How to Make a Maverick REV-6 with detchable clips, or as I call it, REV6A2.

The whole gun. Sidenote: the stock IS a bit short.

Front of Drum, w/o spinner.

Two Drums.

Back of drum, minus spinner.

Yellow: Body of Gun

Olive Drab: Rotator (Rear)/Pins/Pushers

Red: Spinners

Blue: Drum Mag

White: Nothing.
Image not to scale, even within itself.

First step: buy a sh*t load of mavericks, not only are they necessary for this, but before the mod, one can still dual wield them awesomely.
Step 2: Disassemble all of them, BE CAREFUL TO KEEP ONE STILL IN RUNNING CONDITION. Separate all the drum clips from the guns. Don't worry if some are different colors, they all work the same way. Put the working order one back together, and test. If the guns just seem to hate you, this mod might not be the one for you. Seriously, they can be picky as to who uses them. My brother, for one, can't fire a single shot without it jamming, I can fire all three clips in a row without a problem.
Step 3: Using a saw, cut off the front and back spinners EXCEPT THE CENTER RING. Do not break the center, or this mod may not work.
Step 4: Press the clip release button in and slide the clip into its usual place. If it doesn't fit A) you are using the wrong side of the gun, B) you have the clip backwards, or C) you failed to trim off enough of the spinners. If C) is the case, go back to Step 3.

Step 5(How to Reload): (This goes not only for initial testing but for reloading as well, so remember this Step.) When the clip feels like it should be in place, spin it. If it clicks while spinning, then the clip is correctly locked into the Rotator. If so, wiggle the clip, and try again (tip: check to see if the front pin is lined up. if not, the rear pin can't be.). After several unsuccessful tries, one might want to try removing the clip by hitting the Clip Release button and pulling the clip out, and try again.
Step 6 (Optional): If you want a gun like mine, first: go to your local hobby store, buy Camo duct tape in desired pattern (I used CADPAT), Second: go to a Disneyland and buy a Wookie Crossbow (seriously, i got mine there), cut off its stock and lastly tape the stock onto the gun with said duct tape (Tip: you may need spacers to keep the stock out of the way of the slide.
Step 7 (Troubleshooting): If the REV6A2 doesn't fire when the trigger is pulled, then the gun may not be cocked. If only a BANG noise is made when the clip is in and loaded, but no dart is fired, it may have had trouble rotating the chambers. The easiest solution to this is to rotate the barrels by hand.

Some websites.

Between these three websites, I have found a lot of information I needed for various research projects I did.

Site 1
Site 2
Site 3

     I found each of these websites very useful in various research assignments. It's probably a lot more information then you ever needed on topics you'll probably never see again. then again, any information on a topic you'll never see again is more than necessary. Which brings me to the reason I did this: if I put those links at the top, I predict that most people will click on the links before reading this paragraph, not realizing that they are completely unnecesary to visit, because they don't want to read all of the words in this. Also, I predict that those who do skip stragiht to the end will do so because they read the web addresses and realized that they didn't care. To end in a way so people who read the ending lines won't notice this is a test: All three sites have a lot to do with very narrow topics of the Second World War, on various fronts. Hope you found those links useful, I certainly did.
     Please leave any comments in the comments section, I have trouble reading the ones you write in Sharpie on your monitor.

You are Here.

(In case you can't see it, you are on the northwest peninsula of Miscellaneous Blogs [Southmost region of the Blogosphere] into the Sea of Zero (0) Comments)
Many thanks to xkcd (yes it is all lower case, visit the writer's intro) for the picture.

?

Does anyone else think that second to last section doesn't fit?

Store Categories

Store home

• 1/144
• 1/16 120mm
• 1/32 or 1/35 Air
• 1/35
• 1/350
• 1/48 AFV/Figures
• 1/48 Air
• 1/700
• 1/72
• Sexy Lingerie
• Autre

All the other options are plastic modelling scales (1/144, 1/16, 1/32, 1/35, 1/350, 1/48, 1/72, 1/700)
I found this on EBay, so evidently approved of this.

My messed up blog statistics page

is messed up.

Proof of Case #1: Numbers
This problem is common throughout all my electronics.
Evidence Item A:


97+2=99, not 100









Proof of Case #2: Spacing

This doesn't get the point across as well as one might want.

It's even worse on my "Traffic Sources". On the Graph:

1 unit goes about 8 lines

2 units go exactly 0 lines (0 pixels)

7 units go about 1.5 lines

And the verdict?

Defendant (Computer, spoken for by me) pleads insanity; Judge (me), Jury (me) drop charges on account that the computer doesn't mess up any of my work stored on the hard drive.

One of my favorite teachers, Part 1: Miss Carney

One of my favorite teachers, whom I remember very clearly, was in Colorado. Ms. Carney was my 7th Grade Social Studies (sort of like geography, only more toward the cultural side, i.e. comparing cultures of North America and East Asia).

I actually don't remember much, I only remember A) how well she kept peace and order in her classroom, and B) how she celebrated Halloween.

First off: Keeping order. Ms. Carney was like a ninja in terms of spotting people talking, chewing gum, or anything of the sort. She was so profficient at spotting these sorts of things that she wouldn't even break a sentence to tell someone not to do something. i.e.

 "...The Romans conquered much of the known world, and _____, can you stop talking, but a key to there success was there microgovernments. _____, please spit out your gum. Unlike previous rulers, the Romans..."

Then, of course, her Halloween tales. She had the class gather around, and she told her horror story:

"Once, there was a couple, living happily in the swamplands of Louisiana. All day, the wife would stay home fixing up the house, and the husband spent all day chopping trees for lumber. This way, they kept a steady income.

However, this style of living got uprooted when, while out working, the man screwed up, and ended up having a tree land on his arm. The doctors managed to save him, but not his arm. Being as wealthy as they were from built up funds, they managed to buy a cheap prosthetic arm out of gold*, and he was able to get back to work soon, but he just could not get as many trees downed per day, and so they had to go without many luxuries.

A couple months after the accident, the husband started noticing a pain in his shoulder. The doctors looked at it, and found an infected area from the accident they had failed to clean before. The wife tried to save enough money, but they infection was making the husband slower than ever at chopping trees.

Eventually, the husband died. And, as is customary with funerals in/near swamps, they buried him in an above ground mausoleum. The wife mourned and mourned for several months, but eventually got over it.

A year after her husband died, the wife was having huge financial difficulties, and decided it had been long enough since he died. She then goes to the mausoleum, breaks it open, and cuts off the golden prosthetic. This she then pawns for enough money to get her some tools to get a steady job.

On the first night after work, she goes to bed, but is startled back awake to a sound:

"Whoooooooooooooo"

She realizes that it's probably just the wind in trees, and goes back to sleep.

On the second night after work, she goes to bed, but is startled awake to a sound:

"Whooooooooooooos"

She makes the same conclusion as the night before, and goes back to sleep

Third night, and she hears:

"Whooooooooos  gaaaaaw"

She is a bit more frightened, but makes the same conclusion.

This pattern continues, until, one night, she hears:

"Who's got my arm!"

She then hears her husband's boots at the front steps. Scared, she covers her face in her blankets. Then the boots get closer, and closer, until... BOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"

Yeah, it was scarier when she told it in person.

Lastly, an amusing thing about Carney was that, even in Colorado, people didn't have "suthern accents", at least not strong ones. But Carney was complete Texan accent.

All in all, she was a great teacher.

*I use cheap loosely here. By cheap, I mean compared to a working prosthetic. Also, gold is good because it won't rust and infect him, so it's not just a status symbol here.

My Great Grampa Lucas

My Great Grampa Lucas was a great man. He grew up on a farm, joined the Canadian Army when WWII broke out, and was injured during Normandy. He served in the 3rd Antitank Regiment of the Winnipeg Rifles.
He fought in Normandy from the moment he landed on D-Day +1 (7 June 1944) until the day he got injured, (12 August 1944), he served his 6-pounder gun crew well.

Sometime around October, 1942



Around 1943





The Newspaper reads "Germany Surrenders!"
In this photo you can see his injured arm. It is thought to be a piece of shrapnel.



For those of you with no clue what a 6-pounder is: |^|^|^|^|

 Now, for my next trip to Hobbyhouse, I think I shall get this:

So that I can make a diorama of my very own Great Grand-dad.

Error: Overload

As of recently, my sidebar with all my creations has gotten behind, seeing as I buy at least 1 thing each week, only get much work done on my weekend, and I rarely have the time to update it.
Anyways, I gave up after this last trip to hobbyhouse. I brought $50.00, and left with $2.50, and (as it turns out) not enough modelling glue. Enough said.

800mm Schwerer Gustav and Dora

Shortly before the Second World War, France had one of the strongest defences ever built the Maginot line. To deal with this, the Germans built the biggest gun ever fired on enemy forces: the 80cm K(E), or the more creative name, Schwerer Gustav (Schwerer also spelled Schwere, and Gustav also spelled Gustaf), and its sister gun, called Dora (Dora the Exploder!). Although the Germans ended up just going around the Maginot line, through Poland, the Gustav was still used against some French fortifications, and against Sevastopol, another well-defended area.

In one of the places it bombarded, it achieved a massive feat: with nine (9) shells, it disabled an ammunition bunker 30m under water, with at least 10 meters of concrete protecting it, as well as destroying a French ship.

In testing, 800mm high-explosive shells (which weigh 4.8 tonnes) made craters 10m wide and deep.

The Gustav fired nearly 300 rounds, but 250 of those were for testing and development.

Hitler was so pleased with it that he ordered a second one be made, Dora.
Dora saw no combat.

In the end, the Gustav was destroyed by the Germans to keep it out of Russian hands, and the Dora was discovered broken up a while after the war.

Pictures, Pictures



Tigers 009 (far left), 007 (center sticky note), and 314 (far right) as well as the Sherbrookes, who are [un]conveniently located in the shadow.



Tiger 007 with Sherbrookes in the background.

Well, the distance along the ground was accurate... can't say the same for the SHAPE of the ground, but still. Look at the next pic.

Looks cool. Could've sworn I got at least 1 picture from the Yeomanry's perspective where the rest of the scene was visible.

Sherbrookes and Wittmann's tiger. The tiger is looking and moving to the left of the shot, the Sherbrookes are aiming at the tiger. Not looking to good for Wittmann, is it?

Modeling Treads and My ant problems

In modelling, there are three types of treads that come with a kit: Rubber ones, solid ones, and chain ones.

Rubber ones make up most of my model tanks, and can be divided into 2 more catagories: Fix together and link together. Both are long, rubbery strips that resemble treads. Link together ones are rare, but are very straight forwards; they work like one of those tag rings, the ones you find on ski passes, except they only have one *click* thing, and are very rubbery and don't make a *click*. The fix together ones are annoying, they are composed of a rubber peg/hook thing at one end, and a hole at the other. The peg/hook thing goes into the hole, but is too shallow, and so one must glue/melt one end into the other. This is very annoying when one doesn't have immediate access to a melting thing, and the glue doesn't stick to the rubber.

The solid ones, I only have one of. They provide a lot more detail, and aren't very difficult, but are rare. They come in sections of treads, one piece for each straight section.

The third type, chain ones, are extremely rare, and consist of each tread being linked with a metal rod to the next one individually. Although this means that it can theoretically move its treads, I would not advise trying, as the would probably break. I have none of these.


So, onto my story:
I went outside this morning, trying to get a good picture of a squirrel sleeping on a shed. It got away before I got a good picture, but I discovered something else: the snow was almost done melting! I could finally set up my Michael Wittmann Diorama! But first, I had to put the rubber treads on all my tanks, all six of them.

So, I went to my modelling desk, and started gluing the treads into the right shae, as they are all rubber hook style treads. After gluing them all, I tried putting the first set onto a Tiger I. The first one went on easlily. The second one, however, didn't go so well: while gluing, I thought I saw an ant on my shirt looked down at it, saw nothing, but when I looked back up, I realized I had broken the glue between the ends of the treads.

That was very annoying; and I realized glue wouldn't be enough. At about that time, I realized that the Tiger I's treads are about the width of a staple.

After putting a staple around each hook-hole joint on each Tiger's treads, I tried to fit each them on their tanks. It worked well. And, the staples are barely visible, but did no immediate damage to the treads, so I could do it properly later with a melting thing.

While finishing my last tread on the last tank, I saw the ant again. But I learned! I finished putting the tread on, then looked down. I found a very confused ant, crawling on my shirt. Then I realized that I couldn't really kill the ant while it's on me. So I brushed it off, and thought about how I could punish it for making me mess up. I could drown it in glue, I could stab it with a modelling knife, I could put it into my ant-trap-killer-thing. But no, I ended up just squishing it and tossing it in the trash.

So now all I need to do is set up the diorama and take some pictures. I will probably also post my picture of the squirrel on my next post.

My Great Grandfather

My great grandfather was fighting as a Canadian in an entrenchment, facing a German defensive entrenchment, with a house between the two, in France. In the middle of the fight, the door opened, and a little girl stepped out. Both sides were surprised as the little girl started playing in the field between them, and held their fire. Eventually, my great grandfather got out of his trench, and brought the girl back inside. Apparently, the house was been owned by a French veteran of a previous war. The French vet. told my great grandfather that he was very thankful, but he had very little to offer; food was scarce, and they had pretty much no cash. So he offered a medal he won, and my great grandfather accepted it, and as he walked back to his lines, the Germans fired not a single shot, out of respect for what he did. The weirdest part is, that as unbelievable as it is, he somehow got a WWI French Army Medal, when he served during WWII with the Canadian Army.
And dad or Grampa, can you please verify that I got the details right? I don't want to take part in this story becoming an exagerated legend.

Guinea-tanks?

I mentioned before that my spray painting went horribly awry. But, I decided to turn my disfigured tanks into test subjects for later models; if I want to see if stabbing a needle through the plastic coating will look like any sort of battle damage, I can try it out on one of my test tanks. (By the way, if you take the needle out of one of those cheap poppies you can buy to pin on your shirt, and manage to stab it through a piece of plastic, it will look like a bullet hole. However, do not be surprised when the pin keeps on slipping off the plastic.)
I reached this decision when, as I mentioned in the previous post, the barrel snapped of my Jagdpanther. This wouldn't be so bad if the barrel had any means of being connected externally, but the model requires the barrel to be glued on to a piece inside of the hull which I already sealed together. Seeing as I could not fix it, I was faced with just throwing it out, or keeping it. I decided I didn't want to waste $30, and so I kept them, and realized later that they were my test models for the spray paint; I learned many things from those tanks about spray painting, like how difficult it is.

The Winter War

The Winter War, or Soviet-Finnish war, was a pre-WWII war, but not by far, only a couple years.

     The Soviets planned to have a coordinated assault involving Soviet armies advancing, Soviet bombers striking all Finnish airfields and shipyards, and the Finnish having an internal Communist uprising (yes, they planned on the Finnish citizens wanting to be communist).

     The Finnish realised they had a very low chance of surviving. Still, they planned and on putting up a big enough fight and slowing the Russians down enough to let some other countries join. They also built the Mannerheim line: a large series of excellently placed bunkers providing mutual support, with masses of artillery behind them. That, however, only covered the Southern front; but even the Russians realized that the Eastern front would be hard on its own, with mountains covering most of the terrain and few roads. The land pretty much defended itself, though Finnish ski troops and artillery probably helped, too.

     Initially, the Russians had 3 times the force of the Finnish, all in place to attack. The Soviets also had much, much more land and population.
     However, a lot went wrong for the Russians; the "advancing" Soviet armies got repelled by extremely well-placed Finnish bunkers and horrible Finnish terrain, the Soviet bombers called off their bomb strikes when cloud cover provided next to no visibility, and the Finnish, not surprisingly, had NO uprising.
     The Finnish held off the Soviets very well. On the Southern front, they held their positions, using the fact that the Soviets had 0 experience fighting a modern war, and still fought using wave tactics, and were easily stopped. On the Eastern front, the Finnish really got to show off. The Soviets had trouble using the roads, but still attempted to move massive forces around. The Finnish just used their ski troops to ambush Soviet lightly-armored vehicles and infantry, and had those ski troops direct artillery strikes on Soviet tanks, or anything they couldn't take out with a rifle. The first targets were field kitchens, whose importance the Russians realized too late: in the high arctic winter, a hot meal can mean life or death.
     After a while, the Finnish got a brave, they tried to, and almost succeeded in, encircling an entire Russian Army. Then, the Soviets got mad. They sent in masses of tank and men (not mice and men, though their tanks were fairly light...) in waves, sometimes reaching 5 waves per day in some places, with artillery barrages filling the space between, sometimes exceeding 300,000 shells per day (STALIN SMASH!!).
     The Russians eventually broke the Mannerheim line, and then renewed their initial offer for peace, on the same terms. The Finns agreed. Still, the Finnish lost a couple thousand men injured, captured, or missing, the Soviets lost ten times as many men killed, not to mention missing and captured.
     Throughout the whole war, some things never changed, such as the Finnish having good maps, and thus could use artillery accurately, the Russians were all but firing blindly. As you can probably imagine, the Finns also had better morale, until the Soviets broke the Mannerheim.

MORE info on my diorama?

From the start of my diorama, I had been thinking of stories for the people in it. However, it wasn't until recently I realized how I could do that. I typed up all my little bios, put them into text boxes on MS Word, and printed that. So here it is:

These two are in separate squads, but act as if they were in the same section; they think a lot alike, and have been through many battles together. The machine gunner occasionally acts as a spotter for the antitank rifleman. Both know they are better off together, with the machine gunner pinning down any infantry, allowing the antitank rifleman to get off accurate shots. Using this tactic, they made it through Kharkov, Rostov, and the 1^st battle of Kiev. They are currently split; the antitank rifleman wants to use the log for cover, but the machine gunner is concerned about what happened to the previous gunner who took cover there.

(The cover this references is a log with a DP machinegun and a helmet behind it.)

This man is a veteran, who fought during Kharkov, Moscow, and Stalingrad, and was recently pulled from the city fighting to take part in the pincer movement around Paulus’ Sixth Army. It is thought that he was mentally scarred from what he saw in Kharkov, and never wanted to fight in a city ever again, so a while after he arrived at Stalingrad, complaining endlessly to his CO, his CO had mercy and sent him off to the 24^th Army. He is now enjoying his ride; he grew up in a small town, and had never before rode on any vehicle, and ignoring his CO’s directions to dismount.

The two men behind the turret are friends who enlisted together, and during training, the man shooting distinguished himself as a good shot. He, however, worked best with his friend aiding him, so their COs decided to let them stay as a team throughout any reorganization. They fought in several small battles, until they joined a motor rifles unit in Kursk, where they met a tank crew, who were added to the list of units to stay together. That tank crew is the one featured in this diorama.

The two Soviet officers shown have very different stories. The one pointing and shouting is a veteran of Moscow, Kharkov, and Stalingrad, and served alongside the other man in this scene who did. He thus has great pity for him, and decided to let him rest on the tank. However, the officer running is a rookie, promoted to fill a spot, not for his skills. He is known throughout his platoon as an enthusiastic, courageous man, great at leading a charge into combat, but not so well at telling his men what to do, or showing any sort of discipline over his men.

Officially, the weapons-distribution in this squad is determined by rank. However, the men in this squad decided to redistribute their weapons to whoever seemed most fit for it. The man standing while hip-shooting the MG-42 is the strongest, so any other weapon on him was a waste. The man in the middle of throwing a grenade is the best thrower, but because he couldn’t carry enough grenades, the rest of the men are carrying some for him. The man shooting his StG-44 is a renowned shot; given perfectly equal weapons, he would be a perfect match for the sharpshooter on the Russian side. The man with the Panzerfaust is the fastest man on the team, and they gave him the Panzerfaust thinking that it would be easier for him to get close enough to the target. The man wearing the cap is the CO, and prefers to keep his issued weapon.

The "guy with the Panzerfaust" is outside the edge of the photo, but he does exist, and is running across the stream, unknowingly crossing the PaK-40's line of fire.

Having just woken up, the loader forgot that he had loaded a round into the gun the night before. The Commander is attempting to tell him this, but is having trouble talking over the T-34. So, you can see him multitasking: he is both trying to find the T-34 and push the loaders shell away.



Kharkov was a city in Western Russia, taken by the Germans. However, during the fight, the Germans got a bit overboard in trying to demoralize the Russians, involving a lot of dead Russian officers being mutilated, burned, and/or hung, and their bodies placed in places for all Russian forces to see. Needless to say, Russian morale was low.

Kursk was a battle involving many, many, Russian tanks fighting many, many, German Panzers. The Russians won, marking the first major German defeat.

Ctrl+Z! Undo spraypaint! NOOOOOO!!!!!

    I recently discovered that spraypainting models is not as easy as it sounds. The story starts 1 week back...
    Last weekend, my aunt said she would pay me & my brother $10 an hour if we helped her move furniture from her storage locker to her house. It ended up taking ~2.5 hours, but she was generous and paid us both $30. Sadly, I had already gone to HobbyHouse that weekend.
    So, I had to keep my money for a week. That didn't go as well as planned: I spent (on average) $2 on vending machines per day.
    But, when the next weekend came around, I got my allowance, $10, and was back to $30 for HobbyHouse. When I got there, I intended to get the first 3 models for "My Favorites" collection. However, I had trouble deciding, and before I could choose just 3, my dad suggested I buy some paint: PanzerGrau (Which I am in a serious shortage of) Spraypaint. So I got ANOTHER 1/76 Tiger I, a 1/76 JagdPanther, and the spraypaint. And that was all my $30.
    It started off bad. The 10th-ish piece I clipped off the sprue went flying, bounced 3 times (at least, 3 times I could hear), and landed in a place that remains unknown. I have it listed as MIA. But, I went on building (Jagdpanthers don't need all 24 roadwheels, 23 should work just as well, shouldn't it?). I finished the Tiger I with no trouble. But that's probably because I got so much practice with the first four...
    Anyways, when I got to the painting, things got much worse. I went out in my backyard to spraypaint, and started. However, the paint went on either too thickly, thinly, or unevenly.
    Recently, I decided to try scraping the paint off, and between a knife and some sandpaper I managed to remove quite a bit of paint. However, in the process I also accidentally severed the Jagdpanther's main gun barrel and machinegun barrel. However, that allowed me to also perfect any external glue drips.


You can't really see from this picture, but the supposedly flat color looks like camoflage.



My first 1/76 diorama is (almost) done!

As you probably inferred from the title, I have nearly completed my 1/76 diorama; my "Death of Michael Wittmann" diorama to be specific. (In case you don't know who/what Michael Wittmann is, google him. Tank ace of WWII.)
I am done constructing and painting 4 Tiger Is, 2 Sherman Mk.1s, and 1 Sherman Firefly Ic (even though the "c" is made redundant by me calling it a firefly, because, in the case of the sherman, adding a "c" to the designation made it a firefly.)
Now all I need to add is the scenery; for which plan on using my front yard (grass can grow 3 meters tall, can't it?) for which I need to wait for summer.

Apparently people in Italy like me...

Here are my audience stats:

Canada: 45 views

USA: 13 views (Aaaaaaaaah unlucky number! I would almost go to the US and look at my blog to change it)

UK: 7 views

Italy: 7 views

Netherlands: 5 views

Germany: 4 views

Japan: 4 views

Australia: 3 views

Czech Republic: 3 views

Poland: 2 views

Looked up term that led to my blog:

"jagdpanther" peices [sic] site:blogspot.com

Most viewed post:

Russo-German Diorama with 8 views

OMG!!! My Blog is SOOOOOOO popular! 93 views in 9 months? That's... 1 view every 3 days. Awww...

Now what I do find interesting is looking at the source pages (what people clicked to get to my blog):

A lot of people got here through looking for pics, my #1 being my Russo-German Diorama overview pic, #2 being my F-15, and #3 being my A-10.

Now, for something truly special. I clicked on the link I was given that was supposedly how someone got to my blog, and found a google image result. Only no "Google image result", more:

Putting the Pieces Together: Russo-German Diorama

Russo-German Diorama

piecestogether1.blogspot.com

• ภาพขนาดเต็ม - ขนาดเดียวกัน4x ขนาดใหญ่กว่า

ขนาด:	1600 × 1200
ประเภท:	161KB JPG

ภาพอาจมีลิขสิทธิ์

Can somebody read whatever that is? I can predict what it says though:
"Image"
"See Full Size Image - Same as image shown here"
"Dimentions:"
"Size:"
"Image may be subject to copyright laws".

My luck has come...

A couple weeks ago (yes, this post is very delayed) I finally found my previous modelling kit: a box, 2 knives, 20-ish paints, good paint thinner, a LOT of paint brushes, and a paintbrush-drying rag.
I combined that with my previous one, and found that I had too many paints! But with some reorganization, I managed to stuff it all together.
So I am happy.

1/76 Sherman and 1/76* Sherman Firefly

For those who don't know, the Sherman (designated "M4 Sherman" in the US military code) was an American tank that played a huge role in the second world war. It was a medium-weight, medium-armor tank, similar to that of the German panzer, only it had one major weakness: its gun. The German standard tank, the panzer IV (4, for those who don't know roman numerals), had similar armor, speed, etc. but had a much longer barrel, and could therefor shoot further, more accurately, and have more power.
I bought 2 of these:




Looking 3'o'clock High



The British, lacking a sufficient better tank design, decided to buy a few. By a few, I mean about 2,000. But the British realized that the Shermans' 75mm guns were to wimpy to take on the panzers. So they upgraded it with a 17-pdr cannon, which fires a 17-pound projectile. Although the 17-pdr was 76mm caliber, it had the anti-tank capabilities rivaling the German Tiger I's 88mm gun. Naturally, the British needed to call this upgraded tank something other than what the Americans called it, so they called it the "Firefly". Now this did not help with the Germans' nickname for shermans "Ronsons" (A cigarette lighter company, with the motto "Lights the first time, every time.") due to the flammability of the contents of the tanks.

I only bought 1 of these:

 

 

Looking 9'o'clock High





As you will notice in my model progress bar, I also bought 2 Tiger I's, but that is a completely other story.



Anyways, the Firefly only differed in the following ways:

-Bigger/longer main gun

-No front machinegun (More main ammo)

-Turret stretched backwards (To accomodate kickback)

And some other minor changes, like the mud flaps, which had more to do with American vs British, not Firefly vs Sherman (The Brits used regular Shermans too, just prefered Fireflies).

Now, compare them:









Very different, eh? Well thats what I get for betraying Revell and buying an Airfix model...



New Year!

Great! Didn't start out great though... Story time?
I got to bed at about 12:30 (midnight, dec. 31-Jan. 1), with a cramping stomach. I thought my stomach just wasn't used to eating as much as I did as late as I did. I was wrong. I woke up at about 2-3 am throwing up in my bed. I managed to get to a toilet, after puking 2 more times on the way. To make it worse, one of those ended up on my then-messy floor, and my first time got behind my bed. My sister cleaned the bathroom for me (I thanked her a lot) and I washed my bedding twice, but I just succeeded in making my room smell strongly of chlorine (like a pool, x2) and less like vomit. Luckily, it was gone by day 3.
But the new year got better! Another story...
I had a wrestling tournament (I told you I joined wrestling, didn't? Very painfully fun.) today. had to get up at 6:00 to be at school by 7:00, to leave school at 7:45, to get on a bus at 8:00, to arrive at the designated wrestling area at 9:00-ish. We warmed up until about 9:30, during which time I checked the schedule, I HAD THE FIRST MATCH OF THE DAY! :( :) ? Good and bad: no waiting, less preparation time. Nervous, I walked to the mat where I was supposed to wrestle, told the judges I was present, and they confirmed that I would have the first match. When they looked for my opponent, however, he was absent. So, by default, I won gold; the first win of the day, 5-0 (No clue how, but apparently I got 5 points for showing up.). Sadly, that meant I had to wait another 6 hours for the rest to finish; you'd be surprised how quickly I get bored of crossword.
They say showing up is 50% of the game; Well this time it was 100%.
So I'm happy! For now...

1/76 scale and 1/48 scale

1/76 scale: VERY VERY SMALL. But also very cheap. I bought a 1/76 Tiger I and a 1/76 Sherman Firefly for under $20, with enough left over to buy about 2 paints. I have only finished the construction and the base color of paint, and am convinced that it won't be easy to put on the rest of the paint.
Other than that, I have only one comment: do NOT buy the Airfix 1/76 Tiger I. The pieces were made very sloppily; there were little tabs (about the same size as numbering ones) almost everywhere. Very annoying.

1/48 scale: About the same as 1/35, my normal scale. However, the only 1/48 model I have (a Firefly IC) had 1 very unusual part: the hull was made of die-cast metal, "to add realistic weight and balance" which, from my perspective, was unnecesary and just made it annoying when handling different sub-assemblies.