Jimpy

If you want to make an accurate representation of a 1970s Irish Army FAL then your model still needs work on several areas: Flash suppressor Gas plug Handguards (yours still has the British Maranyl ones) Cocking handle Change lever Takedown lever Backsights Butt (again you still have the British one fitted) You're looking for something more like this:

Yes, it looks nice but it isn't entirely correct. Do you mind if I make some suggestions on possible improvements? If that's supposed to be the No. 32 Mk. 1 sighting telescope then it is badly out of scale (too thin), is wrongly positioned on the rifle (way too far back) and the pads and turrets are incorrectly shaped. Also bear in mind that the real No. 32 telescope was made of heavy brass, so when the paint scratches off it, it looks a characteristic "golden colour", not a "silvery-white" colour like you have there. The heavy mounting bracket (on the left hand side) was cast iron. Also, all No. 4 rifles that were converted to the (T) variant had the battle sight aperture milled off - your model still has it (digging into the 'scope tube, it looks like). Your rifle is also apparently missing its foresight - I presume you have this in the "pilot-view" though. Sometimes users found that the standard foresight blade reflected light into the telescope and unit armourers made adjustments to prevent this, but the foresight was never removed entirely. Apart from those small niggles, I must say that it's jolly good work overall. Always nice to see British stuff being done so well.

The troops are very good as they are but do have some slight innaccuracies. None of the issues are very major, though, and should be simple and quick enough for you to fix. In no particular order, the observations I made while watching your "OosterbeekTrailer" are: 1. The helmet chin straps on your men are apparently the canvas webbing type. These are not typical for British airborne troops on Op. Market. At that time the vast majority of British troops were still using the second pattern all-steel jump helmet with a black leather chinstrap. Webbing chinstraps were used first by Polish, French and Canadian airborne troops and only became generally used by British troops very late in the war and post-war. I can send you pics of the correct chin strap if you need these. 2. The type of Denison smock used most commonly on Op. Market was the (so-called) second type (although a small number did still wear the earlier first pattern smocks for that operation).The texturing at the cuffs of your troops does not have a great amount of detail but it appears that all the troops appear to have green woollen cuff closures. This is not typical for the type of Denison smock most commonly used on Op. Market. Woollen cuffs on Denison smocks imply: a) A first pattern Denison smock (circa 1942) worn only by a  few individuals on Op. Market, the first pattern smocks were designed and manufactured with woollen cuff closures; or b) A second pattern smock unofficially modified by adding stocking tops to the cuff closures - although this was not a very common wartime practise at all and became more popular post-war. The wartime second pattern Denison smocks had cloth cuffs with an adjusting tab and three brass snap-fasteners to close them. This type was used most commonly on Op. Market and afterwards; or c) A postwar dated Denison smock (Denisons were worn by British troops until the end of the 1970s) which was again designed and manufactured with woollen cuff closures. Postwar Denisons can be easily differentiated from wartime Denisons by their cut and camouflage patterns. I can send pictures of the cuff closures and details of the second pattern Denison smocks if required. 4. None of the men appear to be wearing their conspicuous parachute qualification badge - it should be on the right upper arm of their Denison smock. Please advise if you need a picture of the parachute qualification badge. 5. Most wartime airborne troopers wore a green and dark- chocolate-brown coloured netting face veil as a scarf tucked inside the neck opening of the smock (this was separate from the scrim netting worn as a helmet cover). None of your troops appear to wear such a thing as far as I could see. Some men of the Glider Pilot Regt. alternatively wore a silk escape map as a scarf and others (a very few) wore green camouflage patterned scarves made from US parachute silk. 6. The men are wearing 1937 pattern webbing battle order, which is correct for the period, however their equipment order is incomplete and incorrect in some details. I noticed that their utility pouches (the two large rectangular ones at the front) appear to be too small, none carries their waterbottle (always carried in the field) and they do not have their light assault respirator cases either. Pictures of troops on Op. Market clearly show them carrying this last item sideways at the left rear of the belt (at least initially).  The entrenching tool carriers are also carried a little too high up on the belt. I have detailed pictures of the light assault respirator (Mk III) case if you require these. 7. The webbing is also not correctly coloured. Your troops wear webbing in a mixture of a green and a light golden tan colour, however, although in fact British webbing equipment at this time in the war in the E.T.O was always coloured a mid-khaki green colour by the application of a preservative paste (called "Blanco" - a there's always a but  trade name) in colour "Khaki-Green no. 3". Only commonwealth troops in this theatre wore webbing in a light tan colour (especially Canadians) and much '37 pattern webbing used today by many modern reenactors is not correctly blancoed (as it reduces the value of the pieces). I can send pictures showing the correct "Khaki-green" colour for the blancoed webbing, if required I researched all this some time ago with the intention of making some WW2 British Airborne troops, until I discoverd that you guys had it all well-covered already (I'll most likely be instead making post-war [ie. 1970s] British Paratroopers for the Northern Ireland mod).

I watched the "OosterbeekTrailer". It all looks very impressive indeed. Are the British Airborne soldiers going to be revised before final release? In the video they are apparently incorrect in several respects.

I am working on a No.1 Mk III rifle too for the "Northern Ireland mod". This rifle was used by the Irish Republican Army in the early 1970s. Here are a couple of quick WIP pics of the "Smelly": The colouring is not really textures, just flat colours. The model still needs work in places. The images posted earlier of an actual example will be useful. Thanks! I am also doing the No.4 Mk. 1, No.4 (T) and the L42A1. Links to some WIP pics of unfinished models, again with flat colours: Rifle, .303", No.4 Mk.1(T) with no. 32 Telescope http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/whisky01/No4Ta.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/whisky01/No4T.jpg The same rifle but wrapped in hessian for camouflage (based on a photo of an army sniper training cadre from 1970) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/whisky01/No4Twrapped.jpg Rifle, 7.62mm, L42A1 with Telescope, Straight, Sighting, L1A1 http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/whisky01/L42b.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/whisky01/L42a.jpg Many, many other new weapons are also under construction for the mod. Northern Ireland mod is at: http://www.nimod.net/forum  [site temporarily down]

Can you please tell us when exactly the Irish Defence Forces adopted the AUG rifle?

IMHO the Llauma "replacement head" is not especially good. That default face that is distributed with it is especially awful - he looks like a shop-dummy, I always cringe whenever I see yet another screenshot of that bland, plastic-looking, "boogly" eyed countenance. Of the head models I have seen, I am much more impressed by the heads on the Red Hammer Studios Russian Federation troops. These are very skilfully "sculpted" and use less polys than the Llauma head does.

An "exploding guitar" booby-trap? "Take guitar" KA-BOOM!

"Master & Commander" is the best I've seen for a long while Favourite quote: Captain Aubrey: "D'you want to call that raggedy-arsed Napoleon your king!?" The crew: "NO!!!"

The "smart 'scope" reminds me of the gyro-stabilized gun sights that were used on Battleships during and after the first world war. They compensated for the motion of the sea to keep the image of a target (often many thousands of yards away) motionless in the viewfinder.

They'd have to disable it if trainee SCUBA divers are using the pool and doing the old "giant human lobster" swimming technique.

Actually you can play CDs over the crew comms system in Brads and Abrams. It's done all the time. Â Â Edit: Well, some of the time

Make a military band instead, now that WOULD be "kool"

I do not know what "standard SAS" is but SASR and NZSAS in Vietnam mostly wore the US ERDL camouflage uniform together with SAS belt kit and various rucksacks, heavy use of camouflage face paint and an assortment of more or less modified weapons (SLRs with drastically shortened fore ends, SLRs with handguards removed and 40mm grenade launchers added, sawn-off M14s, SLRs bodgied to fire full auto only, etc etc). In all the photos I've ever seen of them they look extremely "business-like" and very hardassed characters.

Ok thanks for letting me know. Some of the troops could be used as RAR I suppose if you overlooked some of the little details, or remodelled them oneself (and supplied some with L1A1 SLRs). Nothing really suitable for SASR or NZSAS though. I might well make some Vietnam era Diggers myself. I quite fancy making some "bodgied" SLRS Â