| madaxeman | 12 Jan 2014 5:43 a.m. PST |
Having needed a Rapier battery for some time to round out my Modern British force for Cold War Commander, I finally got round to buying a Heroics & Ros Rapier unit at Warfare 2013, which then sat in my to-do pile for some time as I puzzled how to put it together… Having finally worked it all out, here's the results – hopefully handy for anyone else who's as vexed as I was ! link |
| Gaz0045 | 12 Jan 2014 8:37 a.m. PST |
'Electric Darts'….
Nice little set up- the real set up was the radar tracker, optical tracker (about 5-10 metres apart) then a 20 metre gap to the launcher unit in a 1-2-3 linear fashion, with a generator dug in for each 'trailer' unit. Wheels were always removed and stashed under the 'trailer' or moved into the gennie pit for the launcher (missile back blast etc -not good for tyre tread)…..
The 'little' (2 man job to drag them around)generators were Coventry climax Hillman Imp engines……petrol driven and set up to run constantly with much noise and lots of fumes!!
(Bad news-Blue stripes are for drill rounds- yellow bands designate live rounds/missiles) |
| BattlerBritain | 12 Jan 2014 8:49 a.m. PST |
Also there is actually an operator (man) with his head in the scope on the unit you've got next to the man kneeling looking at a pad. It is a bit difficult to tell from the model, I admit. |
| Gaz0045 | 12 Jan 2014 9:06 a.m. PST |
Yep-I didn't twig that he's there, but you can see the operator in the painted version, he would be sat with his head down looking into binos and his arms inside the control box at the bottom of the unit, in the painted version seen above , the optical tracker needs to be rotated 180' so that the man is sat inline and behind the unit 'frontage' outlined above….. I don't suppose you have a surplus Rapier sprue -enough to make up one stand ? I only need one and H&R sell in 3's…….. |
| madaxeman | 12 Jan 2014 11:18 a.m. PST |
Oh – wow – yes, now I see it – there is a bloke sort of wrapping his arms round it and sticking his face right into the unit ! A very odd pose.. Fixed now and updated on the site… |
| Gaz0045 | 12 Jan 2014 1:01 p.m. PST |
That was quick work!
I didn't pick up on the operator in the tracker at all on first view, thought it was miscast….. and that was my 'spot'…….! |
| Sparker | 12 Jan 2014 2:50 p.m. PST |
All a bit academic – these sites were so well camoflaged – when out jogging in the Falklands near MPA I damn near fell into one of the command pits – never saw a thing until a Gunner stood up and started swearing at me for mussing up his cam net! |
| madaxeman | 12 Jan 2014 4:13 p.m. PST |
Aaaah – so I should probably just be buying some railway modelling foliage and sticking it on a base then ? I'm sure H&R wouldn't appreciate that! :-) |
| Gaz0045 | 13 Jan 2014 4:04 a.m. PST |
Camo'ed if time allowed- we had several permanent sites with concrete lined trenches and hard standings that we could cam up fairly quickly- but the brass liked to deploy with an eye to dummy positions and 'mobility'….ie we would normally get set up, get it working and then get 'prepare to move'……
The cam nets were spread out around the bases of the trackers and launcher to appear as 'hummocks' with the admin area set well back against a tree line preferably…… |
| per ardua | 20 Jun 2016 3:02 a.m. PST |
As a former missile monkey there was a place on the rear of the launch beams that was a perfect bottle opener. I was one of those fellas with his head in the binos and arms in the optical tracker. |
