Cessna 310 - Katanga

[NARSES2]

Coming along nicely 

This builds triggering memories of the ITV/BBC Evening News programmes of the time and one assembly at school. 

[The Rat]

Coming along nicely 

This builds triggering memories of the ITV/BBC Evening News programmes of the time and one assembly at school. 

And me. Pitiful sight each evening. 

[buzzbomb]

Working really well.

[Wardukw]

Lovely bit of paint work on a rather small subject   

[PFJN]

Hi,
That turned out really nice.
Pat

[Weaver]

The Katanga Cessna 310 have been painted. The inspiration came from a N.A. T-6 Texan/Harvard, that served in an other of the 1960s wars - Biafra.

Oh that's pretty: I like "outline" cammo jobs. 

[Weaver]

I spent 10 years in the Australian Army from 1977 to 1988 and during that time I trained a few Army Reserve recruit courses.  I used to teach them to shoot the F1 SMG (which looks like a Stirling turned on it's side with a top mounted magazine).  I used to teach them to hold the SMG into their sides and the left hand on top of the cooling jacket, pointing instinctively at the target.  I used to chop down Figure 11 targets when demonstrating it to the recruits on the 25 metre range.  They learnt similar skills.  My best recruit was a Vietnamese recruit who was a dead-eye Dick.  When I asked him where he had learnt to shoot like that, he said, "In the war."  I then remarked, "In the ARVN?"  He replied, "No, in the VC."  I suggested that he should keep that a bit quiet. 

What did you make of the F1? I hear various conflicting opinions.
Did you ever get a chance to shoot a Stirling, and if so, how did they compare?
The F1 always looked like a decent idea to me, apart, perhaps, from the fragile-looking rear sight.

[mat]

I spent 10 years in the Australian Army from 1977 to 1988 and during that time I trained a few Army Reserve recruit courses.  I used to teach them to shoot the F1 SMG (which looks like a Stirling turned on it's side with a top mounted magazine).  I used to teach them to hold the SMG into their sides and the left hand on top of the cooling jacket, pointing instinctively at the target.  I used to chop down Figure 11 targets when demonstrating it to the recruits on the 25 metre range.  They learnt similar skills.  My best recruit was a Vietnamese recruit who was a dead-eye Dick.  When I asked him where he had learnt to shoot like that, he said, "In the war."  I then remarked, "In the ARVN?"  He replied, "No, in the VC."  I suggested that he should keep that a bit quiet. 

What did you make of the F1? I hear various conflicting opinions.
Did you ever get a chance to shoot a Stirling, and if so, how did they compare?
The F1 always looked like a decent idea to me, apart, perhaps, from the fragile-looking rear sight.

In the danish army and homeguard we were at the time of my service armed with the LMG M/62, which were the the german MG 42, build to NATO 7,62 mm ammunition. It was a fantastic weapon. It would fire 1200 rounds a minute, so you could not hear the single shots. It sounded more like, when you tear a cloth. You could fire shorts burst from the hip, while walking forward. It would really keep the heads down !

[rickshaw]

I spent 10 years in the Australian Army from 1977 to 1988 and during that time I trained a few Army Reserve recruit courses.  I used to teach them to shoot the F1 SMG (which looks like a Stirling turned on it's side with a top mounted magazine).  I used to teach them to hold the SMG into their sides and the left hand on top of the cooling jacket, pointing instinctively at the target.  I used to chop down Figure 11 targets when demonstrating it to the recruits on the 25 metre range.  They learnt similar skills.  My best recruit was a Vietnamese recruit who was a dead-eye Dick.  When I asked him where he had learnt to shoot like that, he said, "In the war."  I then remarked, "In the ARVN?"  He replied, "No, in the VC."  I suggested that he should keep that a bit quiet. 

What did you make of the F1? I hear various conflicting opinions.
Did you ever get a chance to shoot a Stirling, and if so, how did they compare?
The F1 always looked like a decent idea to me, apart, perhaps, from the fragile-looking rear sight.

The F1 was an excellent little SMG.  It's sight might have looked fragile but it was in reality robust enough when it was needed, which wasn't all that often.  I never fired a Stirling but that always look a tad awkward to me with it's side mounted magazine.  The F1's magazine was centrally located and most useful there in brushing vegetation aside just as the Owen's was.  It's trigger group was adapted from the L1a1 SLR's as was the butt.  Basically it could be dropped, stood on and it would keep working.  I've used one to get over obstacles along with the rest of my section and you could use it quite easily afterwards.

[Weaver]

I spent 10 years in the Australian Army from 1977 to 1988 and during that time I trained a few Army Reserve recruit courses.  I used to teach them to shoot the F1 SMG (which looks like a Stirling turned on it's side with a top mounted magazine).  I used to teach them to hold the SMG into their sides and the left hand on top of the cooling jacket, pointing instinctively at the target.  I used to chop down Figure 11 targets when demonstrating it to the recruits on the 25 metre range.  They learnt similar skills.  My best recruit was a Vietnamese recruit who was a dead-eye Dick.  When I asked him where he had learnt to shoot like that, he said, "In the war."  I then remarked, "In the ARVN?"  He replied, "No, in the VC."  I suggested that he should keep that a bit quiet. 

What did you make of the F1? I hear various conflicting opinions.
Did you ever get a chance to shoot a Stirling, and if so, how did they compare?
The F1 always looked like a decent idea to me, apart, perhaps, from the fragile-looking rear sight.

In the danish army and homeguard we were at the time of my service armed with the LMG M/62, which were the the german MG 42, build to NATO 7,62 mm ammunition. It was a fantastic weapon. It would fire 1200 rounds a minute, so you could not hear the single shots. It sounded more like, when you tear a cloth. You could fire shorts burst from the hip, while walking forward. It would really keep the heads down !

So what was your SMG then? Madsen M-50?

[Weaver]

I spent 10 years in the Australian Army from 1977 to 1988 and during that time I trained a few Army Reserve recruit courses.  I used to teach them to shoot the F1 SMG (which looks like a Stirling turned on it's side with a top mounted magazine).  I used to teach them to hold the SMG into their sides and the left hand on top of the cooling jacket, pointing instinctively at the target.  I used to chop down Figure 11 targets when demonstrating it to the recruits on the 25 metre range.  They learnt similar skills.  My best recruit was a Vietnamese recruit who was a dead-eye Dick.  When I asked him where he had learnt to shoot like that, he said, "In the war."  I then remarked, "In the ARVN?"  He replied, "No, in the VC."  I suggested that he should keep that a bit quiet. 

What did you make of the F1? I hear various conflicting opinions.
Did you ever get a chance to shoot a Stirling, and if so, how did they compare?
The F1 always looked like a decent idea to me, apart, perhaps, from the fragile-looking rear sight.

The F1 was an excellent little SMG.  It's sight might have looked fragile but it was in reality robust enough when it was needed, which wasn't all that often.  I never fired a Stirling but that always look a tad awkward to me with it's side mounted magazine.  The F1's magazine was centrally located and most useful there in brushing vegetation aside just as the Owen's was.  It's trigger group was adapted from the L1a1 SLR's as was the butt.  Basically it could be dropped, stood on and it would keep working.  I've used one to get over obstacles along with the rest of my section and you could use it quite easily afterwards.

Cheers - always good to hear from actual end-users as opposed to pundits theorizing from afar. I always wondered why they didn't just make the sight a nice, strong block on the mag well. Sure it'd reduce the sight radius a bit, but as you say, these aren't long-range weapons in the first place.

I gather that everyone's first reaction to the Stirling ("awkward") was the same, but that in practice it wasn't nearly as bad as feared once the handling had got to the stage of muscle memory.

[Old Wombat]

Ooh! Nice camo!

[mat]

I spent 10 years in the Australian Army from 1977 to 1988 and during that time I trained a few Army Reserve recruit courses.  I used to teach them to shoot the F1 SMG (which looks like a Stirling turned on it's side with a top mounted magazine).  I used to teach them to hold the SMG into their sides and the left hand on top of the cooling jacket, pointing instinctively at the target.  I used to chop down Figure 11 targets when demonstrating it to the recruits on the 25 metre range.  They learnt similar skills.  My best recruit was a Vietnamese recruit who was a dead-eye Dick.  When I asked him where he had learnt to shoot like that, he said, "In the war."  I then remarked, "In the ARVN?"  He replied, "No, in the VC."  I suggested that he should keep that a bit quiet. 

What did you make of the F1? I hear various conflicting opinions.
Did you ever get a chance to shoot a Stirling, and if so, how did they compare?
The F1 always looked like a decent idea to me, apart, perhaps, from the fragile-looking rear sight.

In the danish army and homeguard we were at the time of my service armed with the LMG M/62, which were the the german MG 42, build to NATO 7,62 mm ammunition. It was a fantastic weapon. It would fire 1200 rounds a minute, so you could not hear the single shots. It sounded more like, when you tear a cloth. You could fire shorts burst from the hip, while walking forward. It would really keep the heads down !

So what was your SMG then? Madsen M-50?

Nope. The Madsen M-50 were only used by the danish police. The army and homeguard used a swedish M/49 designed by Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärfaktori and in Denmark 15.000 were produced on license.

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[Weaver]

Nope. The Madsen M-50 were only used by the danish police. The army and homeguard used a swedish M/49 designed by Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärfaktori and in Denmark 15.000 were produced on license.

Ah, a toob rather than a tin can then...

[mat]

So now the homemade decals are on, and its time to go to the next step in the build: Undercarriage and weapons.

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