Lee Posted May 4, 2000 Share Posted May 4, 2000 Ah Matt, I see you play Rogue Spear. I play a lot of Rainbow 6 but I'm holding off on getting RS till I upgrade my system. You need smooth frame rates to play a game like that. Never blew up any scale models that I can think of. But love to set off all sorts of fireworks. From firecrackers on up to M-200's and such. Once we tied the fuses of a several M-80's together and lit them and then dropped them into a pipe we stuck in the ground facing straight up. Then we moved away and the first one went off, what we didn't realize was that the first blast had thrown the others in the air and they started falling all around us and blowing up. We would run one way only to have one go off in front of us and then we'd make a mad dash for the opposite way. So there we were, all running around in various directions scared witless trying to avoid the raining M-80's. It's the sort of thing that gets one's attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoop88 Posted May 4, 2000 Share Posted May 4, 2000 Ha! Best thread on this board! As a kid the highlight of July 4 was putting a Black Cat firecracker in the cockpit of a model I no longer wanted, lighting the fuze, throwing the plane in the air and watching it explode. The model was always some private plane (Beechcraft, Cessna, etc.), never one of my WWII fighters. Regarding armor models, anybody here work with the old Bandai 1/48 kits? Incredible detail, always a full crew came with the kit, the interiors were fully modeled, and even the engine was included. They made the Tamiya 1/35 kits look like crap. I'd love to get my hands on the Bandai M60 Patton tank ... never saw it in the stores or in the catalogs during the 1970s and 1980s. A Chinese company (Fuman, I think) has picked up some of the old Bandai line, but from what I can tell they have only done a few of them, such as the King Tiger. I still have dozens of unbuilt Bandai kits in the basement, waiting for the day that I retire or win the lottery. That day should come for the guys at BTS the day after CM comes out, from all the orders these guys deserve. But let's hope they keep it up and continue their great work on CM2, CM3, ad infinitum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gespenster Posted May 4, 2000 Share Posted May 4, 2000 Tanker, Wow, we were there at the same time ... hell I might have spilled a beer on you at Uncle Sam's once or twice (Did you ever go there?)Or perhaps I may have taken out your tank with a Dragon while playing OPFOR at Graff! (God I hated that place) ... As I said earlier, I was with C Company 4/8 INF over at Coleman, and was part of that nasty 3rd BGE move to Ft. Lewis as well ... I was especially pissed when they converted us to 2ID upon arriving at Lewis, I really liked wearing the ole 1AD patch ... Although Lewis was a nice post, it couldn't hang with the Heim. Oh well ... it sure is a small world ... ~J [This message has been edited by Gespenster (edited 05-04-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kunzler Posted May 4, 2000 Share Posted May 4, 2000 This thread is too good to pass up. Too many fond memories. But I haven't seen my personal favorite yet. Some of my best childhood memories involved purchasing a new set of plastic army men and simulating our own war. Yup, we set them up in the sand box, complete with trenches, bunkers, and...tank models. Then we took turns with our BB guns trying to take out the other guy's men. If we had firecrackers, which weren't hard to get, we would light them and throw them at concentrations of the other guys troops, and those were our artillery. Geez, what memories. My mother reminded me of those days, during a visit when she saw me playing Steel Panthers. She said I was reliving my childhood through a computer game. Maybe she was right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mannheim Tanker Posted May 4, 2000 Author Share Posted May 4, 2000 Gespenster: That probably WAS me that you spilled your beer on at Uncle Sam's! What a dive...although not nearly so much as the Skyline I sure hope you weren't firing Dragon's at me at Graf, as that was the LIVE-fire range if I recall! Maybe Hohenfels... I lucked out and had my ETS bumped up 2 months, so I got out in June - RIGHT before the move to Lewis. I DID have to pack all that crap up, though. I remember the customs inspectors actually using Q-tips to look for dirt inside the guts of the vehicles! I must have been pruned-up for a month from all that time on the wash rack. LOL! You're right - small world! Wonder if we'd be allowed to start an OT thread on "Mannheim Reunion"! Your's was the second question that I had on this yesterday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gespenster Posted May 4, 2000 Share Posted May 4, 2000 Skyline! Wasn't that the armpit of Germany? hehe ... Sam's wasn't too bad, at least they played good music ... hell, I met my wife there in 94' You're right ... it wasn't Graff, it was Hohenfels ... and there was also Wildflicken (before they shut it down), God I still have nightmares about those places ... And the washracks ... AHHHHH! God, I use to come into the barracks with a solid sheet of ice over my whole Uniform after a long night washing Bradleys ... I actually thought I had died and gone to the cold version of hell for a while ... I got out in the Summer of 95'... I must have missed the other post, do we have another x-Mannheimer in the CM group? Sweeet, I could talk all day about that place (in case you haven't noticed) ~G [This message has been edited by Gespenster (edited 05-04-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zamo Posted May 5, 2000 Share Posted May 5, 2000 Hey Mannheim, not to digress but, did you do any time at Ft. Lewis? If so I have a question you may be able to answer. One day, five or six years ago, me and some pals were driving along the Tacoma waterfront and came across a train loaded with M1's, Bradleys, and those funny little engineer vehicles. We spent some time checking them out and eventually found a lone, pristine, OD green M-47 Patton sitting on one of the flatcars. All the other vehicles were all desert camo and I figured they were on their way over to Yakima for some field excercise, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me where this M-47 had come from and why was it in factory showroom condition. I had hoped to see it show up at the Ft. Lewis Military Museum, but nope. I REALLY hope it didn't end up as one of the blackend hunks of slag over in Yakima. Any idea? Anyone? Zamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen. Sosaboski Posted May 5, 2000 Share Posted May 5, 2000 Ah, a wonderful thread, please don't close up Steve . I constantly get strange looks for recreating the Normandy landings on a slope of my front lawn by the road. It's great:rocky, dirty, etc. I also do "what ifs" of Germans landing in the UK and Pacific landings. These battles also take place during snow (albeit Russian Front and Battle of the Bulge Style...) Glad to see some people around here who are fellow enthusiasts of classic plastic toy soldiers. ------------------ Sosabowski, 1st Pol. Abn. Yes, I know my name is spelled wrong as a member! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gespenster Posted May 5, 2000 Share Posted May 5, 2000 Hi Zamo, I spent a some time at Lewis. the M-47 that you saw was probably headed for Yakima to be used by the OPFOR (Opposing Force) these guys used M-47's as "enemy" tanks while training our Amored Units. We use to go up against them all the time in our Bradleys ... ~G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zamo Posted May 5, 2000 Share Posted May 5, 2000 Ah! That explains it! I have puzzled over that one for sometime now. I didn't know we still had any in the inventory, but I'm sure there are all sorts of things at various depots... ...Now we can get back to home-made napalm and model mayhem... Zamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mannheim Tanker Posted May 6, 2000 Author Share Posted May 6, 2000 hey Zamo: Sorry this is a little late, but I didn't get to the forum yesterday because I had laser surgery on my peepers Now I'm playing CM sans glasses! I DIDN't make it to Ft Lewis, but I did help pack up all of the equipment for the move. I ETS'ed to the states a week before my BN moved stateside. I can tell you that there was also at least one Sherman, a Chaffee, and a WWII halftrack (can't remember what kind) sent back to Lewis. They sat on static display in front of the barracks and BN HQ for a couple of decades in Mannheim. My guess is that tank you saw could have been a static display from another BN (EVERYONE in Germany seemed to have a big collection of these things for some reason). Spenster: Did they really use M47's for OPFOR at Lewis? I know they use M60's at Hohenfels and IIRC at Ft. Irwin, Ca (NTC). On a side note: we trained with some Turkish troops in 1993 that were STILL using M47's! Talk about culture shock/reality check when we took them downrange in M1A1 heavies (Edited for crapping typing) ------------------ The original point and click interface was a Smith and Wesson. [This message has been edited by Mannheim Tanker (edited 05-06-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPeng Posted May 6, 2000 Share Posted May 6, 2000 Ok, here is an example of idiot behavior: When my old man was 12 he built pipe bombs with his best buddy. His buddy went deaf in one ear from an accidental explosion and my dad lost most of his left hand (and he is left handed!). Just the index finger and thumb left. THE HOOK. So did that stop me from cutting open Estes model rocket engines to get the powder out of them when I was 12? NOT ON YOUR LIFE. That stuff burned great: fast and hot and it went WOOF! Wrap foil around a pen to make a bunch of little tubes and you could turn one big rocket engine into a bunch of little rockets that would rain terror down on the enemy's little green plastic army men. woohoo! Peng - browsing for the Estes web site! ------------------ Peng sez "die a lot now." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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