View allAll Photos Tagged accuracy
Yes the Sony a7 IV has Eye-AF accuracy issues. Several shots and even complete series have been out of focus. Often focus is not as good as it should be, therefore pictures are not as detailed as they could be if focused correctly.
Boskord Defense ={Colossi line}= - Experimental weapon Model 30 Heavy Assault Rifle System ''Angelika''
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Cartridge: 7.92x45mm
Magazine: 20 or 30-round(7.92), 6-round magazine(12 gauge)
Accuracy: Medium
Rate of fire: 750 rounds per minute
Range: 500-600 meters
Warfighting isn't easy business. There are many, many matters in your fight. One of these matters is the superiority. The most important rule of gunfighting is: Always win, cheat if necessary. NEVER give the enemy a fair fight. For this reason, we make you the toughest, heaviest, hardiest, deadliest weapons in the universe, in the best ways possible.
XM-30 HARS - You are NEVER safe
I have to say, the OICW was one hell of a concept. Even though those guns were heavy as fuck, they were supposed to be - They are squad support weapons, not assault rifles. When that fucker hides behind that tank, you can't just throw him a grenade, or shoot him. You have to send him some nice package of airburst grenades. But what if... lightweight? What about a good old package of FRAG-12? I'd say heck yes!
The XM-30 is newly developed by Boskord. It holds a fairly simple reason: More guns. Just one gun is never enough. You need more, but your men cannot carry all of them? Then let 'em carry some more stuff! Maybe like some nice 12 gauge rounds to go with those 7.92x45 millimeter rounds, eh?
You see, you never gotta underestimate your enemy. If they found some good cover, it might be a pain to eliminate them. But how are you gonna do it? By some SMART-12 bombs, the smarter version of our dumb FRAG-12s! Just aim and fire, it'll find the target and explode in midair. The round wasn't enough? LET THEM CRY SOME MORE, FIRE THAT THING UP!
If you're having some problems with those speedy bitches, just load up some nice 12 gauge buckshots. You see, easy enough.
Most troopers are issued with 4 12 gauge magazines. 2 of them are loaded with SMART/FRAG-12s, while others are loaded with buckshots and slugs.
Do not have mercy upon your enemy. Give 'em hell - Either by your 7.92 rounds, or SMART-12 rounds, or by some buckshots. Or maybe smash his head with your gun, that is appropriate too. Having some trouble working that electronic scope? Just turn it off. It does have backup reticles in case your battery runs dry! Also, if it's too big for your pleasures, check that little backup red dot sight top of it. It can be easily turned on or off from either side. Homever, we recommend that you don't keep it turned on for too long. Its battery is usually enough but it doesn't have a damn accumulator.
Our weapons are known to be made of cheap, easily-available and reliable material. With the swift, accurate and incredibly cheap power of the Boskord, you will rule the battlefield - All by the Turkish power!
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I had made it yesterday but due to late times I had to go to bed and upload it tomorrow. This thing was one hell of a pain for me, but damn I think it was worth it. Enjoy! :)
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Credit goes to Semi, for the idea of having a background.
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Miscellanous
You like some more rails? Check this out then:
Photo via Grizzly Bay by way of Kinship Circle.
Copyright info via Grizzly Bay: Use text and photos freely. Help us spread the truth by adding our banner (see bottom)
Caption: Sarah Palin proudly displaying a grizzly bear her father killed.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kinship Circle - kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net
Date: Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 3:19 PM
Subject: ACT/ Palin¹s Pro-Death Platform
KINSHIP CIRCLE PRIMARY - PERMISSION TO CROSS-POST AS WRITTEN
9/27/08: Palin’s Pro-Death Platform On Animals
Next Thursday, October 2, Washington University in St. Louis hosts the vice presidential debate featuring Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden. With the spotlight on vice-prez nominees, you have a great opportunity to send comments to newspapers, blogs and discussions. Let voters know about Governor Sarah Palin’s relentless assault on wildlife and environment.
Whatever your political affiliation, Palin is clearly NOT the candidate for animals....and animals are the focus of this list.
Below are talking points and ideas for your comments, but NEVER COPY AND SEND A FORM LETTER to a newspaper or other media. As soon as an “organized campaign” is suspected, comments are discarded.
======================
SARAH PALIN: THE CLIFF NOTES
======================
Top Facts Everyone Must Know About Sarah Palin
www.grizzlybay.org/SarahPalinInfoPage.htm
1) She opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest (even child victims).
www.naral.org/elections/election-pr/pr08292008_palin.html
2) She offered a bounty of $150 for each front leg of freshly killed wolves.
www.alternet.org/environment/97207
3) As Wasilla’s mayor, she made rape victims pay for forensic evidence kits.
news.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1118416...
4) She advocates aerial hunting of wolves and bears even though Alaskans voted twice to ban the practice.
www.hsus.org/wildlife_abuse/news/aerial_hunting_alaska_08...
www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8851174
VIDEO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T85cOGc8L0
5) She strongly supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/510779.html
6) She used $400,000 in state money to fund propaganda for aerial hunting.
“$400,000 approved to educate Alaskans about wolf killing”
dwb.adn.com/front/story/9253882p-9168881c.html
7) She champions big oil, with a campaign slogan "Drill, baby, drill!"
blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/09/04/palins-poli...
8) She wants creationism taught in public schools.
www.thelangreport.com/religion-or-lack-of/sarah-palin-wan...
9) She believes man-made global warming is a farce.
blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/palin-global-wa....
10) She opposes listing the polar bear as an endangered species because it might limit oil exploitation.
www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN214509782008...
11) As Wasilla’s mayor, she tried to fire the city librarian because the librarian refused to censor books.
mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/what-is-mccain-thinking...
www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/515512.html
12) She supports the Alaskan Independence Party which seeks independence from the United States.
www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-aip3-2008sep03,0,6399...
13) She is presently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power.
14) She opposes listing the Cook Inlet beluga whale as endangered.
www.defendersactionfund.org/newsroom/sarah_palin.html#ESA
15) She has no international experience and obtained her first passport just last year (2007). Oh yea, but she can sort of see Russia when she looks really hard out her window.
www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/politics/30veep.html
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SARAH PALIN: NO FRIEND TO WOLVES
======================
Brenda Shoss’ Letter to the Editor
DO NOT COPY THIS LETTER
DO use it to jumpstart ideas...and send comments to your paper, news blog...
Aerial killing of predators: fair conservation or inhumane?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Fair conservation or inhumane? Aerial wolf hunts have nothing to do with conversation and everything to do with boosting moose and caribou populations for Alaska’s lucrative hunting industry.
A hunter in a low-flying aircraft aims his assault rifle at terrified wolves with no camouflage against a backdrop of white snow. A same-day airborne hunter harasses wolves till exhausted, then corners them in snow banks and fires away at close range. Is this inhumane? Duh.
In 1972, Congress enacted the Federal Airborne Hunting Act to ban use of an aircraft to “shoot for the purpose of capturing or killing any bird, fish, or other animal” or to “harass any bird, fish, or other animal.” Yet Governor Palin, and previous Governor Frank Murkowsi, permit private hunters to slaughter wolves from aircrafts under the guise of “conservation.”
Alaskan voters passed ballot measures in both 1996 and 2000 to ban aerial and land-and-shoot wolf hunts. In one of many polls (this one conducted by Dittman Research Corporation) responders, including hunters, disapproved of aerial predator-control as a system to augment moose and caribou numbers.
Ultimately, politicians have failed to produce a definitive scientific assessment that justifies aerial wolf hunts. In fact, many studies attest to the valuable predatory role wolves play in an ecosystem. Wolves help sustain caribou and moose herds by eliminating old, feeble, and sick individuals and fortifying gene pools over time. Aerial gunning, on the other hand, has yet to undergo site-specific studies to measure its effect on local ecosystems.
Sarah Palin calls hovering in planes to blow away wolves a “safari.” I call her bounty offer of $150 for a front leg of a freshly killed wolf “sadistic.” But Palin is determined to eke out every last penny before her state’s fish and wildlife die out. This summer, Palin poured $400,000 of taxpayer money into her mission to defeat Measure 2 -- an initiative to ban aerial wolf hunts as sport. Those of us who dispute sportsmen bombing wildlife from planes simply don’t “understand rural Alaska.”
Sarah Palin is the one who fails to understand that violence against nature is not an effective campaign tool. Most voters are savvy enough to oppose Palin’s pro-death platform on animals and environment.
— Brenda Shoss
11:01 am September 27, 2008
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!!! STOP HERE IF YOU CAN’T TAKE GRAPHIC (REALITY) PHOTOS !!!
======================
Sarah Palin’s Family Album
PHOTO SOURCE: The Truth About Sarah Palin
www.grizzlybay.org/SarahPalinInfoPage.htm
======================
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I came up with this very simple solution to test how accurate the faster speeds of my old cameras are. Testing the slower speeds is simple. You can do that with a computer and microphone. But when it comes to 1/125 or faster, you have a problem.
The solution is: MOTION BLUR!
You need:
- A record player that has a strobe. The strobe is used to fine tune the speed of the record player to 33 1/3 RPM or 45 RPM. We actually do not need the strobe but the dots.
- Your old camera and a roll of film.
- A trustworthy camera with accurate shutter speeds. I used my EOS 1000D.
1. Let the record player go as fast a possible, e.g. 45 RPM + 9%
2. With both cameras, take photos of the dots (not the strobe) at all shutter speeds.
3. Compare with photos of the old camera with the photos of the other camera. The times must be the same if the motion blur of the moving dots is the same.
The photo shows an example. The test revealed here that the 1/125 s of my P6 is actually 1/500 s. I knew it was off but didn't know it was that much. As it was serviced a while ago I can now ask for a proper speed adjustment on warranty.
A team of physicians prepare a young gang member, with three gunshot wounds, for a surgery in the operating room of a public hospital in San Salvador, El Salvador. © Jan Sochor Photography
Testing the shutter speed accuracy of a 1957 Asahi Pentax "AP" film single lens reflex using a Phochron XA shutter speed tester. I purchased one of the last Phochron units, direct from the inventor Eric Bergstrom. I contributed to his kickstarter when he was developing the unit, but only got around to purchasing one after he decided to end production. He only had left a few units where the plastic case was not completely finished (the holes were never cut for the openings). Until I get around to cutting the holes, I can still use the unit as-is. It works fine, as does this 65 year old camera. The shutter speeds are pretty accurate - here the test of the 1/100 s speed shows 1/111 s. Photo taken with the HD Pentax-FA 31mm Limited lens on a Pentax K-1 II DSLR.
In all truthfulness and accuracy, it is called the Miles River and it is an arm of the Chesapeake Bay on Maryland's Eastern Shore,
relatively near the town of Easton. If I had a dollar for all of the sunsets I shot from this shoreline, I would have a bushel basket full of dollars, which I could definitely use, being a senior citizen on a fixed income. How could this be arranged, I wonder?
This particular evening featured another in a long line of marvelous sunset views from this vantage point, each one unique and different from every single one that came before it. For sunsets are like humans. No two are exactly alike.
The foreground rocks here are called "rip-rap" and are an added addition to many waterfront properties to help ward off the forces of erosion. And here I thought it was just another street name for a band of hoodlums. Kinda close.
To my eyes, the water here was about as pretty as water gets,
which set my gears in motion to make a ridiculous amount of photographic captures here. Of course I took the time to just
look and enjoy as well. No sense going nuts here and missing the whole point of the scintillating scenic experience right before your eyes. There is such a thing as "photo-obsessive". I go to their meetings once a week.
The skinny spit of land across the river houses the lovely waterman's town of St Michaels, MD which, in turn, houses a fabulous and nearly iconic restaurant called the Crab Claw. If I had a dollar for every time I ate there and ordered up ..........
stop me if you've heard this one before.
I have encountered thousands of magnificent sunsets in my lifetime, having lived in Hawaii and California for about a year each, both places often referred to as the king and queen of sunsets. I have also photographed a high percentage of them. It would be impossible to rank them of course, much less remember them individually. But this sunset scene absolutely ranks right up there for its "astounding water coloration", easily sweeter than the sky itself. Soul-soothing in spades, I'd say.
If the states of calmness, peacefulness and serenity could be represented in one visual, water-themed package, this scene would be in serious contention for a gold star. I'm very grateful that I happened to be there then, so that you can be there now.
___________________________________
PS (For the largest impact and to fully maximize your enjoyment
of this scene, please pack away your smartphones and view this image on the biggest monitor you can beg, borrow or steal. Bigger is most definitely better in this case. Much, much better. In the event of making choice # 3, your interaction with the police may be problematic. I never said or suggested anything.)
Ground glass accuracy test.
I have found that Ilford RC paper sensitivity depends on lighting conditions as I have exposed it from ISO2 to ISO25.
Ilford MG RC pearl 17,8x24 cm taped into 8x10 holder
ISO 6 (heavy clouds)
F6.8 1sec
Ilford Multigrade dev 1+14 2.5min
Fomafix
Canonscan 1200dpi, rescaled to 600dpi
PS CC, invert, flip, adjust contrast
Precision, speed and accuracy are the hallmark of the astounding mechanism developed by the United Nations to record its multilingual proceedings. These behind-the-scene pictures show the life story of an official record, from the spoken word to the printed document.
The representatives have 48 hours to check their speeches and send in their corrections to the editors who incorporate them in the revised edition, which is most painstakingly prepared for publication. Correct spelling of names is written out on a blackboard to ensure uniformity throughout the document. All the above operations are carried out by the Official Records Division.
c. 1948
Looking at all this sheer accuracy and detailing you'd naturally think Norevs were expensive! They are surprisingly cheap, more expensive than a Majorette but less so than a clunky inferior Siku! Most of their amazing "three inch" line are usually obtained online and from respective car dealerships but in France they can still be found in various toy shops and supermarkets.
There is a lot of intricate features on this Peugeot 3008 with even its wheel trims being factory accurate and intense grille work add to authenticity.
This was found in an E.leclerc supermarket recently.
Mint and boxed.
Precision, speed and accuracy are the hallmark of the astounding mechanism developed by the United Nations to record its multilingual proceedings. These behind-the-scene pictures show the life story of an official record, from the spoken word to the printed document.
Official Records of the Security Council in Russian (open) and translations into other official languages:
English, French, Chinese and Spanish.
c. 1948
Well, I don't know how long it will last, considering all the issues I'm facing, but I'm back photographing skydiving competitions. It was good to see the team again, meet new faces, hold a camera again.
This is a rather unusual picture : that red suit is generally reserved for "style" competitions, and skydivers are not supposed to do both style and accuracy landing in the same jump. They did, back in the day, but they don't anymore. So it was rare to see it happen. Anyway.
EOS R, RNI film preset, film grain overlay, that's all for the post processing.
Traveling through Wyoming, this was a recurring theme. Google Maps tried to feed me a wrong turn and send me down a little used rural road instead of having me continue to the next main highway on several occasions. A few of those “recommended” roads were little more than private roads into someone’s ranch.
Looking at this in Google Maps' street view, the two lower signs are not present in the latest view of this road (Nov 2021), so this seems to be a VERY recent update!
Remarkable for its accuracy and light recoil, the GLOCK 21 Gen4 delivers the legendary stopping power of the .45 AUTO round with 10/13 round magazine capacity. The Modular Back Strap design on the G21 Gen4 lets you instantly customize its grip to adapt to an individual shooter's hand size. The surface of the frame employs the new scientifically designed, real-world-tested, Gen4 rough textured technology. Internally, the new GLOCK dual recoil spring assembly substantially increases the life of the system. A reversible enlarged magazine catch, changeable in seconds, accommodates left or right-handed operators. The Gen4 system is the perfect complement to this iconic .45 caliber cartridge.
accuracy, persitency and hard working daily life. He has been working it since 1982 and I have been his loyal customer for six years. Sunday afternoon in front of my house...
Dive bombing requires precise maneuverability and accuracy to fly at steep trajectory and hit a moving target. The Douglas SBD Dauntless was sturdy enough for pilots to dive at a near-vertical 80 degrees. To help maintain control during such steep dives, the Dauntless incorporated perforated split flaps or "dive-brakes" on the trailing edge of the wing, which are extended on this plane.
The US Navy’s primary dive-bomber at the war’s start, the bomber earned its reputation — and helped earn victory — at the 1942 Battle of Midway, sinking four Japanese carriers. By some accounts, the Dauntless sank more Japanese ships than any other plane.
SBD-3, Bureau Number (BuNo) 06508 was built by Douglas Aircraft Company at El Segundo, California and is a combat veteran of the Guadalcanal Campaign operating from Henderson Field by Marine Scout Bombing Squadrons (VMSB) 141 and 132. In the spring of 1943, BuNo 06508 was assigned to Navy Bombing Squadron 10 aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise for a short time before being returned to the States to serve as a trainer at Naval Air Station Glenview, Illinois. In November 1944, this aircraft was lost on a training flight in Lake Michigan where it remained until 1990 when it was recovered by the US Navy and restored to its present condition.
Seen at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Garden façade of the main building of Schwetzingen Palace and Gardens, Schwetzingen, Rhine-Neckar metropolitan area, Baden-Wuerttemberg
Some background information:
Schwetzingen Palace is a Baroque palace in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is situated in in the town of Schwetzingen, near the larger cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim. Schwetzingen was the summer residence of the Electors Palatine Charles III Philip and Charles IV Theodore (both of the House of Wittelsbach). Next to the palace itself and the most notable, spacious and ornate gardens, the compound also features a palace theatre, which is still in use today.
The origins of Schwetzingen Palace date back to 1350, when a small moated castle occupied the site. The main building, as it is still today, replaces a 17th-century hunting lodge built on the foundations of the moated castle of which it also retains some foundations and walling (hence the slightly irregular layout). It was built in its current form in several building campaigns between 1700 and 1750. Construction began in the reign of Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz, for whom the palace was not yet to be an official summer residence, but a simple hunting lodge. The palace owes its current form to the Prince Elector Johann Wilhelm, who commissioned alterations in 1697. The addition of two wings, which mainly served as orangeries, significantly increased its size.
After Schwetzingen Palace had become the official summer residence of the electorate, the whole court – altogether more than 1,500 people – had to move to Schwetzingen in the time between the beginning of April and the beginning of November. The decision to make Schwetzingen the summer residence was owed to the fact that Mannheim as the elector’s former all-season seat, smelled badly during the summers. At that time, Mannheim was a major city and the streets were full of horse droppings, which exhaled a disgusting stench in the warmer times of the year.
That’s why Schwetzingen flourished under the Palatine Prince Elector Charles IV Theodore (1724 to 1799). However, it was his wife, Countess Palatine Elisabeth Auguste of Sulzbach, who wore the breeches and de facto ruled the Palatinate and Bavaria during the first half of their marriage. It was her, who was the legal heir by birth, but could not come into inheritance, as she was no male heir. Therefore her marriage with Charles IV Theodore was arranged to avoid a potential inheritance dispute within the different family branches. Not until 1760, it was reported that Charles IV Theodore freed himself from her dominance. However, all his life Charles IV Theodore was more interested in arts than in politics. In particular he was taken by music. Hence it is not surprising that even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a guest at Schwetzingen Palace three times.
Under Elisabeth Auguste and Charles IV Theodore, Schwetzingen Palace reached the height of splendour. Both instructed the leading landscape architects of the age to design the gardens, including the Frenchman Nicolas de Pigage and later the German Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, with assistance from many renowned artists. From 1749 onwards, they created a masterpiece of rare beauty and rich variety. The central part of the gardens, including the wings of the main building, which form a semi-circle each, leafy avenues and a circular parterre, is laid out geometrically, with a focus on symmetry and order. In the late 18th century, an English-style landscape park was added to the Baroque garden – the Arborium Theodoricum, as it is called, is one of the earliest of its kind in Germany.
Schwetzingen Palace Gardens are a cultural heritage site of European significance: more than 100 sculptures are scattered throughout this wonderful, and at times surprising, landscape. An assortment of whimsical buildings lends an exotic touch. The temple of Apollo, a small, round building, houses a statue of the ancient Greek god of light and the arts, playing the lyre. The bath house is a summerhouse with its own garden, modelled on an Italian villa. And, most spectacularly, in the Turkish gardens, there is a mosque designed by Nicolas de Pigage – the largest structure of its kind in a German garden. The mosque is also the earliest mosque-style building in Germany. It was built between 1779 and 1791, at a time when the “Turkish” style was fashionable in Germany. Ornamented with oriental details, the late-Baroque building was purely decorative and served no religious purpose.
Today Schwetzingen Palace and Gardens are open to the public. The electoral 18th-century rooms can be visited within a guided tour, but unfortunately it is not allowed to take photos of the palace’s interior.
Today, the town of Schwetzingen has more than 22,000 residents. In 766, it was first mentioned in a document. Originally it consisted of two settlements – Ober- and Unterschwetzingen – that grew together in the course of the 17th and 18th century. Both settlements belonged to the diocese of Worms, but later passed to the Counts of the Palatinate in the 12th century. Nowadays, Schwetzingen is not only known for its palace, but also for the cultivation of asparagus, of which it is said that it is the best asparagus throughout Germany. Asparagus is cut from early April to mid-June and during this time you can taste many different asparagus dishes in almost all restaurants of the town.
Detail, Sharpness, Color Accuracy and Framing were all the qualities I wanted in this image.
How?
When I talk Sharpness, I want to see individual trees with branches and rocks on the mountain. At 200% or 300%, I don't want to see any halo or very faint. The sky should be as I remember it. The grass should be as lush and green as I remember it. And, I wanted the tree in the foreground in the photo in its full glory and I wanted the Moon.
I did this photo hand held at 5:00p.m. I still had more than two hours drive ahead of me. Rather than using my tripod, I used a fence post. Well, when a photographer gets lazy, then he has to make compromises. The compromise to minimize camera and shutter shake, I used 1/250sec, which required f/9.0 versus f/16.0.
As I have written elsewhere, Hazed is a problem in Tasmania.
I merged two photos and merged them again, until the software cooperated.
I used a program to neutralize the Haze, but the damger is introducing too much blue and other unflattering qualities.
Exposure for the landscape was a compromise because I also wanted some detail in the Moon. It still was insufficient, but I did not want to loose detail in the landscape. So, I simply enlarged the photo so I could accurately "dodge" the Moon.
If there are any clouds in my scene, I want them to look like clouds and not bright white smears on blue. So, I had to play a little with them.
Oh, and there was Spot Removal, as the Spots seem to become enhanced after I start playing.
Then Sharpening at 200% and 300%.
Then Cropping. There might have been a few more steps.
Every time I process and post-process a digital image I really treasure or want to make something of, I think it is not really any more efficient than film processing.
Not sure the convenience of digital was worth killing film manufacturers and the variety of films they produced for us.
Or, maybe I fuss too much.
A gentle reminder about copyright and intellectual property-
Ⓒ Cassidy Photography (All images in this Flickr portfolio)
Yes, the Sony a7 IV has Eye-AF accuracy issues. It often tends to front focus at normal portrait distances and I've experienced a back focus for full body portraits as well.
The camera had a very good day. But still several shots have been out of focus.
Hot, hot morning = heat distortion (amplified by a 4° angle of view)
Forgot to turn off IS1 (genius)
Handheld.
3/23 frames are legitimately out of focus, a couple more are soft or blurred thanks to heat distortion or Image Stabilization being on the wrong setting.
That's 87% accuracy.
That's awesome.
Gearheads, view the 14.25mb 8000px original size on your blazing fast internet:
www.flickr.com/photos/brb_photography/7666546034/sizes/o/...
Some folks know I work with assistive technology, and this shot is one from many I took in the last few days at a conference in Phoenix. This product is a web camera and computer monitor in one, with the computer user able to control all computer navigation with just eyes. This model features dual eye-tracking. If you look at the largest sizes, you can see the crosshairs registering on the pupil of each eye. Literally with the blink of either eye, the cursor will move, allowing navigation. This demonstator was playing freecell when I walked up to watch him working with the AT. Here, he showed me the registration setting where the device would fix the accuracy to both eyes.
EyeTech - Eye-Gazing Tracking System", using Quick Glass 3 as a mouse-replacement and monitor for Windows 98 through XP.
The new underground line between Washermanpet and Korukkupet readied by the Chennai Metro Rail Limited. This line included two station as part of Phase 1 extension to Wimco Nagar. The line will offer the residents of North Chennai neighbourhoods access to the transport system. It is expected to be ready in 20 months after contract are awarded.
2 kms of the line will run beneath the northern suburbs of New Washerman pet and Korukkupet. The alignment from Thyagaraya College to Korukkupet Junction have been formed up. Also, authorities have marked areas of potential impact of work on the buildings around proposed stations and tunnels.
According to sources, the silty clay soil will make it easy for boring machine to cut through. However, as the stations have to be built around the 2 km stretch, which is extremely congested, the underground stations will be tough. Phase I of the extension line will begin at Washermanpet underground station. This is part of the Airport - Washermanpet corridor. The tunnel for the line will begin near the Mint flyover. This will be bored under the railway line to Beach station.
The Ilyushin Il-2 (Cyrillic Илью́шин Ил-2) was a ground-attack aircraft (Shturmovik) in the Second World War, produced by the Soviet Union in very large numbers. In combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330 were built, making it the single most produced military aircraft design in all of aviation history, as well as one of the most produced piloted aircraft in history along with the Cessna 172 and the Polikarpov Po-2. It is regarded as the best ground attack aircraft of World War II. It was a prominent aircraft for tank killing with its accuracy in dive bombing and its 37mm guns penetrating their thin back armor.
To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was simply the diminutive "Ilyusha". To the soldiers on the ground, it was the "Hunchback," the "Flying Tank" or the "Flying Infantryman". The Il-2 aircraft played a crucial role on the Eastern Front, and in Soviet opinion it was the most decisive aircraft in the history of modern land warfare. Joseph Stalin paid the Il-2 a great tribute in his own inimitable manner: when a particular production factory fell behind on its deliveries, Stalin sent an angrily-worded cable to the factory manager, stating "They are as essential to the Red Army as air and bread."
The idea for a Soviet armored ground-attack aircraft dates to the early 1930s, when Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich designed TSh-1 and TSh-2 armored biplanes. However, Soviet engines at the time lacked the power needed to provide the heavy aircraft with good performance. Il-2 was designed by Sergey Ilyushin and his team at the Central Design Bureau in 1938. TsKB-55 was a two-seat aircraft with an armoured shell weighing 700 kg (1,540 lb), protecting crew, engine, radiators, and the fuel tank. Standing loaded, the Ilyushin weighed more than 4,700 kg (10,300 lb),[7] making the armoured shell about 15% of the aircraft's gross weight. Uniquely for a World War II attack aircraft, the armor was designed as a load-bearing part of the Ilyushin's monocoque structure, thus saving considerable weight. The prototype TsKB-55, which first flew on October 2, 1939,[7] won the government competition against Sukhoi Su-6 and received VVS designation BSh-2. The prototypes - TsKB-55 and TskB-57 - were built at Moscow plant #39, at that time the Ilyushin design bureau's base.
The BSh-2 was overweight and underpowered, with the original Mikulin AM-35 1,022 kW (1,370 hp) engine designed to give its greatest power outputs at high altitude. Because of this it was redesigned as the TsKB-57, a lighter single-seat design, with the more powerful 1,254 kW (1,680 hp) Mikulin AM-38 engine, a development of the AM-35 optimised for low level operation.[8] The TsKB-57 first flew on 12 October 1940.[7] The production aircraft passed State Acceptance Trials in March 1941, and was redesignated Il-2 in April. Deliveries to operational units commenced in May 1941.
Technical description
The IL-2 is a single-engine, propeller-driven, low-wing monoplane of mixed construction with a crew of two (one in early versions), specially designed for assault operations. Its most notable feature was the inclusion of armor in an airframe load-bearing scheme. Armor plates replaced the frame and paneling throughout the nacelle and middle part of the fuselage, and an armored hull made of riveted homogeneous armor steel AB-1 (AB-2) secured the aircraft’s engine, cockpit, water and oil radiators, and fuel tanks.
Production
The Il-2 was eventually produced in vast quantities, becoming the single most widely produced military aircraft in aviation history, but only 249 had been built by the time Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.
Production early in the war was slow because after the German invasion the aircraft factories near Moscow and other major cities in western Russia had to be moved east of the Ural Mountains. Ilyushin and his engineers had time to reconsider production methods, and two months after the move Il-2s were again being produced. The tempo was not to Premier Stalin's liking, however, and he issued the following telegram to Shenkman and Tretyakov:
You have let down our country and our Red Army. You have the nerve not to manufacture IL-2s until now. Our Red Army now needs IL-2 aircraft like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats. Shenkman produces one IL-2 a day and Tretyakov builds one or two MiG-3s daily. It is a mockery of our country and the Red Army. I ask you not to try the government's patience, and demand that you manufacture more ILs. This is my final warning.
—Stalin
As a result, "the production of Shturmoviks rapidly gained speed. Stalin's notion of the Il-2 being 'like bread' to the Red Army took hold in Ilyushin's aircraft plants and the army soon had their Shturmoviks available in quantity."
Initial use and operational confusion
The first use in action of the Il-2 was with the 4th ShAP (Ground Attack Regiment) over the Berezina River days after the invasion began. So new were the aircraft that the pilots had no training in flight characteristics or tactics, and the ground crew no training in servicing or re-arming. The training received only enabled the pilots to take-off and land, none of the pilots had fired the armament, let alone learned tactics. Only 249 Il-2s were available on 22 June 1941. In the first three days, 4 ShAP had lost 10 IL-2s to enemy action, but a further 19 were lost to other causes. 20 pilots were killed in these incidents. By 10 July, 4th ShAP was down to 10 aircraft from a strength of 65.
New tactics
Tactics improved as Soviet aircrew became used to the Il-2's strengths. Instead of a low horizontal straight approach at 50 metres altitude, the target was usually kept to the pilot's left and a turn and shallow dive of 30 degrees was utilized, using an echeloned assault by four to 12 aircraft at a time. Although the Il-2's RS-82 and RS-132 rockets could destroy armored vehicles with a single hit, they were so inaccurate that experienced Il-2 pilots mainly utilized the cannon.[15] Another powerful weapon of the Il-2 was PTAB-2.5-1.5 HEAT bomblets (ProtivoTankovaya AviaBomba, Anti-Tank Aviation Bomb - the number means that it was the size of a 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) bomb, but weighed only 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) due to the empty space in the shaped charge). Up to 192 were carried in four external dispensers (cluster bomb) or up to 220 in the internal weapon bays. The HEAT charge could easily penetrate the relatively thin upper armor of all heavy German tanks. PTABs were first used in large scale in the Battle of Kursk.
Thereafter, the Il-2 was widely deployed on the Eastern Front. The aircraft could fly in low-light conditions and carried weaponry capable of defeating the thick armor of the Panther and Tiger I tanks. They also proved capable of defending themselves against enemy aircraft, claiming an occasional Messerschmitt Bf 109.
Effectiveness as attack plane
The true capabilities of the Il-2 are difficult to determine from existing documentary evidence. W. Liss in Aircraft profile 88: Ilyushin Il-2 mentions an engagement during the Battle of Kursk on 7 July 1943, in which 70 tanks from the German 9th Panzer Division were destroyed by Ilyushin Il-2s in just 20 minutes. In another report of the action on the same day, a Soviet staff publication states that:
Ground forces highly valued the work of aviation on the battlefield. In a number of instances enemy attacks were thwarted thanks to our air operations. Thus on 7 July enemy tank attacks were disrupted in the Kashara region (13th Army). Here our assault aircraft delivered three powerful attacks in groups of 20-30, which resulted in the destruction and disabling of 34 tanks. The enemy was forced to halt further attacks and to withdraw the remnants of his force north of Kashara.
—Glantz and Orenstein 1999, p. 260.
In the Battle of Kursk, Gen. V. Ryazanov became a master in the use of attack aircraft en masse, developing and improving the tactics of Il-2 operations in co-ordination with infantry, artillery and armoured troops. Ryazanov was later awarded twice the Gold Star of Hero of Soviet Union, and the 1st Attack Aircraft Corp under his command became the first unit to be awarded the honorific title of Guards.[18] The Sturmovik nevertheless suffered heavy losses: The Luftwaffe command claimed 6,900 Il-2s in 1943 and 7,300 in 1944. Although these figures were exaggerated by a factor of 2 to 2.2, the actual losses were substantial. In 1943, one loss corresponded to 26 Sturmovik sorties. About half of those lost were shot down by fighters, the rest falling to anti-aircraft fire.
The main problem with the Il-2 was the inaccuracy of its attacks. Towards the end of war the Soviets were able to concentrate massive numbers of Shturmoviks to support their main offensives, but particularly against dug-in and armored targets the effect was often more psychological than actual physical destruction of targets. In the 9 June offensive in the Karelian Isthmus in Finland found its AA forces far too few in numbers to counter the Pe-2 and Il-2 armadas, but also quickly found that the Il-2 attacks typically missed their marks widely, particularly with bombs. While some attacks against large unprotected targets such as horse and truck convoys and rail yards had devastating results, attacks against dug-in point targets were usually ineffective. Particularly the frequent duels between dug-in 20/40mm AA guns and Il-2 attackers never resulted in the complete destruction of the gun, while many Il-2s were brought down in these attacks.
The heavy armor of the Il-2 also meant that it would typically carry only comparatively light bomb-loads, which together with the poor accuracy of its attacks made it a far less deadly attack aircraft than the contemporary Allied fighter-bombers such as the P-47 Thunderbolt and Hawker Typhoon. The rocket projectiles especially were not effective, even the larger RS-132 (four carried) having a warhead with a mere 0.9 kg of explosives, which compares poorly with the P-47's typical load of ten 5" HVARs each with 21 kg warhead, or the 8 to 12 60 lb (27 kg) warhead RP-3 rockets of the Hawker Typhoon. Likewise the Shturmovik's bombs usually only 50 kg (rarely 100 kg), too small to compensate for the typically wide miss distance.
To compensate for the poor accuracy of the Il-2's bombsight, in 1943 the Soviet Command decided to use shaped-charge armor-piercing projectiles against enemy armored vehicles, and the PTAB-2.5-1.5 SCAP aircraft bomb was put into production. These small-calibre bombs were loaded directly into the bomb bays and were dropped onto enemy vehicles from altitudes up to 100 meters (328 ft). As each Il-2 could carry up to 192 bombs, a fire carpet 70 meters (229 ft.) long and 15 meters (49 ft) wide covered the enemy tanks, giving a high "kill" probability.[18] Pilots of 291st ShAP were the first to use the PTAB-2.5-1.5 bombs. During one sortie on 5 June 1943, six attack aircraft led by Lt. Col. A. Vitrook destroyed 15 enemy tanks in one attack, and during five days of the enemy advance the 291st Division destroyed or damaged 422 enemy tanks.
"The flying tank"
Thanks to the heavy armor protection, an Il-2 could take a great deal of punishment and proved difficult for both ground and aircraft fire to shoot down. One Il-2 in particular was reported to have returned safely to base despite receiving more than 600 direct hits and having all its control surfaces completely shredded as well as numerous holes in its main armor and other structural damage. Some enemy pilots favored aiming down into the cockpit and wing roots in diving attacks on the slow, low-flying Il-2 formations.[21] Several Luftwaffe aces claimed to attack while climbing from behind, out of view of the rear gunner, aiming for the Il-2's non-retractable oil cooler. This has been disputed by some Il-2 pilots in postwar interviews, since Il-2s typically flew very close to the ground (cruise altitudes below 50 m (160 ft) were common) and the radiator protruded a mere 10 cm (4 in) from the aircraft.
A major threat to the Il-2 was German ground fire. In postwar interviews, Il-2 pilots reported 20 mm (0.79 in) and 37 mm (1.46 in) artillery as the primary threat. While the fabled 88 mm (3.46 in) calibre gun was formidable, low-flying Il-2s presented too fast-moving a target for the 88's relatively low rate of fire, and while occasional hits were scored Soviet pilots apparently did not treat the 88 with the same respect as high-altitude Western heavy bomber crews. Similarly the attempts in Finland during summer '44 to augment the small numbers of 20/40mm AA in the field army by heavier 76mm guns drawn from homeland defence proved also relatively ineffective and few Il-2s were downed despite attempting different tactics with time-fuzed fragmentation, contact-fuzed, and shrapnel ammunition: the heavy guns simply lacked the reaction times to take advantage of the brief firing opportunities presented by the low-altitude Il-2 attacks. Single-barrel 20mm guns were also found somewhat inadequate due to limited firepower: one or two shells were often not enough to destroy the Il-2, and unless the Il-2 was attacking the gun itself, thus presenting effectively a stationary target, scoring more hits during a firing opportunity was rare.However, a single hit from a 40mm AA gun was usually enough to bring down an Il-2.
The armored tub, ranging from 5–12 mm (0.2-0.5 in) in thickness and enveloping the engine and the cockpit, could deflect all small arms fire and glancing blows from larger-caliber ammunition. There are reports of the armored windscreen surviving direct hits from 20 mm (0.79 in) rounds. Unfortunately, the rear gunners did not have the benefit of all-around armor protection, especially from the rear and to the sides and suffered about four times more casualties than the pilots. Added casualties resulted from the Soviet policy of not returning home with unused ammunition which typically resulted in repeated passes on the target. Soviet troops often requested additional passes even after the aircraft were out of ammunition to exploit the intimidating effect Il-2s had on German ground troops, who gave it the nickname Schlächter (Slaughterer), perhaps a play on the term Schlachtflugzeug ("ground attack aircraft"). Famous nicknames such as "The Flying Tank" and "Der Schwarze Tod" (the "Black Death") were coined by soldiers. Luftwaffe pilots called it Eiserner Gustav (Iron Gustav) or the Zementbomber (Concrete bomber). The Finnish nickname maatalouskone ("agricultural machine" or "tractor") derived from a word play with maataistelukone (ground attack aircraft, literally "ground combat aircraft" where kone, literally "machine", in turn is shortened from lentokone, aircraft, literally "flying machine")
Famous Il-2 Pilots
Senior Lieutenant Anna Yegorova flew 260 missions
Among the pilots who gained fame flying the Il-2 was Senior Lieutenant Anna Yegorova, who flew 243 missions. She was decorated three times. One of these awards was the Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union that she had received "posthumously" in late 1944, as she was presumed dead after being shot down. She managed to survive imprisonment in a German POW camp. Junior Lieutenant Ivan Grigorevich Drachenko, another Il-2 pilot, was reputedly one of only four men who were decorated as both Heroes of the Soviet Union and also won all three of the Orders of Glory. Pilots Begeldinov, Mylnikov, Alekseenko and Gareev received two gold stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union; the last of them received both stars in one day.
Hero of the Soviet Union recipient T. Kuznetsov survived the crash of his Il-2 in 1942 when shot down returning from a reconnaissance mission. Kuznetsov was able to escape from the wreck and hid nearby. To his surprise, a German Bf 109 landed near the crash site and the pilot began to scrounge around the wrecked Il-2 for souvenirs. Thinking quickly, Kuznetsov ran to the German fighter and used it to fly home, barely avoiding being shot down by Soviet fighters in the process.
Cosmonaut Georgi Beregovoi flew 185 missions on Il-2s. In 1962, he joined the Soviet space program and flew into space on Soyuz 3 in 1968.
Typical of Soviet Second World War aircraft, many Il-2s were "gifts" presented to specific pilots and partially paid for by organizations like hometowns, factories or comrades of another fallen pilot.[citation needed] The most famous of these was an aircraft purchased with the savings of a seven-year-old daughter of the fallen commander of the 237th ShAP. Learning of her father's death, the girl sent 100 rubles directly to Stalin asking him to use the money for an Il-2 to avenge her father. Remarkably, Stalin actually received the letter and 237th ShAP received a new Il-2m3 with the inscription "From Lenochka for father" on the side.
Wikipedia
Images captured to test the accuracy of Lock-On AF: Flexible Spot (medium) when using the Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM (Sports). Images captured at f/6.3 (wide open) using an A7RII and the MC-11 adapter.
The lens, camera and adapter combo is able to track cyclists coming towards the lens at maximum zoom. Only the limitations of the A7RII's Phase Detect Focus area would pose problems for photographers who have had limited experience with panning, e.g. if the subject leaves the central phase detect zone the camera will lose the green focus confirmation - forcing then lens to hunt.
Verdict: Good.
It is easier to lock on to a subject with Sony's native FE70-200F4 G OSS or FE 70-300 G OSS but the Sigma (combined with the MC-11 adapter) currently has no rival in terms of focal length and its 'Lock On AF' option. Without lock on AF you would have to be very experienced at panning to maintain the focus area over your chosen subject.
Here I am at the German WWII gun emplacement at Longues-sur-Mer battery in Normandy. This is a 152-mm navy gun that was mounted in this concrete casemate and used by the Germans to protect the Atlantic coast against invasion. This gun was either knocked out on D-Day or the day after (I don't remember what I was told).
Note the cool rifling inside the barrel (to spin the shell for greater accuracy). Sorry, just the engineer emerging...
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
In 1948, a swept wing version of the F-84 was created with the hope of bringing performance to the level of the F-86. The last production F-84E was fitted with a swept tail, a new wing with 38.5 degrees of leading-edge sweep and 3.5 degrees of anhedral, and a J35-A-25 engine producing 5,300 pound-force (23.58 kN) of thrust. The aircraft was designated XF-96A and flew on 3 June 1950. Although the airplane was capable of 602 knots (693 mph, 1,115 km/h), the performance gain over the F-84E was considered minor. Nonetheless, it was ordered into production in July 1950 as the F-84F Thunderstreak. The F-84 designation was eventually retained because the fighter was expected to be a low-cost improvement of the straight-wing Thunderjet with over 55 percent commonality in tooling.
In the meantime, the USAF, hoping for improved high-altitude performance from a more powerful engine, arranged for the British Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet engine to be built in the United States as the Wright J65. To accommodate the larger engine, YF-84Fs with a British-built Sapphire as well as production F-84Fs with the J65 had a vertically stretched fuselage, with the air intake attaining an oval cross-section. Production quickly ran into problems, though. Although tooling commonality with the Thunderjet was supposed to be 55 %, but just 15 % of the tools could actually be re-used. To make matters worse, the F-84F utilized press-forged wing spars and ribs. At the time, only three presses in the United States could manufacture these, and priority was given to the Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber over the F-84. The YJ65-W-1 engine was considered obsolete, too, and the improved J65-W-3 did not become available until 1954. When the first production F-84F flew on 22 November 1952, it was considered not ready for operational deployment due to control and stability problems. The first 275 aircraft, equipped with conventional stabilizer-elevator tailplanes, suffered from accelerated stall pitch-up and poor turning ability at combat speeds. Beginning with Block 25, the problem was improved upon by the introduction of a hydraulically powered one-piece stabilator. A number of aircraft were also retrofitted with spoilers for improved high-speed control. As a result, the F-84F was not declared operational until 12 May 1954.
The second YF-84F prototype was completed with wing-root air intakes. These were not adopted for the fighter due to loss of thrust, but this arrangement kept the nose section free and permitted placement of cameras, and the different design was adopted for the RF-84F Thunderflash reconnaissance version. Being largely identical to the F-84F, the Thunderflash suffered from the same production delays and engine problems, though, delaying operational service until March 1954.
During the F-84F’s development the Air Defense Command was looking for a replacement for the outdated F-94 ‘Starfire’ interceptor, a hasty development from the T-33 trainer airframe with an afterburner engine and an on-board radar. However, the F-94 was only armed with machine guns in its early versions or unguided missiles in its later incarnations, which were inadequate. An aircraft with better performance, ideally with supersonic speed, a better radar, and the ability to carry guided missiles (in the form if the AIR-1 and 2 ‘Falcon’ AAMs) as well as the AIR-2 ‘Genie’ missile was now requested.
The Douglas AIR-2 Genie followed a unique but effective concept that represented the technological state-of-the-art: it was an unguided air-to-air rocket with a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead. The interception of Soviet strategic bombers was a major military preoccupation of the late 1940s and 1950s. The World War II-age fighter armament of machine guns and cannon were inadequate to stop attacks by massed bomber formations, which were expected to come in at high altitude and at high subsonic speed. Firing large volleys of unguided rockets into bomber formations was not much better, and true air-to-air missiles were in their infancy. In 1954 Douglas Aircraft began a program to investigate the possibility of a nuclear-armed air-to-air weapon. To ensure simplicity and reliability, the weapon would be unguided, since the large blast radius made precise accuracy unnecessary. Full-scale development began in 1955, with test firing of inert warhead rockets commencing in early 1956. The final design carried a 1.5-kiloton W25 nuclear warhead and was powered by a Thiokol SR49-TC-1 solid-fuel rocket engine of 162 kN (36,000 lbf) thrust, sufficient to accelerate the rocket to Mach 3.3 during its two-second burn. Total flight time was about 12 seconds, during which time the rocket covered 10 km (6.2 mi). Targeting, arming, and firing of the weapon were coordinated by the launch aircraft's fire-control system. Detonation was by time-delay fuze, although the fuzing mechanism would not arm the warhead until engine burn-out, to give the launch aircraft sufficient time to turn and escape. However, there was no mechanism for disarming the warhead after launch. Lethal radius of the blast was estimated to be about 300 meters (980 ft). Once fired, the Genie's short flight-time and large blast radius made it virtually impossible for a bomber to avoid destruction. The rocket entered service with the designation MB-1 Genie in 1957.
During the development phase the first carrier aircraft earmarked to carry the AIR-2 was the Northrop F-89 Scorpion, which had already been introduced in the early Fifties. While being an all-weather interceptor with on-board radar, it was a slow and large aircraft, and outdated like the F-94. Trying to keep the F-84 production lines busy, however, Republic saw the chance to design an all-weather interceptor aircraft that would surpass the F-89’s mediocre performance and meet the AIR-2 carrier requirements on the basis of the swept-wing (R)F-84F. To emphasize its dedicated interceptor role and set it apart from its fighter-bomber ancestors, the heavily modified aircraft was designated F-96B (even though it had little to do with the XF-96A that became the F-84F) and called ‘Thunderguard’.
The F-96B was largely based on the RF-84F’s airframe with its wing-root air intakes, what offered ample space in the aircraft’s nose for a radar system and other equipment. The radar was coupled with a state-of-the-art Hughes MC-10 fire control system. To relieve the pilot from operating the radar system one of the fuel cells behind the cockpit was deleted and a second crew member was placed behind him under an extended, strutless hood that opened to starboard. To compensate for the loss of fuel and maintain the F-84F’s range, a new tank was mounted under the cockpit floor in the aircraft’s center of gravity.
To improve performance and cope with the raised take-off weight, the F-96B was powered by an uprated Wright J65-W-18 turbojet, which generated 0.4 kN more dry thrust than the F-84F’s original J65-W-3 (7,700 lbf/34 kN). This was not too much, though, so that the J65 was additionally outfitted with an afterburner. With this upgrade the powerplant provided a maximum thrust of 10,500 lbf (47 kN), what resulted in a markedly improved rate of climb and the ability to break the sound barrier in level flight. The additional reheat section necessitated a wider and longer rear fuselage, which had to be redesigned. As an unintended side benefit, this new tail section reduced overall drag due to a slightly area-ruled coke-bottle shape behind the wings’ trailing edge, which was even emphasized through the ventral brake parachute fairing.
Armament consisted only of missiles, which were all carried externally on wing stations, all guns of the former F-84 versions were deleted to save weight. The F-96B’s weapons range included GAR-1/2/3/4 (Later re-designated as AIM-4) radar- and IR-guided Falcon air-to-air missiles and a pair of MB-1 Genie missiles. Up to four pods with nineteen unguided 2.75 in (70 mm) "Mighty Mouse" Mk 4/Mk 40 Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets each were an alternative, too, and a pair of drop tanks were typically carried under the inner wings to provide the aircraft with sufficient range, since the new afterburner significantly increased fuel consumption.
Even though it was only a derivative design, the F-96B introduced a lot of innovations. One of these was the use of a diverertless supersonic inlet (DSI), a novel type of jet engine air intake to control air flow into their engines. Initial research into the DSI was done by Antonio Ferri in the 1950s. It consisted of a "bump" and a forward-swept inlet cowl, which worked together to divert boundary layer airflow away from the aircraft's engine. In the case of the F-96B this was realized as an inward-turning inlet with a variable contraction ratio. However, even though they had not been deemed necessary to guarantee a clean airflow, the F-96B’s air intakes were further modified with splitter plates to adapt them to the expected higher flight speeds and direct the air flow. The initial flight tests had also revealed a directional instability at high speed, due to the longer nose, so that the tail surfaces (both fin and stabilizers) were enlarged for the serial aircraft to compensate.
Another novel feature was an IRST sensor in front of the windscreen which augmented the on-board radar. This sensor, developed by Hughes International and designated ‘X-1’, was still very experimental, though, highly unreliable, and difficult to handle, because it relied on pressurized coolant to keep the sensor cold enough to operate properly, and dosing it at a consistent level proved to be difficult (if not impossible). On the other side the IRST allowed to track targets even in a massively radar-jammed environment. The 7” diameter silicone sensor was, together with the on-board radar, slaved to the fire control system so that its input could be used to lock guided missiles onto targets, primarily the GAR-1 and GAR-2 AAMs. The X-1 had a field of view of 70×140°, with an angular resolution of 1°, and operated in 2.5 micron wavelength range. When it worked properly the sensor was able to detect a B-47-sized aircraft’s tails aspect from 25 nm (29 ml/46 km) and a target of similar size from directly ahead from 10 nm (12 ml/19 km). Later, better developed versions of Hughes IRST, like the X-3 that was retrofitted to the F-101B in the early Sixties, had a better range and were more reliable.
During the Thunderguard’s development another competitor entered the stage, the F-101B Voodoo. In the late 1940s, the Air Force had already started a research project into the future interceptor aircraft that eventually settled on an advanced specification known as the 1954 interceptor. Contracts for this specification eventually resulted in the selection of the F-102 Delta Dagger, but by 1952 it was becoming clear that none of the parts of the specification other than the airframe would be ready by 1954; the engines, weapons, and fire control systems were all going to take too long to get into service. An effort was then started to quickly produce an interim supersonic design to replace the various subsonic interceptors then in service, and the F-101 airframe was selected as a starting point. Although McDonnell proposed the designation F-109 for the new aircraft (which was to be a substantial departure from the basic Voodoo fighter bomber), the USAF assigned the designation F-101B. Its development was protracted, so that the F-96B – even though it offered less performance – was ordered into production to fill the USAF’s urgent interceptor gap.
F-96B production started after a brief test phase in late 1957, and the first aircraft were delivered to the 60th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron in 1958. However, when it became clear that the F-101B would finally enter service in 1959, F-96B production was quickly cut down and the initial order of 300 aircraft reduced to only 150, which were produced until early 1960 in three batches. Only sixty were directly delivered to ADC units, because these were preferably equipped with the supersonic F-102A and the new F-101B, which could also carry the nuclear Genie missile. The rest was directly handed over to Air National Guard units – and even there they were quickly joined and replaced by the early ADC aircraft.
Operationally, almost all F-96Bs functioned under the US–Canadian North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), which protected North American airspace from Soviet intruders, particularly the threat posed by nuclear-armed bombers. In service, the F-96Bs were soon upgraded with a data link to the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, allowing ground controllers to steer the aircraft towards its targets by making adjustments through the plane's autopilot. Furthermore, the F-96B was upgraded to allow the carrying of two GAR-11/AIM-26 Nuclear Falcon missiles instead of the Genies when they became available in 1961.
A handful F-96Bs were camouflaged during the late Sixties with the USAF’s new SEA scheme, but most aircraft retained their original bare metal finish with more or less colorful unit markings. Due to its limited capabilities and the introduction of the Mach 2 McDonnell F-4 Phantom, the last F-96B was retired from ANG service in 1971.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2
Length: 54t 11 1/2 in (16,77 m) incl. pitot
Wingspan: 33 ft 7.25 in (10,25 m)
Height: 16 ft 9 in (5,11 m)
Wing area: 350 sq ft (37,55 m²)
Empty weight: 13,810 lb (6.264 kg)
Gross weight: 21,035 lb (9.541 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 28,000 lb (12.701 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Wright J65-W-18 turbojet with 8,600 lbf (34 kN) dry thrust and 10,500 lbf (47 kN) with afterburner
Performance:
Maximum speed: 695 mph (1,119 km/h, 604 kn, Mach 1.1) at 35,000 ft (10,668 m)
Cruise speed: 577 mph (928 km/h, 501 kn)
Range: 810 mi (1,304 km, 704 nmi) combat radius with two droptanks
Service ceiling: 49,000 ft (15,000 m)
Rate of climb: 16,300 ft/min (83 m/s)
Wing loading: 86 lb/sq ft (423 kg/m²)
Armament:
No internal guns;
6× underwing hardpoints for a total ordnance load of up to 6,000lb (2,727 kg), including
a pair of 191.5 US gal (727 l) or 375 US gal (1.429 l) drop tanks on the inner stations
and a mix of AIM-4 Falcon (up to six), MB-1 Genie (up to two) and/or pods with
nineteen 2.75”/70 mm FFAR unguided missiles each (up to four) on the outer stations
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional missing link between the RF-84F and the F-105 was conceived for the Fifties Group Build at whatifmodellers.com, an era when the USAF used a wide variety of interceptor aircraft types and technical advancements were quick and significant – in just a decade the interceptor evolved from a subsonic machine gun-toting aircraft to a guided weapons carrier platform, capable of Mach 2.
The F-96B (I re-used Republic’s dropped designation for the swept-wing F-84F) was to display one of the many “in between” designs, and the (R)F-84F was just a suitable basis for a conversion similar to the T-33-derived F-94, just more capable and big enough to carry the nuclear Genie missile.
The basis became Italeri’s vintage RF-84F kit, a rather simple affair with raised panel lines and a mediocre fit, plus some sinkholes. This was, however, heavily modified!
Work started with the implantation of a new tandem cockpit, taken wholesale from a Heller T-33. Fitting the cockpit tub into the wider Thunderflash hull was a bit tricky, putty blobs held the implant in place. The canopy was taken from the T-33, too, just the RF-84F’s original rear side windows were cut away to offer sufficient length for the longer clear part and the cockpit side walls had to be raised to an even level with the smaller windscreen with the help of styrene strips. With these adapters the T-33 canopy fitted surprisingly well over the opening and blended well into the spine.
The camera nose section lost its tip, which was replaced with the tail cone from a Matchbox H.S. Buccaneer (actually its air brake), and the camera windows as well as the slant surfaces that held them were PSRed away for a conical shape that extended the new pointed radome. Lots of weight in the nose and under the cockpit floor ensured a safe stance on the OOB landing gear.
The rear section behind the air brakes became all-new; for an afterburner I extended and widened the tail section and implanted the rear part from a B-66 (Italeri kit, too) engine nacelle, which received a wider nozzle (left over from a Nakotne MiG-29, a featureless thing) and an interior.
To balance the longer nose I also decided to enlarge the tail surfaces and replaced the OOB fin and stabilizers with leftover parts from a Trumpeter Il-28 bomber – the fin was shortened and the stabilizers reduced in span to match the rest of the aircraft. Despite the exotic source the parts blend well into the F-84’s overall design!
To add supersonic credibility and to connect the design further with the later F-105 I modified the air intakes and cut them into a raked shape – quite easy to realize. Once the wings were in place, I also added small splitter plates, left over from an Airfix BAC Strikemaster.
As an interceptor the armament had to be adapted accordingly, and I procured the quartet of IR-guided Falcons as well as the Genie duo from an Academy F-89. The large drop tanks were taken OOB from the Italeri kit. The Genies were mounted onto their massive Scorpion pylons under the outer wings of the F-96B, while the Falcons, due to relatively little space left under the wings, required a scratched solution. I eventually settled for dual launchers on small pylons, mounted in front of the landing gear wells. The pylons originally belong to an ESCI Ka-34 “Hokum” helicopter kit (they were just short enough!), the launch rails are a halved pair of F-4 Sidewinder rails from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapons set. With everything on place the F-96B looks quite crowded.
Painting and markings:
The machine would represent a late Fifties USAF type, so that the paint options were rather limited if I wanted to be authentic. ADC Grey was introduced in the early Sixties, SEA camouflage even later, so that bare metal became a natural choice – but this can be quite attractive! The model received an overall coat with acrylic “White Aluminum” from the rattle can, plus some darked panels all over the hull (Humbrol 56 for good contrast) and an afterburner section in Revell 91 (Iron Metallic) and Humbrol’s Steel Metallizer. The radome became deep black, the anti-glare panel in front of the windscreen olive drab (Revell 46). Light grey (Revell 75) was used for some small di-electric fairings.
Interior surfaces (cockpit and landing gear wells) were painted with Zinc Chromate primer (I used Humbrol 80), while the landing gear struts became silver-grey (Humbrol 56) and the inside of the covers as well as the air brakes were painted in bright red (Humbrol 19).
Once basic painting was done the model received a black ink washing and was rubbed with grinded graphite to emphasize the raised panel lines, and the material adds a nice dark metallic shine to the silver base coat.
Another challenge was to find suitable unit markings for the Fifties era in the decal vault, which would also fit onto the model. After a long search I eventually settled for rather simple markings from a 325th FIS F-102 from an Xtradecal sheet, which only features a rather timid fin decoration.
Finding other suitable standard markings remained demanding, though. Stars-And-Bars as well as the USAF taglines were taken from the Academy F-89 that also provided the ordnance, most stencils were taken from the OOB Italeri sheet and complemented by small markings from the scrap box. The biggest problem was the creation of a matching serial number. The “FF” code was originally used for P/F-51D Mustangs during the Korea War, but after the type had been phased out it might have been re-used? The letters as well as the serial number digits were created from various markings for USAF F-100s, also from an Xtradecal sheet.
Once the decals had been applied the model was sealed with semi-gloss acrylic varnish, except for the radome, the anti-glare panel as well as the walking areas on the wings as well as parts of the afterburner section, which were coated with matt varnish.
A rather straightforward conversion, even though finishing the project took longer than expected. But the result looks surprisingly natural and plausible. Lots of PSR was needed to modify the fuselage, though, especially the tail section was not easy to integrate into the Thunderflash’s hull. Sticking to the simple NMF livery paid IMHO out, too: the livery looks very natural and believable on the fictional aircraft, and it suits the F-84’s bulbous shape well.
Another Norev Citroen C5 bargain, all this fine detailing and accuracy for less than the price of a basic Hot Wheels! Mint and boxed.
Toa Tamaru
Knight of Neon and Energy Reforged.
Shoulder armor is 100% more Knight worthy and upgraded sword.
Team: Mangai
Kanohi: Zolda
Power: Agility & Accuracy
Element: Nova
Ability: her blades can burn through light armor & walls
can create a glider with her swords for limited flight
combine her weapons into a great sword & shield
A new age of Toa has come, the Legend continues with new destined matoran chosen to become the next generation of Toa.
Tamaru's destiny, duty & future forever changed
Toa Tamaru is capable of wielding a twin set of swords and shields that offers a number of combos and to balance her defense's and offense's
She was granted a mysterious awesome power similar of the Toa Inika and a Toa of Light, unknown energies matching her armor charges her swords & shields, green being pretty strong on its own, turning blue greatly increases her attack & defense
Green energy saber for splash damage
Blue energy saber is fully powered up
both swords combined charge with electricity when powering up and can unleash a emp shockwave that mildly or highly damages enemies
Nova beam swords that can launch plasma projectiles when swung with perfected skill
Ignore light weight armor & walls. penetrating through easily with her blades reaching a temperature of at least 1800°C and could be high as 25000°C.
Her shields dont heat up the same as her swords but are required to cool down to recharge.
What is accuracy in a photo?
The other version of this photo (www.flickr.com/photos/aljones27/16207699146/) is probably a more accurate rendition, but, this was how the day felt... Grey, overcast, muted and dreich...
Anglesey Abbey 7th January 2015-5
The snipers of the Spanish Lepanto Battalion train their marksmanship near Folldal during Exercise Trident Juncture in Folldal, Norway, Oct. 26, 2018. They make use of the .50-caliber Barrett and the .338-caliber Accuracy sniper rifles, firing at targets over 1.000 meters away. The battalion is part of the Italian Ariete Brigade and through 2018 on stand-by as Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) for the NATO Response Force (NRF). In total some 50.000 troops, 10.000 vehicles, 250 aircraft and 65 ships from 29 NATO Nations and Sweden and Finland take part in the exercise.
Photo by 1st German/Netherlands Corps www.dvidshub.net/
Kazan Cathedral (Russian: Казанский собор, romanized: Kazanskiy sobor), formally known as the "Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan", is a Russian Orthodox church located on the northwest corner of Red Square in Moscow, Russia. The current building is a reconstruction of the original church, which was destroyed on the orders of Joseph Stalin in 1936.
The original cathedral
Upon recovering Moscow from the armies of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1612 at the close of the Time of Troubles, Prince Dmitry Pozharsky attributed his success to the divine help of the icon Theotokos of Kazan, to whom he had prayed on several occasions. From his private funds, he financed construction of a wooden church to the Virgin of Kazan on Red Square in Moscow, which was first mentioned in historical records in 1625. After the diminutive shrine was destroyed by a fire in 1632, Tsar Michael I, ordered it replaced with a brick church. The one-domed edifice, featuring several tiers of kokoshniki, a wide gallery, and a tented belfry, was consecrated in October 1636.
Kazan Cathedral was considered one of the most important churches in Moscow.[1] Annually on the anniversary of the liberation of Moscow from Poland-Lithuania, a solemn parade led by the Patriarch and the Tsar carried a processional cross from the Kremlin. By the end of the 17th century, the church building was expanded and received a bell tower and a redesigned entrance. Numerous other renovations of the cathedral were undertaken during the imperial period, notably during 1801, 1805, and 1865, and much of the original design was lost behind later additions.
The history of the cathedral was tempestuous, as evidenced by the fact that its archpriest Avvakum led the party of religious dissenters, or Old Believers.
The distinguished Russian restorer Peter Baranovsky supervised a complete reconstruction of the church's exterior to its original design in 1929–1932. Some specialists, however, have found the accuracy of this reconstruction lacking.
In 1936, when Red Square was being prepared for holding the military parades of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin ordered the square cleared of churches[citation needed]. Although efforts were made by Baranovsky to save it, he could not prevent the Kazan Cathedral from being demolished (though Baranovsky did manage to save another of Red Square's cathedrals, Saint Basil's Cathedral, from destruction). In its place, initially a temporary building housing offices for the Communist International was erected. It was later used as a summer café. A temporary chapel marking the original site of the church was built in 1990 as part of the church restoration project, shortly before the collapse of the USSR.
The rebuilding
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kazan Cathedral was the first church to be completely rebuilt after having been destroyed by the Communists. The cathedral's restoration (1990–1993) was sponsored by the Moscow city branch of the All-Russian Society for Historic Preservation and Cultural Organization, and was based on the detailed measurements and photographs of the original church. However, the icon of the Kazan Virgin in the restored cathedral is a copy; the original is now in the Yelokhovo Cathedral.
Red Square is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, in the eastern walls of the Kremlin. It is the city's most prominent landmark, with famous buildings such as Saint Basil's Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum and the GUM department store. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. Red Square has been the scene of executions, demonstrations, riots, parades, and speeches. Almost 800,000 square feet (73,000 square metres), it lies directly east of the Kremlin and north of the Moskva River. A moat that separated the square from the Kremlin was paved over in 1812.
Location
Red Square has an almost rectangular shape and is 70 meters wide and 330 meters long. It extends lengthways from northwest to southeast along part of the wall of the Kremlin that forms its boundary on the southwest side. In the northeast, the square is bounded by the GUM department store building and the old district of Kitay-gorod, in the northwest by the State Historical Museum and the Resurrection Gate and in the southeast by Saint Basil's Cathedral. Tverskaya Street begins to the northwest of the square behind the building of the State Historical Museum, and to the southeast is the so-called Basilius slope, which leads to the Moskva River, which goes down and over a bridge to the Zamoskvorechye District. Two streets branch off to the northeast from Red Square: Nikolskaya Street, which is named after the Nikolaus Tower of the Kremlin, which is directly opposite, and the Ilyinka (Ильинка), both of which have existed since the 14th century and were once important arteries of old Moscow. Today the square itself, with the exception of the access road leading through it to the Savior Gate of the Kremlin, is a pedestrian zone.
Origin and name
The main squares in Russian cities, such as those in Suzdal, Yelets, and Pereslavl-Zalessky, are frequently named Krasnaya ploshchad, or Beautiful Square. Archaically, the Russian word красная (krasnaya) meant "beautiful", but now means "red", with the current word for "beautiful", красивая ('krasivaya'), being derived from it.
In Moscow, the name Red Square originally described the small area between St. Basil's Cathedral, the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, and the Lobnoye Mesto herald's platform. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich officially extended the name to encompass the entire square, which had previously been called Pozhar, or "burnt-out place", reflecting that previous buildings occupying the site had burned down.
History
The history of Red Square is reflected in paintings by Vasily Surikov, Konstantin Yuon and others. The square was meant to serve as Moscow's main marketplace. It was also the site of various public ceremonies and proclamations, and occasionally a coronation for Russia's Tsars would take place. The square has been gradually built up since that point and has been used for official ceremonies by all Russian governments since it was established.
Before the 18th century
The East side of the Kremlin triangle, lying adjacent to Red Square and situated between the rivers Moskva and the now underground Neglinnaya River was deemed the most vulnerable side of the Kremlin to attack, since it was neither protected by the rivers, nor any other natural barriers, as the other sides were. Therefore, the Kremlin wall was built to its greatest height on this side, and the Italian architects involved in the building of these fortifications convinced Ivan the Great to clear the area outside of the walls to create a field for shooting. The relevant decrees were issued in 1493 and 1495. They called for the demolition of all buildings within 110 sazhens (234 meters (768 ft)) of the wall.
From 1508 to 1516, the Italian architect Aloisio the New arranged for the construction of a moat in front of the Eastern wall, which would connect the Moskva and Neglinnaya and be filled in with water from Neglinnaya. This moat, known as the Alevizov moat having a length of 541 meters (1,775 ft) and width of 36 meters (118 ft), as well as a depth of 9.5–13 m was lined with limestone and, in 1533, fenced on both sides with low, 4 meters (13 ft)-thick cogged brick walls. Three square gates existed on this side of the wall, which in the 17th century, were known as: Konstantino-Eleninsky, Spassky, Nikolsky (owing their names to the icons of Constantine and Helen, as well as Christ the Savior and St. Nicholas which hung over them). The last two are directly opposite Red Square, while the Konstantino-Elenensky gate was located behind Saint Basil's Cathedral. In the early 19th century, the Arch of Konstantino-Elenensky gate was paved with bricks, but the Spassky Gate was the main front gate of the Kremlin and used for royal entrances. From this gate, wooden and (following the 17th century improvements) stone bridges stretched across the moat. Books were sold on this bridge and stone platforms were built nearby for guns – "raskats". The Tsar Cannon was located on the platform of the Lobnoye mesto.
The square was called Veliky Torg (Great market) or simply Torg (Market), then Troitskaya by the name of the small Troitskaya (Trinity) Church, burnt down in the great fire during the Tatar invasion in 1571. After that, the square held the name Pozhar, which means "burnt". It was not until 1661–62 that it was first mentioned by its contemporary Krasnaya – "Red" name.
Red Square was then the foremost landing stage and trading center for Moscow. Even though Ivan the Great decreed that trade should only be conducted from person to person, in time, these rules were relaxed, and permanent market buildings began appearing on the square. After a fire in 1547, Ivan the Terrible reorganized the wooden shops that lined its eastern side into market lines. The streets Ilyinka and Varvarka were divided into the Upper lines (now GUM department store), Middle lines and Bottom lines, although Bottom Lines were already in Zaryadye.
After a few years, the Cathedral of Intercession of the Virgin, commonly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, was built on the moat under the rule of Ivan IV. This was the first building which gave the square its present-day characteristic silhouette (pyramidal roofs had not yet been built on the Kremlin towers). In 1595, the wooden market lines were replaced with stone. By that time, a brick platform for the proclamation of the tsar's edicts, known as Lobnoye Mesto, had also been constructed.
Red Square was considered a sacred place. Various festive processions were held there, and during Palm Sunday, the famous "procession on a donkey" was arranged, in which the patriarch, sitting on a donkey, accompanied by the tsar and the people went out of Saint Basil's Cathedral in the Kremlin.
During the expulsion of the Polish army from Moscow in 1612, Prince Dmitry Pozharsky entered the Kremlin through the square. In memory of this event, he built the Kazan Cathedral in honor of the "Kazan Icon of the Mother of God," which had followed his army in a campaign.
At the same time (1624–1625), the Spasskaya tower received contemporary tent roofs. This was done on the proposal and subsequent draft of Christopher Galloway from Scotland, who was summoned to design the new tower's clock and suggested the arrangement of the tent roof over the clock. In mid-century, a gilded double-headed eagle was set on top of the tower. After this, the square became known as Krasivaya ("beautiful").
In the late 17th century (1679-1680) the square was cleared of all wooden structures. Then all Kremlin towers received tent roofs, except Nikolskaya. One tent was erected on the wall above Red Square (the so‑called Tsarskaya Tower, so that the tsar could watch from this spot the ceremonies in the square). Tent roofs were also constructed at Voskrerensky (Iberian) gates, arranged in the wall of Kitai-gorod. These were the fortified gates at Voskresensky Bridge over the River Neglinnaya.
In 1697 and 1699, gates on both sides of Voskresensky Bridge were rebuilt into large stone buildings: the Mint and Zemsky prikaz (department in charge of urban and police matters). Zemsky prikaz (on the site of current Historical Museum) was then known as the Main Pharmacy, founded under orders of Peter The Great. In 1755 the first Russian University was originally housed in the building of Zemsky prikaz, before moving to the better known building on Mokhovaya street further across Manege Square. At the same time the (by then already drained) Alevizov moat was used as a state Pharmacy's garden for growing medicinal plants.
18th century
In 1702, the first public theater in Russia was built near the Nikolsky gate. It existed until 1737, when it was destroyed in a fire. In the 1730s, a new mint building, called the Gubernskoye pravlenie (Provincial Board), was built in front of the old one.
During her reign, Catherine the Great decided to make improvements to the square. In 1786, the upper floor of the market lines was made of stone. This line was built on the opposite side of the square, near a moat between the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers. Then architect Matvey Kazakov built (in the old forms) the new Lobnoye mesto of hewn stone, slightly West of the place where it was before.
19th and early 20th centuries
In 1804, at the request of merchants, the square was paved in stone. In 1806 Nikolskaya Tower was reconstructed in the Gothic style, and received a tent roof. The new phase of improvement of the square began after the Napoleonic invasion and fire in 1812. The moat was filled in 1813 and in its place, rows of trees were planted. The market Line along the moat, dilapidated after the fire, had been demolished, and on the Eastern side, Joseph Bové constructed new building of lines in the Empire style. In 1818 the Monument to Minin and Pozharsky, was erected; its construction symbolized the rise in patriotic consciousness during the war.
In 1874 the historic building of Zemsky prikaz was demolished. In its place the Imperial Historical Museum was built in pseudo-Russian style. After Bové's lines were demolished, new large buildings were erected between 1888 and 1893, also in the pseudo-Russian style: upper lines (Gum department store) and middle lines. The upper lines were intended for retail sale and together in fact comprised the first department store in Moscow. Middle lines were intended for wholesale trade. At the same time (in 1892) the square was illuminated by electric lanterns. In 1909 a tram appeared on the square for the first time.
Soviet era and modern era
During the Soviet era, Red Square maintained its significance, becoming a focal point for the new state. Besides being the official address of the Soviet government, it was renowned as a showcase for military parades from 1919 onward. Lenin's Mausoleum would from 1924 onward be a part of the square complex, and also as the grandstand for important dignitaries in all national celebrations. In the 1930s, Kazan Cathedral and Iverskaya Chapel with the Resurrection Gates were demolished to make room for heavy military vehicles driving through the square (both were later rebuilt after the fall of the Soviet Union). There were plans to demolish Moscow's most recognized building, Saint Basil's Cathedral, as well to make way for a larger Red Square, as well as the State Historical Museum. The legend is that Lazar Kaganovich, Stalin's associate and director of the Moscow reconstruction plan, prepared a special model of Red Square, in which the cathedral could be removed, and brought it to Stalin to show how the cathedral was an obstacle for parades and traffic. But when he jerked the cathedral out of the model, Stalin objected with his rather famous quote: "Lazar! Put it back!". However, no documented evidence exists of this encounter.
In 1963, a group of African students organized a protest on Red Square in response to the alleged murder of a medical student named Edmund Assare-Addo. This was the first recorded political protest on Red Square since the late 1920s. On 28 May 1987 a West German pilot named Mathias Rust landed a Cessna F172P light aircraft at St. Basil next to Red Square, causing a major scandal in the Soviet Air Defense Forces.
In 1990 the Kremlin and Red Square were among the first sites in the USSR added to UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Red Square has also served as a venue for high-profile concerts. Linkin Park, The Prodigy, t.A.T.u., Shakira, Scorpions, Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and other celebrities performed there. For the New Year 2006, 2007, and 2008 celebrations, a skating rink was set up on Red Square. Paul McCartney's performance there was a historic moment for many, as The Beatles were banned in the Soviet Union, preventing any live performances there of any of The Beatles. The Soviet Union also banned the sales of Beatles records. While McCartney's performance was historic, he was not the first Beatle to perform in Russia. Former Beatle Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band performed at Moscow's Russia Hall in August 1998. On 4 December 2008 the KHL announced they would be holding their first all-star game outdoors on 10 January at Red Square.
Venue for parades
Two of the most significant military parades on Red Square were 1941 October Revolution Parade, when the city was besieged by Germans and troops were leaving Red Square straight to the front lines, and the Victory Parade in 1945, when the banners of defeated Nazi armies were thrown at the foot of Lenin's Mausoleum. The Soviet Union held many parades in Red Square for May Day (until 1969), Victory Day, and October Revolution Day, which consisted of propaganda, flags, labor demonstration, marching troops, and showing off of tanks and missiles. Individual parades have been held on Defender of the Fatherland Day (23 February 1925),[5] the Day of Tankmen (8 September 1946), and the state funeral of Joseph Stalin (9 March 1953). On Victory Day in 1945, 1965, 1985, and 1990, there were Soviet military marches and parades as well, and since 1995, the annual Moscow Victory Day Parade has been held on the square, marking anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
In January 2008, Russia announced it would resume parading military vehicles through Red Square, although recent restoration of Iverski Gate complicated this, by closing one of existing passages along Historical Museum for the heavy vehicles. In May 2008, Russia held its annual Victory day parade, during which for the first time since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Russian military vehicles paraded through the square. On 9 May 010, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the capitulation of Germany in 1945, the armed forces of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States marched in the Moscow Victory Day parade for the first time in history.
Buildings
In the following, all of the buildings located directly on Red Square will be presented in a clockwise direction, starting with the State Historical Museum at the northwest end of the square.
State Historical Museum
The striking dark red building of the State Historical Museum forms the end of Red Square from the north-western side. It was built in the years 1875–1883 and is therefore one of the younger components of the architectural ensemble of Red Square. Before it was built, the first pharmacy building in Moscow stood on this site from the beginning of the 18th century, which was rebuilt in 1755 and served as the first campus of the then newly founded Moscow State University for two decades.
Today's museum building was built especially for the historical museum, which was newly founded in 1872, and was ceremoniously handed over to its destination in May 1883. Its architect was Vladimir Osipovich Sherwood, who is considered to be one of the main representatives of the "Russian style", a variant of historicism based on traditional Russian architecture, which was widely used at the time. The museum building looks correspondingly "Old Russian": the facades are decorated with arched windows and ornaments reminiscent of traditional Russian Orthodox churches, several decorative towers reminiscent of some of the Kremlin towers are attached to the sides, and the shape of the roof is reminiscent of the Great Kremlin Palace in the Kremlin, a form of the Russian mansion that was particularly preferred in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Today the Historical Museum is the largest and most famous history museum in Russia. In 16 specialist departments, it houses around 4.5 million exhibits on Russian history from almost all epochs and also organizes themed special exhibitions several times a year. In addition to the actual museum building, the historical museum complex also includes Saint Basil's Cathedral and the Novodevichy Convent, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Resurrection Gate
The Resurrection Gate forms one of the two entrances to Red Square from the northwest side. This structure, built for the first time in 1680, was initially part of the Kitai-Gorod fortifications. In its base part it consists of two arched portals, which are crowned in a symmetrical manner by two rectangular towers, the tops of which are strongly reminiscent of the Kremlin towers. Originally, the Resurrection Gate represented part of the architectural ensemble at the northern end of Red Square, which, in addition to the gate, included the affiliated building of the government administration (see below) and the no longer preserved pharmacy building, which had to give way to the History Museum at the end of the 19th century. During the times of the Russian Empire, the gate served as a symbolic entrance gate to the heart of Moscow, especially during major celebrations: the tsars always passed the gate at their coronation celebrations before the coronation was proclaimed in front of the people on Red Square.
In 1931, the new state authorities had the gate dismantled so that it would not obstruct the passage of military technology during major military parades on Red Square. Today's gate is largely a replica of the original and dates from 1996. Between the two portals on the north side of the gate, the chapel of the icon of the Mother of God of Iviron, originally built in 1781, was rebuilt at the same time. A new copy of the icon was made for this chapel on Mount Athos, where the Iviron monastery is located.
Former government administration
The building standing between the Resurrection Gate and the Kazan Cathedral is one of the less conspicuous buildings on Red Square. It was built between 1733 and 1740 and since then has served as the headquarters of the administration of the city of Moscow and the Moscow Governorate (the latter partially corresponds to today's Moscow Oblast). The government administration building was not spared from the war against Napoleon in 1812, in which large parts of Moscow were destroyed. In the 1810s it was then rebuilt, under the direction of the architect Joseph Bové, who was instrumental in the reconstruction of the city at that time. In the course of this reconstruction, a tower was added to the roof of the house, which for a long time served as an observation tower for a fire station. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, this tower was dismantled.
In the courtyard of the former government administration building, the old building of the state mint has been preserved to this day. This was built in 1697 by decree of Peter the Great and since then has housed a production facility for silver coins for almost a quarter of a century before the money issuing system of the tsarist Empire was essentially relocated to Saint Petersburg. After the end of minting, the lower part of the building, which had no windows, was temporarily used as a Debtors' prison for insolvent merchants. Today, both the former government building and the old mint belong to the neighbouring historical museum.
Kazan Cathedral
The Kazan Cathedral is to the right of the former government administration building, on the corner of Red Square and Nikolskaya Street. Today's cathedral is a replica from 1993; originally there was a church at this site since the 1620s, initially a wooden one, then a stone one from 1636 onwards.
The Kazan Cathedral owes its name to the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, which has been venerated by the believers of the Russian Orthodox Church for centuries. According to a legend, it was precisely this icon of the Russian People's army, led by the national heroes Kuzma Minin and Dmitri Pozharsky, who defeated the Military of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1612. A few years after the victory, the devout Prince Pozharsky founded the cathedral dedicated to this icon. This corresponded to the then usual Russian tradition of building churches in memory of historically important victories in Russia.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square was one of the most important Moscow places of worship and was the scene of solemn cross processions led by the patriarch and the tsar, especially on the anniversary of the victory over the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In 1936 the cathedral, like many other Moscow places of worship, was demolished at the approval of Joseph Stalin. It was not until the early 1990s that the reconstruction, which was called for by the public on several occasions, began and was completed in 1993. This made the Kazan Cathedral one of the first places of worship in Moscow to be destroyed during the Soviet era, to be rebuilt in the 1990s.
GUM department store
The GUM department store, situated at the eastern side of the square, occupies the entire section between Nikolskaya and Ilyinka streets. Due to its location directly on Red Square, and its considerable size, the sales area is around 35,000 square metres (380,000 sq ft). Owing to the building's striking architecture, the GUM is the best-known shopping center in Russia.
Built in 1893, it replaced an Empire style building that had housed the Upper Trading Ranks since 1815, which united a large part of Kitai-Gorod's trading activities under one roof. After this building began to deteriorate in the middle of the 19th century, there were plans for a building to replace it. However, due to organisational difficulties, these could only be implemented in the 1890s, for which a special company was founded and an ideas competition among architects was advertised. This was won by a project by the architecture professor Alexander Pomeranzewas, as well as the little-known engineer Vladimir Schuchow. The construction of the new trade rows lasted from 1890 to 1893. When they were ceremoniously opened on 2 December 1893, the new structure was able to impress the Russian and foreign public, not only with an unprecedented range of all kinds of consumer goods, but also with a completely new glass roof construction of the three passages, designed by Schuchow and built using around 60,000 panes of glass. The building's architectural style, like the neighbouring Historical Museum a decade earlier, was in the historical "Russian style" with a roof gable based on typical boyar palaces of the 16th century, two decorative towers based on the Kremlin and a main facade reminiscent of historical Russian buildings.
During the Soviet era, the new upper trading ranks had an eventful history. In 1921, they were given their current name GUM (at that time this was the abbreviation for Gossudarstwenny Uniwersalny Magasin - "State Department Store", today it stands for Glawny Uniwersalny Magasin - " Main Department Store "). In the early 1930s, they were closed for two decades and served as office and residential buildings, and from the end of 1953 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the GUM was considered a model department store in the middle of the real socialist shortage economy. In the 1990s, the GUM was privatised and thoroughly renovated and today it presents itself to the locals and tourists as a noble shopping centre characterised by boutiques in the upper price ranges.
Middle Trade Rows
The building at the easternmost point of the square, on the corner of Ilyinka Street, stands exactly where the Middle Trading Rows stood in the 17th century. These formed, along with the Upper Trading Rows, where today's GUM department store is located, part of the broader market trading area that helped shape the Kitay-gorod district, adjacent to Red Square. This massive expanse of assorted market stalls and self-made wooden huts was for the first time replaced at the end of the 18th century, by a building complex specially built for trade, whose authorship is attributed to the Italian builder Giacomo Quarenghi. In the war of 1812, however, these buildings were burned down and were replaced by the Middle Trading Rows building, rebuilt by Joseph Bové, which has been preserved to this day and is located on Ilyinka Street a few hundred meters east of Red Square.
The Middle Trade Rows was not built until 1894, as was the GUM department store. Planned from the start as a supplement to the latter, the upper rows were supposed to accommodate retail trade, while the premises to their right were reserved for the wholesale trade, which is why both of the buildings look very similar architecturally. The building's architect was Roman Klein, who also designed numerous other well-known Moscow structures in the late 19th century, including the Pushkin Museum.
After the Bolsheviks came to power, the building was no longer used as a trading house, but became the headquarters of various public bodies. Until recent times, it belonged to the Russian Armed Forces. At the beginning of 2007, four inner structures of the former trading rows were demolished while plans were made to reconstruct the entire building true to the original to house an exclusive hotel. These plans came under criticism from both Russian and foreign media as circumventing the preservation order by cleverly exploiting a loophole in the law. Work is currently underway to set up a museum in the building's interior space, to designs by Meganom and Nowadays Office. The new museum is going to form a part of the UNESCO protected ensemble of Moscow Kremlin Museums, and will bring a part of the Kremlin Armoury collection outside the Kremlin walls.
Lobnoye Mesto
The Lobnoye Mesto is a round, grandstand-like structure made of white stone in the southeastern part of the square, in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral. At the same time, it is one of the oldest buildings on the square that has been documented to this day. Lobnoye Mesto was first mentioned in 1549, when the then 19 year old tsar Ivan The Terrible gave a speech there. Thus, it must have been conceived from the beginning as a platform from which, above all, tsar decrees were announced to the people. The name Lobnoye Mesto could literally mean "forehead" or "skull" (and thus a literal translation of Golgotha), however, according to other hypotheses, it has nothing to do with a forehead, but with its location near the praise, as a steep river bank was called in medieval Russia.
According to tradition, the grandstand on Red Square was originally made of wood, and the current stone building with a gate made of iron grating dates from the late 1590s. In the course of time, the Lobnoye Mesto was not only used as a platform for state announcements and announcements, but also as the centre of solemn events; the patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church gave speeches to the crowd here, at solemn services on Red Square. At the same time, the Lobnoye Mesto became notorious as the scene of executions, such as the one of Stenka Rasin in 1671, and many others. Although, these executions were not carried out directly in the stand, but a few meters away.
After Saint Petersburg became Imperial Russia's capital, the Lobnoye Mesto lost its function as the tsar's tribune and has been a monument ever since. In 1786, it was rebuilt according to a design by the architect Matvey Kazakov, and moved a few meters to the east.
Monument to Minin and Pozharsky
The monument to the two Russian national heroes Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitri Poszharsky, erected between 1812 and 1818, stands directly in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral. Just like the Kazan Cathedral donated by the latter at the time in the northern part of the square, this monument also commemorates the liberation of Moscow from the Polish-Lithuanian occupation troops in 1612, to which the popular army led by Minin and Poszharsky made a decisive contribution.
The bronze monument, which weighs 20 tons, and was financed entirely from donations at the time, was designed by the sculptor Ivan Martos. After almost 15 years of planning and construction, it was unveiled in a festive ceremony in February 1818. Since at the time, it had been five years since Russia successfully stopped the French invasion led by Napoleon, and the reconstruction of Moscow had just been completed, the monument was celebrated when it was erected as a symbol of the invincibility of Russia and the heroism of its sons. Originally, however, the sculpture did not stand in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral, but in front of today's GUM department store at the level of the main entrance. It was only moved to its current location in 1930, to make more space for military parades and large-scale demonstrations.
Saint Basil's Cathedral
Saint Basil's Cathedral, which delimits the square on its southern side, is undoubtedly the square's most famous building, and one of Russia's cultural icons. Once, the church was the main place of worship in Moscow, but today the cathedral mainly functions as a museum that is part of the complex of the State Historical Museum in the opposite. Since the early 1990s, services have been held in the cathedral at irregular intervals.
In the middle of the 16th century, the wooden Church of the Holy Trinity, stood exactly on the site of Saint Basil's Cathedral. In 1555, Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered a monumental church to be built on the site, which was a token of the victory of Russia over the Khanate of Kazan three years earlier. This was according to the tradition of the time to have churches built to commemorate military victories. The wooden church was then demolished and the present cathedral was built on this site by 1561, making it one of the oldest buildings on the square. The name of the cathedral, which is still more common today, was given in memory of Basil the Blessed, who was venerated by tsar Ivan at the time, and after his death in 1522, he was buried near the cathedral. Ivan Barma and Postnik Yakovlev were among the most popular architects of the church.
From the completion of the cathedral to the relocation of Russia's capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, it remained the most important church in the city and the venue for solemn services on all major Orthodox festivals. In its history, the cathedral was threatened with destruction several times; legend has it that Napoleon ordered the cathedral to be blown up when he withdrew from Moscow in 1812, but a sudden downpour extinguished the fuses that had already been ignited. In 1918, after the October Revolution, the cathedral was closed by the Bolsheviks and its head was executed. At the same time, there were demolition plans for the cathedral, only the personal commitment of the architect Pyotr Baranovsky, who was commissioned to prepare the demolition against the plans ultimately prevented their implementation.
What is particularly striking about the cathedral is its asymmetrical and unique architectural style, which greatly distinguishes it from most other Russian Orthodox church buildings. The central element of the house are its nine church towers with brightly painted onion-shaped domes, some of which are very different in size and colour. The latter also has the effect that the building does not have a main facade and therefore offers the viewer an unusual view from every side. Originally built of white stone, the cathedral was decorated in places with red bricks during a renovation in the middle of the 17th century, which gives it its striking colour heterogeneity to this day. The inside of the cathedral is also very imposing with a labyrinth-like system of corridors and galleries.
Eastern Kremlin Wall
The eastern segment of the Kremlin wall, and Red Square behind it, emerged on its present site in the 15th century, during the reign of Ivan III;[10] the wall and the square were separated with a wide defensive moat filled with water diverted from the Neglinnaya River. The moat was lined with a secondary fortress wall, and spanned by three bridges connecting the Kremlin to the posad.
The northernmost of the three Kremlin towers is the 70 meter high Nikolskaya Tower named after Saint Nicholas, whose icon originally adorned the lower part of the tower. The tower is one of the four towers of the Moscow Kremlin today that have an entrance gate to the Kremlin. It was originally built in 1491, to a design by the master builder Pietro Antonio Solari, who as one of several Italian architects who were active in Moscow at the time, playing a key role in the construction of the Kremlin ensemble. In 1806, Nikolskaya Tower was significantly redesigned and under Gothic architectural style, which was completely unusual for the Kremlin. Only a few years later, it was destroyed by the troops of Napoleon, and was finally rebuilt in 1816 with the participation of Joseph Bové. Owning its Gothic style, Nikolskaya Tower is still the most unusual of the twenty Kremlin towers.
The Spasskaya Tower, is the main tower of the eastern wall of the Kremlin, and is arguably the most famous tower of all of Kremlin. It also has an entrance gate, which closes Red Square together with the neighboring Saint Basil's Cathedral from the south. Owing its name to an image of the Savior that once hung over the gate, the tower rises over 71 meters, and like Nikolskaya Tower, was also built by Pietro Antonio Solari in 1491. However, it was then about half as high as it is today. The tower has roughly the current shape since a reconstruction in the years 1624–1625, when it was supplemented by a bell tower with a large tower clock designed by Christopher Galloway, which today, is the most famous architectural element of the tower. The clock's four dials, one on each side of the tower, date up to 1852, and each of them has a diameter of 6.12 meters. The high-precision clockwork occupies three floors of the tower, and a dozen bells below the top of the tower ring every quarter of an hour.
Both the Nikolskaya and the Spasskaya Tower are crowned by a three-meter-wide red star made of three-layer ruby and agate glass. These stars, were symbols of Communism, and were placed on a total of five Kremlin towers in 1937, which were previously adorned with the Imperial Russian double-headed eagle.
The small tower at the level of Lenin's Mausoleum between the Nikolskaya and the Spasskaya Tower is the Senatskaya Tower. It was built in 1491, also by Pietro Antonio Solari, and was purely defensive in nature: it guarded the Kremlin on the Red Square side. For a long time it remained nameless. It was only in 1787, after architect Matvei Kazakov constructed the Kremlin Senate on the Kremlin's territory, that it was given its present name. The dome of the Senate can be seen from Red Square. Inside the central part of the tower there are three tiers of vaulted chambers. In 1860, the flat tower was topped with a stone tent roof crowned, in turn, with a gilt weather vane. The tower contains a through-passage that allows VIPs to travel from the kremlin to Red Square. Its height is 34.3 metres (113 ft).
Lenin Mausoleum
An important monument of the Soviet-era is the Lenin Mausoleum, which is located in the western side of the square. It stands by the Kremlin wall at the height of the Senate Tower, almost exactly where the protective moat ran until the 18th century, and a tram line ran from 1909 to 1930. Inside the mausoleum, the lavishly embalmed corpse of Vladimir Lenin rests in an armored glass sarcophagus. To this day, the mausoleum is open to visitors on certain days.
Today's building made of granite and labradorite, was preceded by two provisional mausoleums made of oak. The first of these was erected in January 1924, a few days after Lenin's death, and had a simple cube shape at a height of three meters, a second temporary arrangement was set up in the spring of 1924. The current building was erected between 1929 and 1930. From the outside, it has the shape of a multi-tiered pyramid, which should underline the character of the mausoleum as a monumental burial place based on ancient models. The author of the design was the renowned architect Alexey Shchusev, who also had the two previous mausoleums built.
From the completion of the mausoleum, and until the end of the Soviet Union, the mausoleum was considered a central attraction, and a place of worship in the socialist world. During the military parades and marches on Red Square, heads of state appeared from the central stand on the roof of the mausoleum until the mid-1990s. In 1953, the body of the deceased Lenin's successor Joseph Stalin was embalmed and laid out in the mausoleum. Eight years later, however, he was removed from the mausoleum in the course of the so-called de-Stalinization, which began after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, and buried at the Kremlin wall.
Today the mausoleum still attracts numerous tourists, although mostly no longer motivated by the personality cult surrounding the revolutionary leader. Notwithstanding this, the further laying out of Lenin's remains in the mausoleum is controversial. Many celebrities, including the last Soviet head of state, Mikhail Gorbachev, spoke out in favor of Lenin's burial.
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Right behind Lenin's Mausoleum, along the walls of the Kremlin, there is a large cemetery of honour. This was created in November 1917, when around 250 soldiers had fallen during the October Revolution in Moscow. They found their final resting place in two collective graves near the Senate tower. The tradition of burying revolutionaries on Red Square, the ultimate symbol of the Bolshevik Revolution, continued immediately: as early as the spring of 1919, Lenin's leading comrade Yakov Sverdlov was buried on the Kremlin wall and received with Lenin's Mausoleum, which was completed in 1930 the burial place is its central element. Since then, the mausoleum and the surrounding cemetery have been collectively referred to as the Revolutionary Necropolis.
From the 1920s to the 1980s, hundreds of people were buried in Red Square who were considered to be the most deserving sons and daughters of the Soviet Union, that is, revolutionaries, heroes of the Soviet Union, statesmen and military leaders of the highest order. The burial in the Kremlin wall necropolis was in fact considered the highest posthumous honour that was reserved for only a few. A total of twelve statesmen; including Sverdlov, Mikhail Kalinin, Kliment Voroshilov, Leonid Brezhnev and Stalin, who was laid out in the mausoleum until 1961, were buried in individual graves, and a large number of the revolutionaries rest here in a total of 15 collective graves. Most of the burials here, however, are niches in the Kremlin wall, in which over 100 urns with the remains of revolutionaries, heroes or main ideologues are walled. The people whose urns are in the Kremlin wall include, among others, Lenin's companion Nadezhda Krupskaya, the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the revolutionary writer Maxim Gorky, the nuclear weapon developer Igor Kurchatov, but also foreign politicians Clara Zetkin and Fritz Heckert.
The necropolis on the Kremlin wall has been a memorial since 1974. After the 1985 made funeral of the head of state Konstantin Chernenko, there have been no burials made. The tombs of the necropolis can now be visited at the same time as the mausoleum.
Providing full-size accuracy in a fun size package. Dual-tone for the operator who likes stainless and carbon black equally to pick only one.It borrows Infinity style titanium oxidizing to create a gorgeous gold barrel for higher durability and mounting unique tiritium sights for low light conditions.
I have an attraction to 1911's that push away the norm of say an SFA 1911A1 or a Kimber Raptor. Instead why not something actually unique. The magic of the 1911 platform is the modularity that most other modern combat pistols dont get. Which is why i like to mess around with the varying parts n PMG and in airsoft.
Fully compcat version.
Definitely need split image focus screen for better accuracy.
Really like the way the R glass captures the light from eyes
even though there are only 2 specific fonts on the NG overhead in terms of charachter spacing and scale so far there are 19 different revisions that i count. and a whole load of non conformities. each panel is scanned from the original and traced like this, so if the real one is wrong, then so is mine, 2 wrongs do sometimes make a right :) Hense why i do everything letter by letter.
Remarkable for its accuracy and light recoil, the GLOCK 21 Gen4 delivers the legendary stopping power of the .45 AUTO round with 10/13 round magazine capacity. The Modular Back Strap design on the G21 Gen4 lets you instantly customize its grip to adapt to an individual shooter's hand size. The surface of the frame employs the new scientifically designed, real-world-tested, Gen4 rough textured technology. Internally, the new GLOCK dual recoil spring assembly substantially increases the life of the system. A reversible enlarged magazine catch, changeable in seconds, accommodates left or right-handed operators. The Gen4 system is the perfect complement to this iconic .45 caliber cartridge.
Royal Tern ( Sterna maxima)
One of the most energetic and successful "fishermen" on the lake.
Their speed and flying skills are amazing, and their accuracy in diving for their prey is nearly perfect.
Above Lake emerald, in Oakland Park, Florida -US- near Fort Lauderdale.
Taken from my balcony over the lake, Thursday afternoon, March 2, 2006 (archives).
See him LARGER
or HUGE ( If a "button" appears at lower right on "huge" image, click on it for full size.)
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The ZSU-37-6 (“ZSU” stands for Zenitnaya Samokhodnaya Ustanovka / Зенитная Самоходная Установка = "anti-aircraft self-propelled mount"), also known as Object 511 during its development phase and later also as “ZSU-37-6 / Лена”, was a prototype for a lightly armored Soviet self-propelled, radar guided anti-aircraft weapon system that was to replace the cannon-armed ZSU-23-4 “Shilka” SPAAG.
The development of the "Shilka" began in 1957 and the vehicle was brought into service in 1965. The ZSU-23-4 was intended for AA defense of military facilities, troops, and mechanized columns on the march. The ZSU-23-4 combined a proven radar system, the non-amphibious chassis based on the GM-575 tracked vehicle, and four 23 mm autocannons. This delivered a highly effective combination of mobility with heavy firepower and considerable accuracy, outclassing all NATO anti-aircraft guns at the time. The system was widely fielded throughout the Warsaw Pact and among other pro-Soviet states. Around 2,500 ZSU-23-4s, of the total 6,500 produced, were exported to 23 countries.
The development of a potential successor started in 1970. At the request of the Soviet Ministry of Defense, the KBP Instrument Design Bureau in Tula started work on a new mobile anti-aircraft system as a replacement for the 23mm ZSU-23-4. The project was undertaken to improve on the observed shortcomings of the ZSU-23-4 (short range and no early warning) and to counter new ground attack aircraft in development, such as the A-10 Thunderbolt II, which was designed to be highly resistant to 23 mm cannons.
KBP studies demonstrated that a cannon of at least 30 mm caliber was necessary to counter these threats, and that a bigger caliber weapon would offer some more benefits. Firstly, to destroy a given target, such a weapon would only require from a third to a half of the number of shells that the ZSU-23-4’s 23 mm cannon would need. Secondly, comparison tests revealed that firing with an identical mass of 30 mm projectiles instead of 23 mm ammunition at a MiG-17 (or similarly at NATO's Hawker Hunter or Fiat G.91…) flying at 300 m/s would result in a 1.5 times greater kill probability. An increase in the maximum engagement altitude from 2,000 to 4,000 m and higher effectiveness when engaging lightly armored ground targets were also cited as potential benefits.
The initial requirements set for the new mobile weapon system were to achieve twice the performance in terms of the ZSU-23-4’s range, altitude and combat effectiveness. Additionally, the system should have a reaction time, from target acquisition to firing, no greater than 10 seconds, so that enemy helicopters that “popped up” from behind covers and launched fire-and-forget weapons at tanks or similar targets could be engaged effectively.
From these specifications KBP developed two schools of thought that proposed different concepts and respective vehicle prototypes: One design team followed the idea of an anti-aircraft complex with mixed cannon and missile armament, which made it effective against both low and high-flying targets but sacrificed short-range firepower. The alternative proposed by another team was a weapon carrier armed only with a heavy gatling-type gun, tailored to counter targets flying at low altitudes, esp. helicopters, filling a similar niche as the ZSU-23-4 and leaving medium to high altitude targets to specialized anti-aircraft missiles. The latter became soon known as “Object 511”.
Object 511 was based on the tracked and only lightly armored GM-577 chassis, produced by Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ). It featured six road wheels on each side, a drive sprocket at the rear and three return rollers. The chassis was primarily chosen because it was already in use for other anti-aircraft systems like the 2K11 “Krug” complex and could be taken more or less “off the rack”. A new feature was a hydropneumatic suspension, which was chosen in order to stabilize the chassis as firing platform and also to cope with the considerably higher all-up weight of the vehicle (27 tons vs. the ZSU-23-4’s 19 tons). Other standard equipment of Object 511 included heating, ventilation, navigational equipment, night vision aids, a 1V116 intercom and an external communications system with an R-173 receiver.
The hull was - as the entire vehicle - protected from small arms fire (7,62mm) and shell splinters, but not heavily armored. An NBC protection system was integrated into the chassis, as well as an automatic fire suppression system and an automatic gear change. The main engine bay, initially with a 2V-06-2 water-cooled multi-fuel diesel engine with 450 hp (331 kW) was in the rear. It was later replaced by a more powerful variant of the same engine with 510 hp (380 kW).
The driver sat in the front on the left side, with a small gas turbine APU to his right to operate the radar and hydraulic systems independently from the main engine.
Between these hull segments, the chassis carried a horseshoe-shaped turret with full 360° rotation. It was relatively large and covered more than the half of the hull’s roof, because it held the SPAAGs main armament and ammunition supply, the search and tracking radar equipment as well as a crew of two: the commander with a cupola on the right side and the gunner/radar operator on the left side, with the cannon installation and its feeding system between them. In fact, it was so large that Object 511’s engine bay was only accessible when the turret was rotated 90° to the side – unacceptable for an in-service vehicle (which would probably have been based on a bigger chassis), but accepted for the prototype which was rather focused on the turret and its complex weapon and radar systems.
Object 511’s centerpiece was the newly-developed Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-37 cannon, a heavy and experimental six-barreled 37mm gatling gun. This air-cooled weapon with electrical ignition was an upscaled version of the naval AO-18 30mm gun, which was part of an automated air defense system for ships, the AK-630 CIWS complex. Unlike most modern American rotary cannons, the GSh-6-37 was gas-operated rather than hydraulically driven, allowing it to "spin up" to maximum rate of fire more quickly. This resulted in more rounds and therefore weight of fire to be placed on target in a short burst, reduced reaction time and allowed hits even in a very small enemy engagement window.
The GSh-6-37 itself weighed around 524 kg (1.154 lb), the whole system, including the feed system and a full magazine, weighed 7,493 pounds (3,401 kg). The weapon had a total length of 5.01 m (16’ 7“), its barrels were 2.81 m (9’ 2½”) long. In Object 511’s turret it had an elevation between +80° and -11°, moving at 60°/sec, and a full turret rotation only took 3 seconds. Rate of fire was 4,500 rounds per minute, even though up to 5.500 RPM were theoretically possible and could be cleared with an emergency setting. However, the weapon would typically only fire short bursts of roundabout 50 rounds each, or longer bursts of 1-2 (maximum) seconds to save ammunition and to avoid overheating and damage – initially only to the barrels, but later also to avoid collateral damage from weapon operation itself (see below). Against ground targets and for prolonged, safe fire, the rate of fire could alternatively be limited to 150 RPM.
The GSh-6-37 fired 1.09 kg shells (each 338mm long) at 1,070 m/s (3.500 ft/s), developing a muzzle energy of 624,000 joules. This resulted in an effective range of 6,000 m (19.650 ft) against aerial and 7,000 m (23.0000 ft) against ground targets. Maximum firing range was past 7,160 m (23,490 ft), with the projectiles self-destructing beyond that distance. In a 1 sec. burst, the weapon delivered an impressive weight of fire of almost 100 kg.
The GSh-6-37 was belt-fed, with a closed-circuit magazine to avoid spilling casings all around and hurting friendly troops in the SPAAG’s vicinity. Typical types of ammunition were OFZT (proximity-fused incendiary fragmentation) and BZT (armor-piercing tracer, able to penetrate more than 60 mm of 30° sloped steel armor at 1.000 m/3.275’ distance). Since there was only a single ammunition supply that could not be switched, these rounds were normally loaded in 3:1 ratio—three OFZT, then one BZT, every 10th BZT round marked with a tracer. Especially the fragmentation rounds dealt extensive collateral damage, as the sheer numbers of fragments from detonating shells was sufficient to damage aircraft flying within a 200-meter radius from the impact center. This, coupled with the high density of fire, created a very effective obstacle for aerial targets and ensured a high hit probability even upon a casual and hurried attack.
The gun was placed in the turret front’s center, held by a massive mount with hydraulic dampers. The internal ammunition supply in the back of the turret comprised a total of 1.600 rounds, but an additional 800 rounds could be added in an external reserve feed bin, attached to the back of the turret and connected to the internal belt magazine loop through a pair of ports in the turret’s rear, normally used to reload the GSh-6-37.
A rotating, electronically scanned E-band (10 kW power) target acquisition radar array was mounted on the rear top of the turret that, when combined with the turret front mounted J-band (150 kW power) mono-pulse tracking radar, its dish antenna hidden under a fiberglass fairing to the right of the main weapon, formed the 1RL144 (NATO: Hot Shot) pulse-Doppler 3D radar system. Alongside, the 1A26 digital computer, a laser rangefinder co-axial to the GSh-6-37, and the 1G30 angle measurement system formed the 1A27 targeting complex.
Object 511’s target acquisition offered a 360-degree field of view, a detection range of around 18 km and could detect targets flying as low as 15 m. The array could be folded down and stowed when in transit, lying flat on the turret’s roof. The tracking radar had a range of 16 km, and a C/D-band IFF system was also fitted. The radar system was highly protected against various types of interference and was able to work properly even if there were mountains on the horizon, regardless of the background. The system made it possible to fire the GSh-6-37 on the move, against targets with a maximum target speed of up to 500 m/s, and it had an impressive reaction time of only 6-8 seconds.
Thanks to its computerized fire control system, the 1A27 was highly automated and reduced the SPAAG’s crew to only three men, making a dedicated radar operator (as on the ZSU-23-4) superfluous and saving internal space in the large but still rather cramped turret.
Development of Object 511 and its systems were kicked-off in 1972 but immediately slowed down with the introduction of the 9K33 “Osa” missile system, which seemed to fill the same requirement but with greater missile performance. However, after some considerable debate it was felt that a purely missile-based system would not be as effective at dealing with very low flying attack helicopters attacking at short range with no warning, as had been proven so successful in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Since the reaction time of a gun system was around 8–10 seconds, compared to approximately 30 seconds for a missile-based system, development of Object 511 was restarted in 1973.
A fully functional prototype, now officially dubbed “ZSU-37-6“ to reflect its role and armament and christened “Лена” (Lena, after the Russian river in Siberia), was completed in 1975 at the Ulyanovsk Mechanical Factory, but it took until 1976 that the capricious weapon and the 1A27 radar system had been successfully integrated and made work. System testing and trials were conducted between September 1977 and December 1978 on the Donguzskiy range, where the vehicle was detected by American spy satellites and erroneously identified as a self-propelled artillery system with a fully rotating turret (similar to the American M109), as a potential successor for the SAU-122/2S1 Gvozdika or SAU-152/2S3 Akatsiya SPGs that had been introduced ten years earlier, with a lighter weapon of 100-120mm caliber and an autoloader in the large turret.
The tests at Donguzskiy yielded mixed results. While the 1A27 surveillance and acquisition radar complex turned out to be quite effective, the GSh-6-37 remained a constant source of problems. The gun was highly unreliable and afforded a high level of maintenance. Furthermore, it had a massive recoil of 6.250 kp/61 kN when fired (the American 30 mm GAU-8 Avenger “only” had a recoil of 4.082 kp/40 kN). As a result, targets acquired by the 1A27 system were frequently lost after a single burst of fire, so that they had to be tracked anew before the next shot could be placed.
To make matters even words, the GSh-6-37 was noted for its high and often uncomfortable vibration and extreme noise, internally and externally. Pressure shock waves from the gun muzzles made the presence of unprotected personnel in the weapon’s proximity hazardous. The GSh-6-37’s massive vibrations shook the whole vehicle and led to numerous radio and radar system failures, tearing or jamming of maintenance doors and access hatches and the cracking of optical sensors. The effects were so severe that the gun’s impact led after six months to fatigue cracks in the gun mount, the welded turret hull, fuel tanks and other systems. One spectacular and fateful showcase of the gun’s detrimental powers was a transmission failure during a field test/maneuver in summer 1978 – which unfortunately included top military brass spectators and other VIPs, who were consequently not convinced of the ZSU-37-6 and its weapon.
The GSh-6-37’s persisting vibration and recoil problems, as well as its general unreliability if it was not immaculately serviced, could not be satisfactorily overcome during the 2 years of state acceptance trials. Furthermore, the large and heavy turret severely hampered Object 511’s off-road performance and handling, due to the high center of gravity and the relatively small chassis, so that the weapon system’s full field potential could not be explored. Had it found its way into a serial production vehicle, it would certainly have been based on a bigger and heavier chassis, e.g. from an MBT. Other novel features tested with Object 511, e.g. the hydropneumatic suspension and the automated 1A27 fire control system, proved to be more successful.
However, the troublesome GSh-6-37 temporarily attained new interest in 1979 through the Soviet Union’s engagement in Afghanistan, because it became quickly clear that conventional battle tanks, with long-barreled, large caliber guns and a very limited lift angle were not suited against small targets in mountainous regions and for combat in confined areas like narrow valleys or settlements. The GSh-6-37 appeared as a promising alternative weapon, and plans were made to mount it in a more strongly armored turret onto a T-72 chassis. A wooden mockup turret was built, but the project was not proceeded further with. Nevertheless, the concept of an armored support vehicle with high firepower and alternative armament would persist and lead, in the course of the following years, to a number of prototypes that eventually spawned the BMPT "Terminator" Tank Support Fighting Vehicle.
More tests and attempts to cope with the gun mount continued on a limited basis through 1979, but in late 1980 trials and development of Object 511 and the GSh-6-37 were stopped altogether: the 2K22 “Tunguska” SPAAG with mixed armament, developed in parallel, was preferred and officially accepted into service. In its original form, the 2K22 was armed with four 9M311 (NATO: SA-19 “Grison”) short-range missiles in the ready-to-fire position and two 2A38 30mm autocannons, using the same 1A27 radar system as Object 511. The Tunguska entered into limited service from 1984, when the first batteries, now armed with eight missiles, were delivered to the army, and gradually replaced the ZSU-23-4.
Having become obsolete, the sole Object 511 prototype was retired in 1981 and mothballed. It is today part of the Military Technical Museum collection at Ivanovskaya, near Moscow, even though not part of the public exhibition and in a rather derelict state, waiting for restoration and eventual display.
Specifications:
Crew: Three (commander, gunner, driver)
Weight: about 26,000 kg (57,300 lb)
Length: 7.78 m (25 ft 5 1/2 in) with gun facing forward
6.55 m (21 ft 5 1/2 in) hull only
Width: 3.25 m (10 ft 8 in)
Height: 3.88 m (12 ft 9 in) overall,
2.66 m (8 8 1/2 ft) with search radar stowed
Suspension: Hydropneumatic
Ground clearance: 17–57 cm
Fuel capacity: 760 l (200 US gal, 170 imp gal)
Armor:
Unknown, but probably not more than 15 mm (0.6”)
Performance:
Speed: 65 km/h (40 mph) maximum on the road
Climbing ability: 0.7 m (2.3')
Maximum climb gradient: 30°
Trench crossing ability: 2.5 m (8.2')
Fording depth: 1.0 m (3.3')
Operational range: 500 km (310 mi)
Power/weight: 24 hp/t
Engine:
1× 2V-06-2S water-cooled multi-fuel diesel engine with 510 hp (380 kW)
1× auxiliary DGChM-1 single-shaft gas turbine engine with 70 hp at 6,000 rpm,
connected with a direct-current generator
Transmission:
Hydromechanical
Armament:
1× GSh-6-37 six-barreled 37mm (1.5 in) Gatling gun with 1.600 rounds,
plus 800 more in an optional, external auxiliary magazine
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional SPAAG was intended as a submission to the “Prototypes” group build at whatifmodellers.com in August 2020. Inspiration came from a Trumpeter 1:72 2P25/SA-6 launch platform which I had recently acquired with a kit lot – primarily because of the chassis, which would lend itself for a conversion into “something else”.
The idea to build an anti-aircraft tank with a gatling gun came when I did research for my recent YA-14 build and its armament. When checking the American GAU-8 cannon from the A-10 I found that there had been plans to use this weapon for a short-range SPAAG (as a replacement for the US Army’s M163), and there had been plans for even heavier weapons in this role. For instance, there had been the T249 “Vigilante” prototype: This experimental system consisted of a 37 mm T250 six-barrel Gatling gun, mounted on a lengthened M113 armored personnel carrier platform, even though with a very limited ammunition supply, good only for 5 sec. of fire – it was just a conceptual test bed. But: why not create a Soviet counterpart? Even more so, since there is/was the real-world GSh-6-30 gatling gun as a potential weapon, which had, beyond use in the MiG-27, also been used in naval defense systems. Why not use/create an uprated/bigger version, too?
From this idea, things evolved in a straightforward fashion. The Trumpeter 2P25 chassis and hull were basically taken OOB, just the front was modified for a single driver position. However, the upper hull had to be changed in order to accept the new, large turret instead of the triple SA-6 launch array.
The new turret is a parts combination: The basis comes from a Revell 1:72 M109 howitzer kit, the 155 mm barrel was replaced with a QuickBoost 1:48 resin GSh-6-30 gun for a MiG-27, and a co-axial laser rangefinder (a piece of styrene) was added on a separate mount. Unfortunately, the Revell kit does not feature a movable gun barrel, so I decided to implant a functional joint, so that the model’s weapon could be displayed in raised and low position – primarily for the “action pictures”. The mechanism was scratched from styrene tubes and a piece of foamed plastic as a “brake” that holds the weapon in place and blocks the view into the turret from the front when the weapon is raised high up. The hinge was placed behind the OOB gun mantle, which was cut into two pieces and now works as in real life.
Further mods include the dish antenna for the tracking radar (a former tank wheel), placed on a disc-shaped pedestal onto the turret front’s right side, and the retractable rotating search radar antenna, scratched from various bits and pieces and mounted onto the rear of the turret – its roof had to be cleaned up to make suitable space next to the commander’s cupola.
Another challenge was the adaptation of the new turret to the hull, because the original SA-6 launch array has only a relatively small turret ring, and it is placed relatively far ahead on the hull. The new, massive turret had to be mounted further backwards, and the raised engine cowling on the back of the hull did not make things easier.
As a consequence, I had to move the SA-6 launcher ring bearing backwards, through a major surgical intervention in the hull roof (a square section was cut out, shortened, reversed and glued back again into the opening). In order to save the M109’s turret ring for later, I gave it a completely new turret floor and transplanted the small adapter ring from the SA-6 launch array to it. Another problem arose from the bulged engine cover: it had to be replaced with something flat, otherwise the turret would not have fitted. I was lucky to find a suitable donor in the spares box, from a Leopard 1 kit. More complex mods than expected, and thankfully most of the uglier changes are hidden under the huge turret. However, Object 511 looks pretty conclusive and menacing with everything in place, and the weapon is now movable in two axis’. The only flaw is a relatively wide gap between the turret and the hull, due to a step between the combat and engine section and the relatively narrow turret ring.
Painting and markings:
AFAIK, most Soviet tank prototypes in the Seventies/Eighties received a simple, uniform olive green livery, but ,while authentic, I found this to look rather boring. Since my “Object 511” would have taken part in military maneuvers, I decided to give it an Eighties Soviet Army three-tone camouflage, which was introduced during the late Eighties. It consisted of a relatively bright olive green, a light and cold bluish grey and black-grey, applied in large patches.
This scheme was also adapted by the late GDR’s Volksarmee (called “Verzerrungsanstrich” = “Distortion scheme”) and maybe – even though I am not certain – this special paint scheme might only have been used by Soviet troops based on GDR soil? However, it’s pretty unique and looks good, so I adapted it for the model.
Based upon visual guesstimates from real life pictures and some background info concerning NVA tank paint schemes, the basic colors became Humbrol 86 (Light Olive Green; RAL 6003), Revell 57 (Grey; RAL 7000) and Revell 06 (Tar Black; RAL 9021). Each vehicle had an individual paint scheme, in this case it was based on a real world NVA lorry.
On top of the basic colors, a washing with a mix of red brown and black acrylic paint was applied, and immediately dried with a soft cotton cloth so that it only remained in recesses and around edges, simulating dirt and dust. Some additional post-shading with lighter/brighter versions of the basic tones followed.
Decals came next – the Red Stars were a rather dramatic addition and came from the Trumpeter kit’s OOB sheet. The white “511” code on the flanks was created with white 3 mm letters from TL Modellbau.
The model received a light overall dry brushing treatment with light grey (Revell 75). As a finishing touch I added some branches as additional camouflage. These are bits of dried moss (collected on the local street), colorized with simple watercolors and attached with white glue. Finally, everything was sealed and stabilized with a coat of acrylic matt varnish and some pigments (a greyish-brown mix of various artist mineral pigments) were dusted into the running gear and onto the lower hull surfaces with a soft brush.
An effective kitbashing, and while mounting the different turret to the hull looks simple, the integration of unrelated hull and turret so that they actually fit and “work” was a rather fiddly task, and it’s effectively not obvious at all (which is good but “hides” the labour pains related to the mods). However, the result looks IMHO good, like a beefed-up ZSU-23-4 “Schilka”, just what this fictional tank model is supposed to depict.
Remarkable for its accuracy and light recoil, the GLOCK 21 Gen4 delivers the legendary stopping power of the .45 AUTO round with 10/13 round magazine capacity. The Modular Back Strap design on the G21 Gen4 lets you instantly customize its grip to adapt to an individual shooter's hand size. The surface of the frame employs the new scientifically designed, real-world-tested, Gen4 rough textured technology. Internally, the new GLOCK dual recoil spring assembly substantially increases the life of the system. A reversible enlarged magazine catch, changeable in seconds, accommodates left or right-handed operators. The Gen4 system is the perfect complement to this iconic .45 caliber cartridge.
Brookings, Oregon.
Fun fact:
The black spot under the pupil is normal for Oystercatchers. Male and female Oystercatchers are very difficult to differentiate because they have identical plumage, but scientists have found that you can determine the sex based solely on the eye spot with ~80% accuracy.
When it comes to wide color gamut LCD monitor supporting 99% AdobeRGB, which monitor calibration tools perform better, X-rite i1 Display Pro or Datacolor Spyder4?
Quick test result as following:
At 140 Luminance (personal preference), manual calibration with software included in retail package and calibration measured at the center of monitor specify by the software:
I1 DisplayPro: x=0.313, y=0.329, T=6464K, Lv=141
Minolta CS-200: x=0.3214, y=0.3288, T=6044K, Lv=140.57
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Spyder4: x=0.313, y=0.328, T=6472K, Lv=140.2
Minolta CS-200: x=0.3053, y=0.3226, T=7004K, Lv=135.07
The above dataset demonstrate both colorimeters are capable but i1 DisplayPro performs better on wide color gamut LCD monitor like Dell UltraSharp U2713H, 2560 x 1440 resolution supporting 100% sRGB and 99% AdobeRGB.
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However, Dell U2713H also ships with an unique software (co-develop with X-rite), UltraSharp Color Calibration Solution software that will pair with i1 DisplayPro to significantly improve the calibration accuracy:
Target Chromaticity: x=0.313, y=0.329. 6500K, Lv=140.0
Cal 1 sRGB:
Minolta CS-200: x=0.3142, y=0.3292, T=6431K, Lv=139.09
Cal 2 AdobeRGB:
Minolta CS-200: x=0.3149, y=0.3296, T=6389K, Lv=143.14
At such a relatively lower price point of a 27 inches monitor with 2560 x 1440 resolution and 99% AdobeRGB, the bundling of Dell color calibration software and i1 DisplayPro offer a very high color calibration accuracy with exceptional value on price/performance!
Highly recommend:
- Dell U2713H (ships with Dell Color Calibration Solution Software)
- X-rite i1 Display Pro
Color calibration accuracy per the tested copy:< <1% Chromaticity value!!
To re edit work on my signal lens folder or just keep on.. going on? or just omit the problem by not using problem words when describing a color.
LEMON
AMBER
YELLOW.
BLUE
PURPLE
COBALT .
Tomato Tomahto: dismissing a noted or claimed or supposed difference between two things as trivial.
It boils down to common sense if one is versed in signaling and railroad operating practices that appearance of color
denotes its self as a high signal or low signal . a high signal needs to transmit at a greater distance while a low signal transmits at a shorter distance .
The greater the speed, a signal must be observed at a longer distances for an engineman to react to what the signal is conveying.
For slower speeds a darker signal aspect is used .
a dark yellow would never be placed in a high signal block or home signal with the exception of YELLOW (D) used in Approach signals with A marker. therefore
out of the six AAR colors, three colors RED , GREEN and YELLOW do have variations of lighter and darker transmissions values .
YELLOW is YELLOW either lighter or darker in these versions
"LEMON" and "AMBER" are mentioned as descriptions in the
Railroad Signaling 1929 book
" poor red " is a term mentioned referencing what inexperienced observers sees in yellow signals .
Do i take "inexperienced" as.. being non railroad employed as the observer? While a way to describe the development of yellow glass what was interesting is the use of "orange" all be it, meaning, while developing a yellow glass which worked with a yellow flame , will not carry any amount of RED to be observed in the developmental stage .
A small excerpt : 'The colors used in railway signaling for long distance indications are red, yellow, green and sometimes
lunar white. For short distance indications blue and
purple are used and in addition a lemon yellow is used
with position-light signals to distinguish them as signals
from other lights. The reason for the choice of the
above mentioned colors,'
While It was written, For "shorter distances", where is yellow's darker form? that blue and purple is used as a comparison.
My own thoughts as this is a runaway monster of color inaccuracies.
Being historically accurate we all do our best and it seems even in 1908 when standardization was born, developed by 1918 implemented by 1934 , there are voids in documentation . better research and documentation of developments in written form seem to progress after 1928.
Terms even they used e.g. lemon yellow , amber , Admiralty Green and these are railway signal books of the time. to describe colors .
Describe / Perceived .
perceived color today especially today and how we each call
a color while back in developing a standard color to be accurate i don't think splitting hairs about color accuracy about a lens being sold by the general public not having firstly, any care of historical accuracy as for : PURPLE compared to BLUE as many refer as "cobalt" , for railroad historians and collectors and most likely not all railroad collectors would care they just think the color is cool or some of us that like the historical accuracy knows the difference and its correct use and terminology for a display.
To define the Association of American Railroads standard of AAR PURPLE and AAR BLUE. excluding the use of the word cobalt .
While for many people a side by side comparison generally BLUE and PURPLE all that is observed is a dark blue of cobalt .
YELLOW: is it lemon or amber? Is it considered YELLOW (L)
or YELLOW (D). meaning YELLOW light . YELLOW dark.
RED: this also applies RED (L) , RED (D) meaning RED light , RED dark.
GREEN: GREEN (L) , GREEN (D) meaning GREEN light . GREEN dark.
as for these shade differences i can live with using (L) and (D)
with these varieties .
Now with true accuracy .
Observances at interlocking locations:
One thing that i personally discovered at many interlocking locations and comparing findings with actual maintainers interlocking station diagrams where signal foundations of high signals, home signals , approach signals and dwarf .
Color consistency of roundel fragments at the base of a home signal have been mostly CORNING some flat and some CVX
very few of CLEAR and the GREEN has all been consistent and RED.
majority of LQ dwarf has been a mix but mostly CVX CORNING majority of YELLOW (D) and RED (D) some of the locations where a "light" YELLOW fragment of a RDL had been used then damaged .
One location showed a diverse use of lenses being used at a mechanical LQ dwarf with a pile of broken roundels near the base including KOPP RDL type CORNING CVX all 5 3/8 dia. CLEAR RED(D) YELLOW (D) and (L) .. and STIMSONITE RED and GREEN fragments . and those have been of the lighter shades.
The Approach signal locations have been YELLOW (D). no exceptions .
One of the reasons for scouting base locations was idle curiosity when i was young but revisited these locations armed with interlocking diagrams for the main purpose to locate what LQ dwarfs may have had back spectacles .
Of all the locations with known back spectacles, i have not found any fragment of broken roundels probably due to the smaller diameter size of these roundels there's not much to a 2 7/8 lens what ever fragments fell would be very small .
So maybe with a bit of re editing my signal glass folder
i could use "light" and "dark" and forgo the use of off fact, terms such as cobalt , amber , Kelly , lemon , admiral , and stick with just the six colors . Then
there is that pesky question of describing those lenses of 1905 and prior, where some color variations can be found with any color .
again is there a possibility of a bad batch of glass not exactly conforming to or a set standard before the date of standardization was set in stone? I still revert to a lens in my collection a 1905 RED which is very much a early signal glass
but being in the orange a bit than RED . possibly chemicals
in the glass batch during a press run was not mixed thoroughly. This lens is not a one of as i have seen one before but not lucky to obtain it i have just one example in my collection.
What about BLUE in 1905 while it looks either PURPLE or BLUE again its a shade off and is indeed BLUE . sadly the CORNING 1905 BLUE FSO is a wreck too pockmarked chipped to make its way into the file but i still retain the lens .
and as i write this one thing came to mind about BLUE and PURPLE and nit picking over perceived colors, i thought this quote fitting but it only is understood for those who follow Blackadder .
Percy: You know, they do say that the Infanta's eyes are more beautiful than the famous Stone of Galveston.
Edmund: Mm! ... What?
Percy: The famous Stone of Galveston, My Lord.
Edmund: And what's that, exactly?
Percy: Well, it's a famous blue stone, and it comes ... from Galveston.
Edmund: I see. And what about it?
Percy: Well, My Lord, the Infanta's eyes are bluer than it, for a start.
Edmund: I see. And have you ever seen this stone?
Percy: No, not as such my Lord, but I know a couple of people who have, and they say it's very very blue indeed.
Edmund: And have these people seen the Infanta's eyes?
Percy: No, I shouldn't think so, My Lord.
Edmund: And neither have you, presumably.
Percy: No, my Lord.
Edmund: So, what you're telling me, Percy, is that something you have never seen is slightly less blue than something else you have never seen.
Percy: Yes, my Lord.