letter. The different color star and circle were for US unit recognition - and the star is not necessarily white, but could be colored and the ring white." The number leads him to believe that the vehicle you are looking at was delivered late in the French phase of the war after things starting going badly, and had belonged to a US training unit. I have the S/S book and there is only one pic of a vehicle with a star - no circle, no letter - it is an M5 Stuart. The star is VERY worn and the crest is visible on the sponson and the flag/s.n. on the bottom of the glacis. If the vehicle in your pic is a Chaffee, it is *definitely* a late war pic. There are lots of pics of the more typical French markings (i.e., NO star). I could scan a few for you, if you tell me what vehicle you are building. JohnM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: John Maze [jmaze@neo.rr.com] Subject: Photograph posting to TT Robert, Is there a place for TT members to post pictures? I just took a few at the USMC museum at Quantico and might post some if they look useful. JohnM I was at Quantico myself this year, and spent a useful few minutes measuring bits of the M3A1, much to the bemusement of the jarhead on duty. He had obviously not met many modellers before ;-) (lucky chap). Anyway, at present, there is no facility to post photographs centrally, as I have not managed to pull my finger out and construct a website for the purpose. However, I believe that there is a site called Photopoint which provides such a facility, as several of the chaps who crop up on Missing Links use. However, I have not investigated it in detail - perhaps someone else can comment on its usability? It does allow you to put in a hypertext link to the location of the photos to which you refer, which might be the next best thing to posting them on the list. I am not keen to post them directly to the list as: Some listmembers (including me) have to pay for their on-line time and it would increase the download time Not everyone would be interested in all the pictures which might be posted, so might not want to download them but they would not have the option My experience of inserting images into the text is that they jump about all over the place when anything in the formatting changes, which is a major irritant. The Photopoint route might well be the best, but as I said, I do not have experience of posting to it. Robert -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: Hendry, Philip [p.hendry@lancaster.ac.uk] Subject: Lost books Bit of a strange request, but please can you check that you don't have two books of mine - both regarding the Border Regiment at Arnhem. I'm not 100% sure of the title of one of them- it's something like 1st Bn. Border Regiment, Arnhem 1944, and it's by Green. The other one is called 'When Dragons Flew', and I can't remember the author! The former is quite small (A5ish and ~100 pages), the latter bigger (A4ish and having more pages, though I can't really remember how many. I was doing some 'Airborne thinking' last evening, and they're missing from my shelves (definitely - I've looked at every volume on every shelf whilst hunting for them), so I reckon I've lent them to someone - but I can't remember who. Cheers, the ever-forgetful, Phil -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: Des Burgess [des.burgess@ntlworld.com] Subject: KERRS Hi Bob The reason some of the ropes had blue ends was because they had a plastic type cover on them from the manufacture as the ropes were nylon to help stop them from fraying, much the same as some ship ropes the ends were dip into the molten plastic/wax as part of the manufacturing process. Des Many thanks - another mystery cleared up. Robert -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: Listmaster Subject: Paypal Has anyone on the list used the services of a website called Paypal (www.paypal.com)? I understand that it provides a means to transfer funds by credit card overseas to the recipient's bank account and that it is a free service. This seems like a great idea to me (the cost of sending small amounts of money overseas without having to pay a disproportionate amount in bank charges was always something of a barrier to non-business users) but before trying it out, I am keen to see if anyone else has used it. Is it too good to be true? Are there any catches? I understand that the on-line auction site Ebay uses a similar sort of system as an escrow facility. Robert -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) From: MAFVAHQ@aol.com Subject: White Scout Car Mornin' Guys, This snippet came in just now from # 7503 Ron Levett and I thought that you might be interested. Cheers, Gary In a message dated 14/07/01 11:04:55 GMT Daylight Time, ronald.levett@virgin.net writes: Hi, In issue 36/3, there is a note about the White Scout Car in British markings. When I was stationed in Someren in Holland, during December 1944, the Squadrons were using an area north of where we were for gunnery practice. They were having problems keeping in touch, so RHQ sent a White Scout Car, crewed by myself as wireless operator, a Corporal in charge, and a driver. We drove to a village called Visselovede (probable spelling). We never did make contact. The Scout car belonged to RHQ and carried marking for 4th Armd. Brigade (black jerboah) and regimental number 50 on the opposite side. All the best, Ron Levett -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: MAFVAHQ@aol.com Subject: New Tankette back issue rates Sub rates remain the same for 8 years but to claw pack some of the postal increase costs, back issues have had to go up by 25 pence each. Due to postal weight restrictions (we have to pay a minimum 100g postage), we would prefer that the minimum number for overseas orders is 3. New prices per back issue: UK & HM Forces £1.25 Europe and Worldwide Surface £1.50 Overseas AIR Worldwide £2.00 Kind regards, Gary Williams President/Secretary of MAFVA Phone: +44 (0) 1477 535 373 Fax: +44 (0) 1477 535 892 Mobile: +44 (0) 7989 871 393 E-mail: mafvahq@aol.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Lockie (Think Tank Listmaster) Back issues of Think Tank (thanks to Shane Jenkins) can be found at: http://www.tac.com.au/~sljenkins/thinktank/thinktank.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume