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Zulu Alert, runway is all yours....

Ah, here's my writeup from last year: Finally shipped the last NFA weapon from Gary's estate. It took two years, me, Jess managing paperwork, two firearm attorneys, the estate attorney, an SOT who handles really oddball stuff, the executor, and a very nice, very knowledgeable, very efficient Examiner at NFA Branch. It started when I was helping him sell sabers, bayonets, etc, and he said he wanted to sell some of the firearms, so I assisted with photos, a Gunbroker account, research, listing. And he said, "I also have the deactivated machine guns I loaned to the Fort Harrison Museum. In 1968 I sent papers to the ATF and they sent papers back." I twitch. "So, those are DEWATs." "?" "DEactivated WAr Trophies." "I guess." "Well, with a Form 1 and $200, those can be reactivated. They're sellable." Pulls out his pipe. "Oh, well, I've got a Maxim, a Madsen, a Hotchkiss, a DP28, an MG42, an MP44, a Lewis Gun, a Japanese Type 99, a Thompson, an MP18, a Soviet mortar..." "Holy $#!+, Gary, that's $100,000 worth of hardware!" "I only paid a few hundred." "Yeah, in 1962 when they couldn't give them away." Then he passed away, and we had to find the paperwork buried in his house. A friend, my son and I are up in the attic pulling out guns. "That's a mortar...is that a firing pin? This is a live mortar." "Holy $#!+, that's a complete Sturmgewehr." "Is that a Boys Rifle?" "Wait...that's not a bazooka....that's...holy $#!+, it's a Panzerschreck." This is in addition to Lugers, Broomhandles, Carcanos, Mausers, SMLEs, Webleys, Arisakas, a Sharps buffalo rifle, Trapdoors, more sabers, Mosin Nagants, Walthers, a Gewehr 41 and a Gewehr 43, an original 1800s musket, a percussion cape gun, an FN49, a No4 Mk1(T) sniper rifle in transit chest with matching scope, a Japanese Type 97 sniper rifle, an M1D, a Soviet Mosin sniper, pre-import markings, a P14 sniper, a Reichsrevolver, a Radom P35, a stocked Inglis, a Dutch Hembrug carbine, a Bayard .32, a Steyr M95 8mm, a No 5 Jungle Carbine ... some of them still with the museum tags and receipts. Not counting sabers, Japanese swords, bayonets, uniforms, scarce helmets, a mine detector new in box, radios, a drop tank, and all the mundane autographed SF books, comics, anime, the woodblock prints, jewelry... Then the executor, and estate attorney, had to file a bunch of paperwork that my attorney assisted with. Then the first buyer was also a firearm attorney, and knew someone at NFA branch who helped find the missing records. Then we had to fix all the Amnesty forms, including a WRONG SERIAL NUMBER and wrong IDs. Maxim 08/15 Madsen 1908 Hotchkiss 1914 with tripod DP28 MG42 (not papered, now converted to semi) StG44 Lewis Gun, in transit chest, with tools and accessories, Irish surplused after being British surplused. Japanese Type 99 LMG, being converted to take either 7.7 Jap, .308, or 7.62X39, because original mags don't exist (drop in conversion, no structural changes). 1928A1 Thompson (mine now, with new barrel, all new springs, bolt, and some other tuning) MP18A1 50mm Soviet RM38 mortar Finnish 81mm M42 Savunheiten mortar Panzerschreck Boys Rifle (.55 Boys British anti-armor rifle) His family thought he died broke. We were able to fix that, and find caring homes for some amazing, historically important hardware. The Finns literally don't have a Savunheiten in their military museum. I've been getting detailed photos and measurements with the assistance of Oleg Volk so their few photos can be upgraded with better visuals and specs. ~~ The drop tank. Apparently, he was on the mailing list for Interarms. He was flying out of Germany when he got forwarded a catalog with THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST CATALOG! tagged on it. And he believed them. Because it's never your last catalog. So he bid at auction on three drop tanks, $25 each, figuring to get outbid. Who needs a drop tank? Pretty much no one. So he won the auction and a truck showed up at his parents' house with three drop tanks. I have no idea where the other two went, but this one went into his basement a few blocks from their house. It was buried under other hoard/collectibles, and it took four of us to remove the stair railing and get it out.

stary night..

This is after we excavated all the autographed books, electronics, comics, and misc piled around it. Anyway, for the modelers and archivists, we tried to get every image possible. If you need others, a friend of mine bought it for display outside his business, so we can possibly get more.

Well, I'm resurrecting this thread because a late friend of mine had one of these tanks in his basement. He was a retired USAF navigator with a stack of decorations, a weird collection, and a long story as to how a drop tank got in his basement. But here's the link, and a couple of pics to start it. I took photos from every angle possible. https://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/randomfactoids.html

While you can't exactly re-fly a mission as they are auto generated every time, in the workshop you can set the outcome to easy - pilot never dies. If you want to re-run the exact same mission number, you would need to manually backup your pilots before each mission and restore the backup after your pilot dies. Robert Wiggins has a utility that does this. It's also useful for any weird mission outcome...

I was trying to ID it and found this thread. I'm retired USAF, contacted some old timers, and they told me which nomenclature to look for, and I made sure we took every image possible for you guys. Half the Fort Harrison museum was his collection. We sold most of it. I paid the estate for several to add to my collection.

That is the greatest and wildest story I've ever heard, but how neat is that? Personally, I don't know a single person who could ever claim they have an entire drop tank in their basement.

This game has a dynamic campaign, you will never see the exact same campaign mission twice. That said, if you die in campaign mode that pilot is done, period. Since you are new to the game I would suggest you fly quick flights or scenarios, they have a button that says pilot never dies. The scenarios can be quite difficult, but they are the same mission over and over, you will have to enlist a pilot in the appropriate service, ie, British, French, Belgian, German, or US, to fly that service's planes for those scenarios. Quick flights are the same way, you can pick your service, plane, and simple scenarios, and you will see the same mission over if you wish to try it again (just press go to field when you get back to the screen). Just make sure you have clicked pilot never dies. Also if you opt for an air start (not field in the altitude box) you will need to throttle up immediately (even if you joystick has the throttle set on full) pull the throttle back and advance it, the game will not recognize the previous throttle input. Try those things first, so you can get familiar with the flight models, then try the campaign mode, don't be discouraged. It is very good immersive game and personally I have been flying it for years and have never lasted a year (in game time). I have only completed two campaigns, and that was because the squadron was withdrawn from the front. Have fun!! Mike

New 1/72 models...

Best wishes and hope you are well soon my friend!

I have uploaded it in the "What if Hangar". When the Admin gives the okay, you can enjoy it. Have fun! Remark: If you fly for the East Germans, you will find 100 more or less different skins. These skins are made by large decals, which are placed over a greengrey basic skin. For self defence, the plane comes with a 5 shot flare dispender. This device is not my invention. The most Warsaw Pact planes and helicopters had had such a dispenser. It was intended to give own forces the signal "Friendly Plane!", but worked as decoy launcher against early IR-seeker missiles as well.

Yeah good luck with that. He's a gamer though, so if you get a hold of him, let us know and we can flood him with vids and stuff, and get him hooked, then throw in the "SF2 is dying, PJB needs SF3, and we'll need some money." Gotta stretch it out though so he doesn't become aware of our plan until it's too late.

building up to the grand phinale......