Posted by: paul swainson
« on: 21 October 2014, 18:01:10 »Your are correct in the SA80 but not with James, he was my side kick! 
Posted by: paul swainson« on: 21 October 2014, 18:01:10 »Your are correct in the SA80 but not with James, he was my side kick!
Posted by: minerva« on: 21 October 2014, 17:59:00 »So ! You really are James Bond !!! (I see the likeness now in the photo !)
I've used the SMG. SLR, and GMPG plus the 9mm pistol. - a perk of being at ATURM in the old days. These SA80's wouldn't stop much. Posted by: paul swainson« on: 21 October 2014, 17:46:08 »Thanks for that Pauline, I much preferred the 7.62 caliber then the 5.56 as used now. I found the SA80 was a poor substitute replacement for the SLR. My weapon of choice was the Heckler & Koch G3KA4 assault rifle, and proved its self very well compared to the SA80.
Posted by: minerva« on: 21 October 2014, 09:57:02 »The SA80 is the weapon used for the costain gun line.
In R.N. RAS operations. Posted by: paul swainson« on: 20 October 2014, 17:49:53 »Thanks for that, I can confirm that a section or platoon of 7.62mm firing off along with the LMG/GMPY was very noisy and along with other items you need to be def to not hear it.
Posted by: Troy Tempest« on: 20 October 2014, 15:35:54 »I daresay they must have moved on Paul (I will try an find out for you)
As you can see it has the old wooden furniture too! The SLR was fired with zero recycle set as only one round was required and all of the power was needed to propel the messenger line The object at the end had a rude name (I cannot remember its official nomenclature) but was of a yellow plastic and the orange cap was soft and rubber like, this replaced the formerly lethal brass rod! I went to a school in Western Australia who want dot erect a new aerial for the radio ham setup, myself and the Bosun went taking three buckets of messenger line and I was successful on the second attempt at getting the line clear over the top of the tall tree they were going to use to string up their Aerial. To look good (I was in tropical whites) I kept my cap on - and looked very foolish when after the first attempt my hat fell off! As you can see no-one is wearing ear defenders which (I am convinced) is why I am a bit hight tone 'Mutt and Jeff' in my left ear, when it went off one's ears rang for minutes afterwards and voices became distant. I cannot imagine what noise levels in a battle must be like - let alone the damage it must cause Posted by: paul swainson« on: 20 October 2014, 15:03:28 »line throwing SLR for a RAS, note the stern RAS hose left permanently on deckDo they still use the SLR for this roll as it was a 7.62mm round and carried a good punch, or are they using the SA 80 Mk2? Posted by: Troy Tempest« on: 20 October 2014, 15:01:50 »Excellent info (and saves me nearly 8 Euros too)!
Posted by: minerva« on: 20 October 2014, 14:22:08 »Hi,
Regarding saluting guns and gun salutes. here in the definative answer from an Ex W.O. gunner who is now part of HMS Belfast's management team. I have attached Chapter 11 (Procedures onboard ship) of BR 1834 (Bit old now) Ceremonial Drill Hand Book, which you may find helpful. As to guns, we only ever rigged 3, 2 on the side of the salute and the third on the opposite side. Dependant of how many guns to be fire, the cartridges were divided between the 2 guns with the odd round going to Gun number 1. The third Gun on the opposite side was the misfire gun, it would have the same amount of rounds as Gun 1, just in case it misfired on the first round. The Salute was fired alternately between the 2 guns on the engaged side, with 5 second intervals. Misfire wait time is / was 30 minutes. Once a gun misfired it took no further part in the salute. I hope this helps all those interested in rigging a gun salute for a ship entering harbour etc. Posted by: minerva« on: 19 October 2014, 19:13:46 »Nice to see good information from the experts of the R.F.A.
All too often it is the RN types giving their views, however you guys were the force that kept the fleet moving, eating and fighting. Even in todays news we hear of RFA Argos leading our contribution in the medical emergency in west Africa. The unsung heros, the RFA. Posted by: Troy Tempest« on: 19 October 2014, 16:45:26 »The Probe RAS rig was fitted only to the more modern ships of the '70s e.g. Leander class onwards.
Older vessels such as HMY Brittania, Type 81 Frigates, HMS Hermes to name but three examples used what was known as a QRC or Quick release Coupling Most other NATO vessels used NATO 'A' or 'B' depending on the ship. The QRC needed a lot of 'mandraulic' handling and large dedicated 'spanners', it was also prone to operator error which could result in at best a small leak of spill or at worst a split hose and a spectacular fountain of FFO (Furnace Fuel Oil) - I remember HMY getting an unwanted 60 second makeover like this (without HMQ aboard) the probe once introduced made RAS much faster and comparatively foolproof - although never completely Jack proof. Additionally to abeam RAS, stern RAS was still practised (in theory three vessels could be refuelled simultaneously along with a VERTREP (VERTical REPlenishment - i.e. using helo) of the flight deck, although in practise we simply never had enough deck hands to go around. here are some pics (sorry about the quality) of; HMS Hermes about to pick up the fuel hose for a stern RAS HMS Zulu and a QRC RAS HMS Hermione and a Probe RAS RFA Tarbatness being RASsed by RAF Tidepool and showing RAS hoses on deck as well as the deck fuelling cover and finally me as a young Deck cadet about to fire the line throwing SLR for a RAS, note the stern RAS hose left permanently on deck Enjoy! Posted by: Troy Tempest« on: 16 October 2014, 14:49:44 »Dear all
Being ex RFA I have some late 70's pictures of Replenishment At Sea (RAS), showing hoses etc if interested should I post them here or do we need a new thread? Posted by: minerva« on: 01 October 2014, 07:22:23 »If anyone is building a Castle class and would like another (free) ship builders drawing.
Take a look at my post in General discussions (ships drawings and plans) for a PDF download. of a castle class . This can be downloaded free and printed off in 1/96 scale. - just join the sections together and you have a fully detailed set of drawings. This will augment the Deans plans supplied with the semi kit. The same website also has a River class frigate drawing. Posted by: minerva« on: 28 September 2014, 10:31:16 »On the shipbuilders plans you may find the fueling deck connections.
In reality that's all you'd see on the ship from the outside. Obviously there would also be a RAS strong point adjacent to these connection. (for the jackstay attachment) As for fuel stowage this is in wing tanks and double bottoms, so not discernable on a model. On a carrier there would also be AVCAT filling points in the adjacent area to the FFO filling point. These are the same as FFO deck connections but engaved AVCAT instead of FFO. I'm getting rather "Off Piste" as far as Castle class are concerned arn't I. still that's the nature of the hobby and indeed the forum. Posted by: paul swainson« on: 27 September 2014, 23:59:19 »Thanks for the information, will now look check out the RN plans for HMS Illustrious in the area of the spoonson deck and the lower decks for fuel lines and storage place. I have also been to see the Ship yard build of HMS Indomitable (1/48) at the Navel museum at Yeovilton and took lots of photos and they too have missed this bit of detail.
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