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Click Photo For Enlargement (180 Kb)
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Bunker Comet Debut
John tests the Bunker Comet's (FA005)
marker before the battle with a hand-held chrono
that was purchased by the club. All markers must shoot at 250 fps
or less to participate in a battle. That rate has been proven
sufficient and safe over the course of many battles. The Bunker Comet
proved to be an effective weapon during all the battles and was the
focus of many assaults.
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Tale of Two Turrets
The next two photos show two ways to layout a turret, based on a couple years
of experience and many variations. Here, the Cromwell turret has everything
mounted to the turret base and the entire top is removed to gain clear
access to everything. A wooden tray serves as the magazine, a belt
operates the elevate and the CO2 bottle is tucked nicely next to the marker.
See T040 for more details about the Cromwell turret.
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Click Photo For Enlargement (128 Kb)
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Click Photo For Enlargement (94 Kb)
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The Tiger turret has similar ease-of-access to all components by using
a flip up top. A molded kevlar round hopper serves as the magazine, feeding
the marker through a copper pipe and coiled wire joint (designed
and patented by Will Montgomery). The CO2 bottle is securely mounted in
a metal bracket and manual bypass buttons are mounted to allow easy testing
of the elevate and trigger controls without the gamepad turned on.
See T001 for more details about the Tiger turret.
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MEB Goes To Town
The Marlow Engineering Battalion (MEB) worked tirelessly throughout both
days to not only build a large village, named Marlowville, but they
also repaired components, rearranged barricades and operated vehicles
throughout the battle.
The large barn being constructed here would become a major legal problem
between the MEB and Tyng Industries due to the Cromwell's tendency to run it
over. In fact, in one of the videos the Cromwell is battling with a piece
of the barn hanging onto the tank. The MEB presented Tyng Industries with
an invoice for required repairs.
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Click Photo For Enlargement (143 Kb)
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Click Photo For Enlargement (187 Kb)
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Frank helps the MEB by hauling a load of barricades out to the village site.
The tall grass in the foreground is very effective at hiding tanks from
artillery and other tanks, while still allowing them to move into attack
positions.
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Development Runs Rampant in Marlowville
Marlowville starts to take form. It will eventually consist of a large barn,
farmer's house, 4 large walls, 7 small barricades, 38 tank traps and a large
wooden tree. The village is a big part of every battle, focusing the action
and excitement.
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Click Photo For Enlargement (186 Kb)
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Click Photo For Enlargement (225 Kb)
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The completed village with tank traps placed in strategic areas (like the
tall grass just outside the village) to keep the opposition at bay.
As Marlowville expands in size the
residents are starting to grumble about "over-development" and "smart-growth
plans". However, whenever tanks rolled through the village, all such talked
subsided and the citizens were crying for more obstacles and barricades.
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During one of the scenarios, the teams were required to provide taxi service
for the General's Wife who was waiting patiently outside her country estate.
Both teams were vying to make the pickup and take her to a destination
in enemy territory (the General's Wife likes shopping in dangerous areas).
The only problem was that nobody informed her security service, consisting
of the Comet Bunker, Navarone Gun and Rocket Man, who defended the village
against both teams. The first 3-way team battle in the hobby.
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Click Photo For Enlargement (313 Kb)
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Click Photo For Enlargement (576 Kb)
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Rocket Man came well equiped for battle, with more computer processing
on-board than the Apollo moon-landing used. Almost everything worked on
the rookie vehicle except for the steering, which prevented it from
being fully operational. Nonetheless, Doug put it on the field and
battled it as hard as he could, winning him much respect from all the
veterans.
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NASA Looking For Missing Astronaut Backpack
No, it's not one of the NASA astronaut suits ... it's the backpack
used by Doug Conn to control Rocket Man, which is completely controlled
using common computer and WIFI technology. Doug can not only control
the vehicle, but can also receive real-time telemetry and video from it.
Of course, hauling the gear around is a little more demanding than carrying
around a PS2 gamepad!!
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