Jump to content
Please support this forum by joining the SH Patreon ×
Sturgeon's House

GMerlon

Contributing Members
  • Posts

    34
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by GMerlon

  1. This is probably sacrilegious, but this is the best place on the forum that I know where to post these. I've been playing around with a new 3D printer I have and craft art paints from Wal-mart (along with a black wash I've happened to have laying around for a few years). For less than $10 in material for a tank, this is what you could get (All tanks are at 1/50th scale).

     

    vTtuhnP.jpg

    eIpcEnR.jpgrX1v83n.jpgnyX8bKX.jpg

     

  2. Some examples of some experimental Japanese body armor from the 1930s and 1940s, all from this page (Google chrome can make a reasonable translation of the text).

     

    A 'tortoise shield', apparently devised specifically to fight against the Soviet Union after the border clashes in there in the late 1930s.

    kame01.jpg

     

    kame02.jpgkame03.jpg

     

    An early "bullet proof" vest:

    92ar02.jpg

     

    Apparently they issued several times of shields too, one of which appears to double as a breastplate:

    kei01.jpgkei02.jpgjyuu01.jpgjyuu02.jpgshitate01.JPG

  3. 5 hours ago, Beer said:

     

     

    I wasn't able to find anything that directly said that the US government acknowledged sending a signed copy of the letter. Do you have a source for that? The Iraqi prime minister states that he did receive one though, but I haven't seen any images of it online anywhere. This isn't too necessarily say that it didn't necessarily happen, but the original revealers of the letter and the Iraqi PM both have political motive for wanting such a thing exposed.

     

    Perhaps more pressing now, Iran has apparently launched missiles at US troops.

  4. 5 hours ago, Beer said:

    It's no mistake of the media. The US actually delivered this "draft" letter to Iraqi government. The leak came from Iraq and US representatives confirmed the story. They are either bunch of clowns or somebody did it in purpose. 

     

    https://mobile.twitter.com/LizSly/status/1214297805659017222

     

    And the official response to why it is exists.

     

    While perhaps not the finest moment of American military history, in some respects, it's not that surprising that something like this happened. There's a lot of moving parts in organizations like this, and especially with an unsigned draft, that means almost nothing. When I was a lower enlisted man in the army, I made drafts for several majors and a full-bird colonel. Mind you, I wasn't in communications or a secretorial position at all. It was just something that happened out of displaying competence within my unit. A lot of times it was for contingency situations or rather dry items ("Permission to extend sick leave, the new SHARP trainer is", etc). Later on, if they liked or approved it for distribution, then it would get signed, become official, and finally circulated outside. 

     

    My educated guess is that someone probably swapped it up accidentally with a different memo regarding air transport for something actually going on right now. Or alternatively, someone was trying to give someone else an unofficial heads-up of what might be in the works or how something might look.

  5. Part of me thinks that we should perhaps start moving some of this discussion to the US/Iran flirting with quagmire thread, since it looks like we're starting to report commentary as well.

     

    Petraeus just gave an interview on the US-Iran conflict. Perhaps the most salient bit to me:

     

    Quote

     

    MCAMMON: And what's your prediction?

    PETRAEUS: ...Iran now respond? Well, I think Iran is not in the strongest of positions, given the sanctions, a dismal economy and widespread Iranian popular unrest. So I tend to think it is more likely that we will see a variety of proxy attacks. And again, Iran has a lot of proxies throughout the region, thanks to the efforts of Qassem Soleimani. But really, this comes down to whether or not this has restored some degree of deterrence, which clearly was lacking, given what Iran and their proxies were doing throughout the region, and steadily ratcheting the efforts upward.

     

     

    The Brookings Institute has a series of brief commentaries from their 'experts' .Unsurprisingly, center-left views dominant much, but not all, of this work. There are some interesting links to outside sources in there as well.

     

    EDIT: couple more interesting articles as well:

     

    How Soleimani's killing could make a stronger Iraq

     

    Does Soleimani's death matter?

     

     

     

  6. Ran across an older book on some tanks, and found some that didn't instantly recognize when flipping through it. See if your guessing is as good as mine. Model names and country are listed in the spoilers below each picture:

    Bx13TCm.jpg

    Spoiler

    Fiat Tipo 2000 (Italy)

     

    1CxLy2u.jpg

    Spoiler

    Ford three man tank Mark I (USA)

     

    oVBhfM8.jpg

    Spoiler

    A3E1 (UK)

     

    zihSN4R.jpg

    Spoiler

    Vickers 6-ton (UK; shown in Chinese service)

     

    tW9WtMi.jpg

    Spoiler

    AMR 33 / Renault Type VM (France)

     

  7. Interesting gallery of improvised (and likely illegal) guns. Some of them look like they're props, however, rather than real guns. In any case, here are some of the highlights:

     

    For when a high-capacity magazine isn't just enough dakka.

    p6jfzRv.jpg

     

    For Dinosaur hunting:

    I9uA9wp.jpg

    Warhammer 40k Tacticool Bolter:

    pJQqhM0.jpg

    One shot, one kill (you hope, anyways):

    HxVrAIw.jpg

    Bit of a Rube Goldberg contraption:

    rizaqs2.jpg

     

×
×
  • Create New...