Hubert

Interesting technique for polishing it, I'll keep that in mind the next time I try polishing something. As for the wood - you could try painting it a light colour (something off-white, like buff titanium), then using a very dark wood varnish to give it a wooden colour. Although it'd probably be best to practice it on something non-important first.

Very nicely done ARN, what technique did you use to polish it up? Nice job on the wood effect as well, should look lovely when varnished. And IRRC, that part is called the chamber - at least, that's what its called by SIG anyway.

Haha yeah, there's loads of "f2p" iPod/iPhone/iPad games, but their paid content is ridiculously expensive. World of Tanks is actually pretty reasonable. I prefer it to monthly subscriptions. One thing I will say - I'm not a fan of World of Warplanes. While WoT is great - WoP is... obviously still in beta. The controls are lacking, the graphics aren't as good as War Thunder and WoP's aircraft choice is poor IMHO. In theory, War Thunder's air-land combat should be pretty balanced too - at least in historical games. People say tanks will get smashed by heavy bombers, but remember (at least in historical battles) heavy bombers like the B-17 always fly at 20K+ feet for bombing runs - far too high to hit tanks with accuracy. Tanks only have to worry about fighter bombers and tank-hunters (Typhoons, P-47s, JU-88s, etc) - but mobile AA (the German Wirblewind, the US M16-quad 50.cal, the British Crusader-AA) should have no trouble knocking fighter-bombers out of the sky. Eagerly await the day War Thunder brings tanks in.

War Thunder released some screen shots of their tank models for land-war mode this week. They looked bloody good. To be honest, slightly better than WoT's tank models. If WT's tank combat is as good as its plane-combat, I know I'll enjoy it. The fact that they're adding playable anti-air vehicles is also a bonus, meaning ground-players won't be screwed over by planes.

If you intend on driving the French tree, I'd suggest avoiding the heavy tree. Driving the AMX-40 ("the duck") at tier 4 is one of the most frustrating experiences in game - especially if the match-maker decides to troll you by spawning you at the bottom of a hill. It has bouncy armour, but the gun is terrible and you are painfully slow. I honestly do not the end result (the french heavies) are worth all the effort. The lights are fun and fast though. Anyone grinding the British mediums - stop at the Comet. I'll admit that stock, it's awful. Worse than the Cromwell in every way. But once fully upgraded, it's probably the best (medium) tank in the British tree. Sure, it's slower than the Cromwell - but it's just as agile, has better cross-country performance and armour and the 77HV gun is brilliant. It just goes down hill from there. There really is no need to go further. Recently decided to start the US heavy tanks again, I kind of miss all that armour and the huge (but hilariously inaccurate) guns.

Yup, think it's great But with the last patch it's stopped working on my laptop. Managed to get to rank 5-6 on the RAF, but I'm a terrible Spitfire pilot

A 6pdr gun with proper accuracy will make mince-meat of your puny russian tanks!

Another victim falls to World of Tanks! I can only apologise mate, if you're anything like me, this game will take over a ridiculous amount of your time. I've finally reached my first tier 10 tank. FV4202 British medium. I'm now also bankrupt, so can't afford to buy ammunition for it...

I'll be honest Ed, I was just being lazy when I called the FV4202 the proto-Chieftain. It was a test-bed experimental vehicle which took the best bits of the Cent, and the research lead to a lot of the design elements being put into the Chieftain (like the reclined driver's position). T-34s are so fun to come up against. Yeah, they're a lot faster than my Churchill tank. But that doesn't help them when I use my 40 tonne tank as a roadblock. Smash! In game the Centurion is one of those things that either does really well, or is completely and utterly useless. Those smug drivers of Russian tanks in their T-54s aren't so smug once they've met the nasty end of a Royal Ordnance L7 105mm gun... Sadly geoffreym, tank industry (design, manufacturing) in the UK has almost gone the way of the Dodo; politics, corruption and incredible stupidity have left Britain's tank industry (like everything else ) in ruins. But, that's a story for another thread.

I'm not great with boxing analogies, so I can't really say. The Leo is more agile and slightly faster, with a gun with better penetration (but it's not much. We're talking mm here). But, the Chally makes up for the lack of penetration with range and accuracy, and having even more armour. Ed, Challenger 1 took out tanks at 3.2 miles/ 5.1 KM If I was going to pick an all round best tank, I'd probably say the Centurion. It pretty much laid the foundation for what we know as the MBT (the triangle of protection, firepower and mobility), it was incredibly reliable and robust, and it can still take upgrades. They're still in service in some places - with 120mm guns and modern electronics. Not too shabby for something that was originally designed in 1944.

That's a good one. I guess it depends on exactly what you're looking for and what you want them to do. I think if you put the Challenger 2's armour on a Leopard 2, you'd probably have the answer. Or put the Leo's L55 gun, fire-control systems and engine on the Challenger. That said, the L30 gun isn't completely useless, when you remember it's predecessor, the L11, scored the longest tank-tank kill in history, at a range other guns would have difficulty with. The only good aspect about the Abrams is that it can be updated and upgraded. Given new guns, electronics, etc. Basically, it's good because it can copy what the smart kids have done. The M1 only had a 105mm gun - when Britain and Germany had been using 120mm guns for upwards of 25 years... Any tank which has an auto-loader fails IMO. A loader will always be useful - because you have an extra body in the tank. You can 1/4 the work load (maintenance, cleaning, guard duty, bombing up), rather than giving 3 people a lot of work. And remember, while both an auto-loader and a human can fail - it's a lot easier to replace the loader, than it is to take the tank apart to remove the auto-loader... .

Having one of those nights, 15 losses and 3 wins 139K away from my top-tier Brit medium, the FV4202 - the proto-Chieftain. This is going to take a looooooong time. There's something fun about lower-tier games. Trundling about in a Churchill and knocking the crap out of panzer IVs and T-34s...

Actually, the lower-hull of a tank - the sides where the suspension and road wheels are - is pretty thin. They were designed under the assumption that they'd rarely be hit (tanks either hull down and hidden or driving flat out), but IEDs weren't factored in during the design process. Which is why recently we've started seeing side-skirts re-appear. A hit there from a 90mm gun, or even an 76mm HV gun should be enough to damage the tank. A few of the Abrams lost in Iraq were due to RPGs hitting previously unknown weakspots next to the fuel tanks. The Chally's turret is among the best protected turret armour around. Frontally, there's a good 2+ feet between the external armour surface and inner "shell" of the turret, not to mention a layer of something like kevlar inside to catch spalling. The roof is thicker than others, as the tank was designed under the assumption that it would spend most of its time hull-down and having artillery shells rain down on it. Not to mention the fact that the Challenger 2's fire-control handset was designed after the PS1 controller. Clearly designed with the gamer generation in mind

It annoys me that despite the fact they've been working on it for almost 2 years now, they haven't brought in historical battles in WoT, They've said the in-game engine can't deal with smoothbore guns, so post 1965, other than the Challenger, Challenger 2 and the Indian Arjun tank*, there won't really be many modern tanks in game. World of British tanks? Hmm, actually I quite like the sound of that... *A tank that took over 20 years to develop, only came into service in 2007, and was already completely obsolete - India capped production at under 200 and is seeking to buy surplus Russian kit...

Cheers Ed, I'll look into those. Have you seen (The Mighty) Jingles, and his WoT and War Thunder videos? I quite enjoy them. Same goes for QuickyBaby. The two often live-stream together, usually pretty funny to watch. Since I started watching QuickyBaby, I feel I've started to play a bit better. Hell, I out-right copied one of his Centurion 7/1 tactics, and won the game for my team! http://www.youtube.com/user/BohemianEagle?feature=watch http://www.youtube.com/feed/UCQWHq9e1hN268yjgYq-0hNw

First off, I'm a huge tread-head. I absolutely love tanks. So, personally I love the game. Its my biggest waste of time. But - and this is a big but - playing this game can be both the most frustrating and satisfying game you'll play. It's the only game I've ever played that I've ever raged at*; the game is heavily dependant on your teams - get a bad team and boy will you know about it. You can give your best performance, play above and beyond the call of duty - and still, ultimately, lose, because you were stuck on a team of window-lickers. That said, I'm a truly crap player, but the further in the game you get, the more this will annoy you. Currently on the tier-9 British medium, the Centurion 7/1, and it really is a frustrating, but fun time. Frustrating, because 1)I still need to learn how to drive it, 2) I've recently been stuck with useless teams who all lemming-train at the start, or artillery who couldn't hit a starship if they were parked in its cargo-bay. But, fun, because I can do a lot of hit-an-run on bigger tanks . *To myself/shout at my computer. I'm not one of those cretins who vents their frustrations on a team via the in-game chat.

Anyone else play? I recently found out that I had been playing along side (and against ) a few of my airsofter mates and guys from my classes for almost 2 years without knowing, so just wondered if anyone here also played. Been playing it since the first closed beta-test was launched - but sadly, almost 4 years on, I'm still a crap player

jcheeseright, that 416 looks great. Looking forward to hearing how it performs. As for H&K and the UK - H&K were sold to a group of German businessmen (some time between 2004-2007, I always forget exactly when), but officially stopped being a British company once the SA80-A2 upgrade program was officially finished in 2006. H&K currently occupy the old RSAF in Nottingham, leased to them by the British government - which is why H&K have a substantial amount of MoD and police contracts. For example, it's H&K (rather than FN,the original designers of the L7A1) who are making the new L7A2 GPMGs for the British Army.

Which barrel did you pick for your LSW, Ed? Before mine broke, I was running it with a Madbull 590mm,although I know someone who's got a Prometheus 510mm in his which works fine. Got a few commission paintings finished and sent off, got rid of some old kit, so I decided to treat myself to a gun I've wanted since seeing it in Tomorrow Never Dies. All I need now is the tux and cocktails...

@Ian, I like the massive mags in the 74U. Looks like the Russian version of a few sawn-off G3s with extended mags I've seen in photos from Northern Ireland in the 70's. @Ed - I can only second what's already been said, that sniper sure is a work of art. L85 now has the remaining rail space covered in XTM covers. Useless, but I like the look (much like the original plastic handguard) And now for something completely different (well, different for me) The latest addition to the armoury, JG's Umarex branded G36C. Going to keep it as basic as possible, as frankly it doesn't need anything other than the grip.

Picked up a few more foliage green XTM covers for my L85 - so I can now cover pretty much all of the rail-space, and a cheap-and-cheerful foregrip for my new G36. Love it when someone spends a ridiculous amount of cash on some flashy foregrip and then runs around holding their gun by the magwell...

Cheers Ed! I've had a bit of flak from some purists elsewhere, so it's refreshing to have a response other than "HERESY! Burn it" Aye, it's a 551 EOtech. I've tried a 552 before - personally (if you or anyone else considers EOtech'ing any kind of SA80), I'd avoid the 552, as it's too big. Just too long, it looks really weird.

Something I just know the L85 purists are gonna love... Designed for use in very tight indoor CQB and training site.