The T-34/76

Hi all,

Today, we take a trip back in time to WWII in which I shall be featuring the infamous T-34/76 Soviet Tank. T-34 History.

World in Conflict Soviet Background with the T-34 

The T-34 is undoubtedly the iconic mainstay of the Soviet Armored Force in WWII. At that point of time, many of Soviet Military top brass were against the idea of putting investment into a new tank design and recommended pumping more money into producing more of the existing T-26 and BT Tanks. However, due to the poor performance of these tanks, the T-34 Tank, led by Mikhail Koshkin went into full production.

T-34/76 Mod 1941

The particular version I am featuring today is the Model 1941 from Dragon Armor. Weighing in at 29.2 tons, this Red Monster is armed with a mean 76.2mm F-34 gun. (Slightly Bigger than the AMX-13) Packed with a Model V-2-34 38.8 L V12 Diesel Engine, it can go to a speed of 53 km/h and has a road range of 400km. The T-34/76 also has secondary armaments that include 2 7.62 machine guns. And lastly, it has an armor that ranges from 20-52mm depending on which side of the tank. With the armor put together with its sloping design, the T-34 was one of the most heavily armored tanks in 1941.

The Red Star, Ever so imposing of an Insignia

 

 Top Side

 While the Soviets were not revolutionary in terms of their planes or ships, the T-34 is definitely a paragon of tank evolution. The sloping armor design was one of the first of its kind and with the massive production rate of the T-34, the Soviet Armored Strength shocked the Germans. While the T-34 did pack as big a punch as the German Panzers, its armor could also take a pounding and with its numbers, it dished out a painful bite against the enemy.

I gotta be frank. When I was a kid and I got familiar with WWII, I was very intrigue by the Panzer and Tiger Tanks of the Third Reich. They look massive, deadly and awesome. Hell, my first WWII Micro Machine was a Tiger Tank. However, over the years, as I got to familiarize myself with more of the other Tanks from the other armies, I began to fall more in love with the T-34. I always wanted to force myself to like the "Good Guy" tank which would be the iconic Allied Sherman Tank. However, its light armor and puny gun did not steer me away from the fact that German Panzers were way cooler. The T-34 changed all that. No only was it a high speed fighting machine, The T-34 represents the best of mobility, armor and firepower in World War Two. None could match it when you wanted the best of these three aspects. It is pity that because of ill support, lack of training and the inferiority of the Soviet Army as a whole, these T-34s were not put to better use. Many were lost in initial battle of Barbarossa.

Dragon Armor has really put in great effort to making this T-34/76 look as awesome as it can for a 1/72 scale die cast model.In fact, this would be my first 1/72 Die cast WWII model and looking at it does bring a smile to my face.

What are your opinions on this sturdy tank?

Do let me know and stay tune for more Toyconstruct Post!

Call of Duty - Campaign Memories

Hey Everyone!

Unless you're living under a rock, you must have heard of the Call of Duty series, the FPS giant that has become the "FIFA" or "Madden" of FPSes...always leading in sales, and always updated every year. October 29th, 2013 will mark the 10th anniversary of CoD's first release, and its latest title "Ghosts" will be hitting shelves soon. Looking back, the series has indeed come a long way since its 3D accelerated WWII roots. I was crazy about the first CoD, and I fondly remember playing the single player demo repeatedly due to its engaging D-Day mission.

Just some thoughts on Ghosts: I am disappointed that the campaign is about some South American coalition invading the United States, using hacked satellites to wreck destruction throughout the world, a plotline that is too cheesy for me. The plot sounds awfully similar to Cobra's attempt to world domination in GI Joe: Retaliation, doesn't it? What I was expecting was a game that featured Ghost from the Modern Warfare storyline, even if his backstory was covered in a comic book. Of course, there's always a possibility that Ghost isn't dead...and it's pretty obvious that Ghost will somehow be involved.

I just completed CoD 2 and stated the single player campaign for BF3. Yes, my backlog of games is approaching ancient history. Strangely, playing both games in close proximity has given me a clues on the formula behind CoD's success as a single player game, which might partially explain CoD's enduring "Apple-like" appeal in the FPS genre.

Even if BF3 far surpasses CoD 2 in terms of graphics, the older game's campaign was a much more enjoyable experience for me. BF3 is a functional shooter, it plays just as it was made to and its destructible environment adds variety to the game. Of course BF3's campaign was thrown in as an "extra" to its multiplayer, but its comparison to CoD will be inevitable. (Also, there are other FPSes that are well-known for their campaigns, such as Halo, Resistance, and Killzone.)

However, the main difference between the campaigns of BF3 and CoD 2 lies in presentation and panache. BF3's story is a meandering mess of backflashes, you get dumped into the campaign without any context, and I couldn't care less about its protagonist. In CoD 2, the missions are presented in a sensible fashion, you get moments to take in the settings (like the long truck ride in North Africa), the briefing videos provide context, and your friendly AI help in making you feel part of a team. In short, CoD 2 made me feel like I was fighting alongside comrades, but BF3's campaign made me feel just playing on a computer.

Do note that I've only played Infinity Ward's entries in the CoD series, so I can't really state the same for the Sledgehammer ones. From what I've experienced, it appears that the developers have used a consistent formula in the making of their campaigns, which includes character development of its main characters, dramatic twists in the storyline, a slight nod to realism, moments that let the player soak in the locales, and providing proper context to each of its missions (videos, briefings, small talk etc). While CoD's storylines are not the pinnacle of literature, they consistently deliver a solid and exhilarating experience for players.

In light of the impending release of Ghosts, I'd like to share top memorable moments I've had while playing the various CoD campaigns. Do let me know what are yours!

Memorable CoD Moments (IW)

Call of Duty: Stalingrad

You begin the mission as a pitiful private in the USSR army, and all you're given to storm the formidable MG42 nests is just a clip of rifle rounds, and when I first played that I thought it was a bug! Also, if the Germans didn't get you and you faced the wrong direction...your friendly neighborhood Commisar will be ready to kill you for "defeatism."

Call of Duty 2: El Daba (End of the Beginning)

The "demo" mission for CoD2 started off with an incredible scene. You're sitting in a truck within a British convoy, taking in the sights of the Egyptian desert, a calm moment before jumping into the hell the Germans have prepared for you.

Modern Warfare: Shooting Zakhaev (One Shot, One Kill)

Cpt Price is perhaps the most popular character of the CoD series, and what can get better than playing as him? While the mission ended up as a failure, it made me feel like a total badass: infiltrating enemy lines, shooting Zakhaev's arm off, taking a Havoc down, and surviving long enough to escape.

Modern Warfare 2: Prisoner #627

I should have seen this moment coming, but I was surprised out of my pants when Cpt Price (previously assumed dead/MIA) punches you to the ground when you breach a wall. Normally, you'd expect to be in full control of the situation, taking cronies by surprise, but this time...not just someone beat you to the punch, and it's none other than Cpt Price!

Modern Warfare 3: Down the Rabbit Hole

I hate to leave friends behind, and this one did hit me...you've played with Team Metal under Sandman throughout the campaign and you've got to leave them behind. While the theme of sacrifice may be cliched in a military settings, it takes on a different feeling when you identify with those you leave behind.

And most difficult mission? Mile High Club in CoD4, easily.



As CoD reaches its 10th birthday soon, it still remains one of the juggernauts of the FPS scene, rising from its single player campaign to blossoming as a multiplayer game. The series will always have its detractors, but it is undeniable that their single player campaigns consistently deliver awesome experiences.

DPRK Dreams of the Big Apple

Hey Everyone

Recently toyconstruct has just bypassed a milestone, and according to our pageview counter, we've gotten over a 100,000 pageviews! Hip hip hooray! We've gotten here thanks to you all! Anyway, back to today's post.

from lazygamer.net

Once again, the Hermit Kingdom has confounded us.

Unlike Iran, North Korea has been pretty clear on their nuclear program: it's not for peaceful purposes. Recently, their propaganda department released a controversial video that is probably too wild to describe in words (you really have to watch it yourself!).

The gist of the video is this: North Korea dreams of reuniting the Koreas together, and using nuclear warfare and space tech to annihilate the United States, the Prime Archenemy, to oblivion. Its bold message wasn't the most controversial bit. In fact, the North Koreans attracted a lawsuit from Activision for completely lifting a sequence from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, specifically the "Hunter Killer" mission (and it's the Russians here, they could have used Homefront or the new Red Dawn movie).

The scene that the North Koreans used to great artistic effect.

To make this video even more bizzare, its makers saw fit to use an instrumental version of "We are the World," a song produced in the U.S. to fight poverty in Africa. Somehow that song fits in a video that wishes for the complete destruction of the U.S. That's real irony there.



The translations are as follow (from the Lede Blog, North Korean Propaganda Video Imagines a Brighter World, Without Manhattan, by Marc Santora and Choe Sang-Hun):

“I had a dream last night, a dream of soaring into space on board our Unha-9 rocket,”

“Our Kwangmyongsong-21 spacecraft got separated from the rocket and traveled through space,”

“I see stars and the green Earth. I also see a unified Korea.”

“Meanwhile, I see black smoke rising somewhere in America,” 

“It appears that the headquarters of evil, which has had a habit of using force and unilateralism and committing wars of aggression, is going up in flames it itself has ignited.”

“Just imagine riding in a Korean spaceship. One day, my dream will come true,”

“No matter how hard the imperialists try to isolate and stifle us, they will not stop our people’s path toward our final victory of achieving a unified, strong and prosperous Korea.”

I am just exasperated on how you don't need humor outlets like College Humor and The Onion to get ridiculous video clips about North Korea...they are intriguingly capable of doing it themselves.

In spite of its dated graphics and blatant plagiarism, its underlying message is worrying and I fear of underestimating the North Koreans. North Korea sees the U.S. as the Enemy and would not hesitate to use its nuclear capabilities. Moreover, with their successful satellite launch and pending nuclear test, North Korea would be firmly holding onto and expanding their nuclear capabilities, which would add instability to the world and the ominous possibility of nuclear war.

This is not the only time that U.S. symbols have been appropriated by others. Hamas had used a direct copy of Mickey Mouse in their children's videos for a while (Fafour the Mouse). The program apparently teaches children the worthiness of the militant cause, and the suffering people face from Israel's occupation of Palestine.



It is interesting how disenfranchised groups/nations use the symbols of their enemies in their propaganda and literature. Another example I can think of goes back to Biblical times, when a deeply unpopular and cruel Jewish king (a Roman puppet) Antiochus IV titled himself Epiphanes ("God Manifest"), and his opponents used wordplay and reversed it to call him Epipmanes ("The Mad One").

Antiochus IV: either a god or a lunatic, depending on whose side you're on.

It's just a casual observation and it would be great to see if this indeed has been a trend throughout our history...and it does make me wonder: what makes the symbols of the powerful serve as effective/potent vehicles of communication for the oppressed?

Dust Tactics: Laser Grenadiers

Hey Everyone

Sorry for being away for awhile, moving into a new neighborhood and a new school made me quite busy for quite some time :/ For the past 2 weeks, I have been trying to find a satisfactory way of shooting my minis in my current apartment...which is tough given trying to keep an eye for light and finding suitable backdrops.

Without further ado, today's post would be about Fantasy Flight's Dust Tactics, a wargame made by a company well known in the board game scene. As a sidenote, I absolutely love playing their Battlestar Galactica board game!

Dust Tactics is a Sci-fi take on WWII created by Paolo Parente, who is best known for the AT-43 series. Dust Tactics is set in an alternate universe where aliens crash into a world caught up in WWII. The Germans first find the alien spacecraft in Antartica, and promptly use the superior technology to turn the tide of the war by winning the Battle of the Bulge and Stalingrad. The Allies successfully steal the technology and soon catch up to the Germans with walking tanks of their own. However, the Soviets break away from the Allies over disagreements to form the Sino-Soviet Union with China, and world domination is now fought over by 3 major political blocs.

Dust Tactics reminds me of Metal Slug/Machinen Krieger where advanced/alien tech is implanted into WWII fighting machines. I can't put my finger on it but the combination of WWII and mechs does have a rather cool aesthetic to me, and I wanted to try out some of their figures just out of interest.

Fantasy Flight Collector is a line that has professionally painted figures for the games the company carries, and they currently have figures for both American and German figures for Dust Tactics. To check out how the quality is like, I proceeded to order myself a squad of Germany's Laser Grenadiers. As it is true for quite a number sci-fi WWII settings, you'll always find gas masked German soldiers.

The figures came rather well packed in individual ziplock bags and a unit card used in Dust Tactics games. The box is shrinked wrapped to please geeks out there who enjoy breathing in the fresh air of a new toy :) I believe Fantasy Flight keeps a stock of pre-painted miniatures in the US as my order took about a week to arrive. They cost about 40 USD, which is rather comparable to painting services out there (~$10/figure if you include shipping).

The laser grenadiers are equipped with lethal laser weapons that can cut through all known armor, making them a feared threat on the battlefield (very unlike the laser rifles of the Imperial Guard). Each squad includes a heavy support laser soldier, and a little tidbit on German WWII infantry tactics: the squad was centered around the MG gunner, which was opposite of Allied tactics that had MGs playing a more supportive role for riflemen.

Paint job quality-wise, I think Dust Studio did quite an admirable job. The soldiers are not simply painted over, but also have believable weathering/wear done on them...such as the worn helmets, rust on shoulder pads, and scratched armor plates. A couple of nice touches that stand out to me would be the soot effect of the barrels of their laser rifles, and the fact that each soldier is given an individual skull decal (to tell the whole world that they're bad guys).

Unfortunately, I have not played Dust Tactics and cannot divulge any wisdom on deploying these guys. Dust Tactics is scaled to 1/48, and I am not 100% confident if they could be used in conjunction with a 40k Imperial Guard Army, which I think is 28mm (and not a scale).

The painted figures cost about 3 times more than their unpainted brethren (~12USD)...every website I have looked online is selling Dust Tactics minis for discounted prices, which may mean that the line isn't doing too hot at the moment. If you're into WWII, Dust Tactics would provide a fun distraction from your other projects, and I have seen some well painted examples of Dust Tactics minis.

For this series of shots, I have tried to zoom in tightly with my macro lens against a backdrop (a photo of a destroyed city) from my laptop screen. Lighting was provided for by my iPhone and it was a challenge to get the figures lit well. I dream of getting desk studio lamps (with the professional white umbrella attachments), but that's another financial consideration to make in the future.

If you're interested, you can find more information at Fantasy Flight's Dust Tactics website, a good and concise summary of the history of Dust Tactics by [So]Rice, and there's even a modeling magazine/guide (15USD with shipping) out there too that features some backstory and photos of well painted minis.

And of course...Dust Tactics is not complete without a mech, but that's for another post in the future :)

Hope you've enjoyed this post and may you continue to prosper in your geeky pursuits!

War Movies from Another View

Hey Everyone

Hope you all are doing well and that the summer has been going great. One thing I love about summer is that I have the time to watch some movies in my free time, both new summer releases and DVDs. What do you think of Dark Knight Rises? (I'm not giving away my thoughts here though)

I can bet that there's a good number of us who love watching war movies right?

As an effect of both history (who wins wars) and my living in the US, most of the popular war movies come from the US/Western perspective...which is not very interesting for me. Don't get me wrong, Saving Private Ryan and Patton are technical masterpieces, and I appreciate the daily sacrifices men and women give to the nation.

We cannot avoid the fact that victors write history, but would it be much more interesting be to see war from other perspectives? To deviate from the "Yeah Good Guys!" genre that celebrates heroism and valor under fire, explore what other nations have suffered and experienced in other wars, and perhaps gain a more complete perspective of the world today.

In today's post, I'll be sharing 2 non-US/Western movies that have impacted me and make for very insightful viewing. These movies are less well-known than The Great Escape, Platoon, and The Longest Day, but they are also well produced and directed, and show us the consequences of war from a very different perspective.

1) Blessed by Fire (2005)

Blessed by Fire (Spanish: Iluminados por el fuego) is a movie on the Argentine side of the Falklands War (or Guerra de las Malvinas). The film explores the aftermath of the Falklands War on Argentinian veterans, who experienced horrors on the battlefield and returned as broken soldiers after losing the war.

The film is centered on the experiences of two close friends who served as conscripts in the Argentine army, namely Alberto Vargas and Esteban Leguizamón. Vargas attempts suicide after suffering severe depression from the war and his financial insecurity, and Leguizamón cares for Vargas's distressed wife as Vargas is placed onto life support.

Leguizamon and his fellow soldiers taking cover from a British strafing attack.

Leguizamón relives his experiences on the Malvinas Islands (or Falklands), and the film presents a very bleak view of the war. The Argentine conscripts live in foxholes placed around the barren and cold island, and face hunger, boredom, freezing, abuse from superiors, and the psychological threat of invasion from British ships anchored just off the shore. Once the fighting starts, it quickly becomes evident that the Falklands is an unwinnable for the Argentines, as they face a force with superior training and materiel.

The guy second from right is the platoon commander and can be a real prick.

Although the Argentine soldiers face such gruelling hardship for their country, they end the war as losers and have little for consolation. A few empty words from a general and the symbols of the futility of their struggle come to the fore: discarded weapons surrendered to the British and burned out husks of military vehicles and camps. The ending scene for the war is a masterpiece. Blessed by Fire is highly recommended for its honest portrayal of war, and its depiction of the experience of the losing side questions the purpose of war (this time over the nationalistic rhetoric of the ruling elite).

2) Tae Guk Gi: Brotherhood of War (2004)

Tae Guk Gi is a Korean War movie titled after the pre-war flag of the People's Republic of Korea and current flag of South Korea. It covers the journey of two brothers (Lee Jin-tae and Lee Jin-seok) who are drafted into the Republic of Korea (ROK) army, and see themselves in the middle of a brutal war of ideology that has split the country apart.

The main plot of the film sees the two brothers come into conflict with each other due to different views. The older brother (Jin-tae) volunteers for deadly missions to earn a medal to get his younger brother (Jin-seok) discharged from conscription. However, Jin-seok vehemently protests to Jin-tae stay away from such missions in order to stay alive. This conflict ultimately sees them being fighting against each other in the opposing armies.

The brothers are conscripted into the ROK army and thrust into bloody battles.

Prior to watching the movie, I did not know much about the "Forgotten War" and Tae Guk Gi provided a rather realistic view of the war. The movie has a lot of bloody infantry battles, and presents morally ambiguous situations on the battlefield...from the treatment of PWs (who happen to be related to you) to the brutality of paramilitary militias.

ROK infantry advancing with a M4 Jumbo Sherman in the background.

While Tae Guk Gi may border on the sentimental and feature some skipping of the chain of command, it does an admirable job in presenting the historical context and emotional toil of the Korean War. A gruesome conflict that has pitted Koreans against each other, the Korean War unfortunately continues to go on without a conclusion in sight.

Have you seen other war movies that do not take the US/Western perspective? What do you think about them? There's a lot that I haven't covered (due to space), such as Letters from Iwo Jima, Schindler's List, Das Boot, and Days of Glory (Indigènes).

I do have to say that war movies can be rather depressing and can take away the sheen of the glory of war. An eye for an eye does indeed make the whole world blind (that's from Gandhi), and while we try to leave a better world for the people of tomorrow, shouldn't we also leave better people for the world tomorrow?

iGun Pro

Hey Everyone

Anyone out there who uses geeky apps on their smartphones?

It's been about a year since our close friend Qamarul passed away, and one of my most poignant memories of him was his fascination with the iPhone gun app called iGun Pro. He was fixated on the renowned PPSh-41 submachinegun, because its 71-round drum magazine has the biggest magazine capacity of the collection of guns available.

The PPSh-41 SMG of WWII fame.

iGun Pro a free app that is all about guns. It's kinda like those Japanese ready painted/assembled military toys that come in boxes, that give you a model and at the same time offer some educational stuff about the model you got. You collect guns by accumulating coins, 10 coins are given for each day you play the app. To this day, I still 'play' it (it's not strictly a game app) almost everyday, and what attracts me most to this app is simply collecting the guns, firing the guns, hearing their unique sounds, and reading wiki pages about each gun I got.

Money money money.

There are some fascinating things you can learn about guns from Wikipedia...such as the M2 machinegun actually held the record for longest ranged kill for a long time, as soldiers have attached scopes to the MG to use it as a 'sniper'. Also learned that the WWI anti-tank rifles (like the Boys) formed the basis of anti-materiel rifles of today, such as the American Barrett and the French PGM Hecate. Big caliber = big mess.

Guns of all types are available to collect!

Guns do kill people...or do people kill people? I admit that I have some fascination with guns, such as their looks, historical importance, the security they give, and the technical expertise that goes into designing them. Maybe it's just being a military geek, but I won't deny that a world with peace and no need of guns would be a worthy ideal to aim for.

Top Tens: Close Quarter Combat

Recently, I watched the Military Channel's Top Tens episode on Close Quarter Combat guns, and I found the list rather interesting. It has a lot of new guns listed, and it appears that the future of gun warfare would be in bullets totally designed by computers. Could the halcyon days of the venerable 5.56x45mm NATO be over?

Without further ado, here are the guns listed in descending order of rank:

10) IMI Uzi

A simple Israeli SMG produced in the 1950s, it was named after its creator, Major Uziel Gal, and it has spawned successful "spin-offs" (micro and mini) and continues to see action to this day.

9) FERFRANS SOAR (Special Operations Assault Rifle)

A Philippine designed rifle that limits recoil climb with a patented rate reduction system, which does away with the need of a 3-round burst system.

8) H&K G36C

The G36C brings a rifle round to a pistol fight. The G36C uses a 3-round burst to limit heat build up in its barrel.

7) LWRC M6 PSD

Sharing 80% of the parts with the M4 Carbine, it has special design features such as a self-regulating gas piston system, and advanced bolt carrier/carrier key design. Known to be a reliable and easy to maintain, and still pack quite some punch.

6) Knight's PDW

Guns are usually designed around a bullet, but this gun uses a bullet specially designed for the gun. It uses a 6x35mm proprietary round, to give it a lethal punch and yet has 50% less recoil than the M4 carbine.

5) FN P90

A gun that looks like it came from the future, the bullpup P90 is chock full of design features. Its casings drop downwards to allow it to be used in both left and right hand styles, which provides much needed flexibility in close quarters fights.

4) Cornershot

The brainchild of Lt. Col. Amos Golan of Israel, the Cornershot allows its user to fire around corners without exposing him/herself to deadly fire. I have heard that some troops use a cat soft toy cover for its barrel, and it's humorous to see bullets flying out a cat! Side note: the Germans in WWII had experimented with this idea using a curved barrel for the StG 44 Krummlauf.

3) Magpul FMG9

The FMG9 represents a revolution in SMG design, as its folding design allows it to be easily concealed (like a spare radio battery) and quickly deployed under fire. It was specially designed for protection details, who need to remain discreet and provide firepower when needed.

2) MP7

The MP7 is uses the propriety H&K 4.6x30mm cartridge, which provides stopping power that penetrates body armor. Easy to control and capable of pistol and shoulder firing positions, the MP7 looks to a true successor of the fabled MP5.

1) Kriss Super V

A weapon of unconventional design, the Kriss Super V uses an asymmetrical recoil system that diverts the recoil off-axis, behind the magazine. This dramatically reduces recoil climb, and it uses the .45ACP cartridge, giving it a lot of stopping power. Also, this deadly gun is designed to be easily maintained and owes some "gun-DNA" to the solid AK series of Russia.

What do you think of this list? I do feel that the MP5 should receive some mention, since it's been the staple SMG for a long time...and even shined during famous gun battles, most notably in Operation Nimrod (1980 Iranian Embassy Siege by SAS).

Iron Sky: A Film with Finnish?

Hey Everyone

Thanks for coming down to toyconstruct, and it's been great to have JQ share on his unit of screamers and his GHQ Udaloy I destroyer. I admire JQ for being dedicated to painting and fixing models up, he's definitely made more completed model kits than me....I just do the easy job of taking the pictures, some of it with his help too.


Not sure if you heard about this, but there's growing hype around perhaps one of the most cheesiest, extremely outrageous, and downright silly movies of 2012. It's not related to Twilight or another "Scary Movie" (thank goodness)...and it's none other than Iron Sky, a comedy set in the not so distant 2018.

The Iron Sky movie poster. I won't blame you if Red Alert 3 comes to mind...

Scheduled to invade cinema screens on April 4th, Iron Sky is a German-Finnish-Austrailian production based on one ridiculous concept: the Nazis have escaped defeat of WWII by setting up base on the dark side of the moon. It also happens that the moon has been well favoured by other movie baddies as well....such as the Decepticons in Dark of the Moon and Hugo Drax of Moonraker fame.

Space Nazis, Fascism in the Final Frontier.

Seventy-three years of Nazi lunar hibernation is drastically broken by an intruding U.S. African-American astronaut, and the Lunar Nazis spring from their base and promptly invade Earth...with plans to activate their giant battlecruiser, the Götterdämmerung ("Twilight of the Gods", an Old Norse apocalypse), and wipe off subhuman presence from the face of the planet, be it full moon or not.

Nazi Moon Base: Beyond Hitler's wildest dreams, without the worries of real estate prices and pesky neighbours.

Jokes weaved into this story include a U.S. president resembling Sarah Palin (who actually wins the election!), a Nazi doctor injecting the African-American with a "whitening solution", and the Nazi base taking the shape of a giant Swastika. Here are the 3 trailers that have been released so far:

I might give this movie a shot on the grounds of its originality and highly ridiculous premise, knowing that it's going to be a B movie with probably low attention to plot and acting...but overflowing with corniness and hilarity. It has already been screened at the recent Berlin Film Festival, and it's expectedly gotten some mixed reviews.


If you haven't fallen off your chairs yet, what do you think about it?

Military Channel's Top 10s: Machineguns

Hey Everyone!

After enjoying some Warhammer goodness from JQ about female dwarves and the discussion over their supposed whiskers, it's time for some good ol' military nerdiness!

First and foremost, I LOVE watching the Military Channel.

Dinner-time for me is usually Military Channel time, and military documentaries always seem to teach me new things about wars across history. Quite a good bit of it touches on WWII, and it's my hunch that historical events generally take years for fuller understanding, and WWII might offer a relatively rich ground for analysis and pretty much much shook the foundations of a majority of countries in the world.

Recently they featured a top-10 list of machine guns across the world, and I thought it might be fun to share their list with you all. I took down brief notes for the countdown, and let's see how it compares with your expectations...

No. 10: SG 43 System Goryunov (Soviet Union)

A machine gun that was fixed onto a wheeled mount, the SG 43 is historically remembered to have helped turned the tide in the vicious Eastern Front of WWII.

• Claw feed that led to less jams.
• Ability to be cocked without changing aim
• Long service in the Soviet Army.

No. 9: M249 SAW "Minimi" (U.S.)

A replacement of the M60 for the US Armed Forces, M249s have been widely deployed across the globe and have proven themselves in various modern conflicts.

• Compact and maneuverable, ideal for close quarters combat.
• Light, can carry more ammo and more accurate to fire.
• Ease of replacing ammo.
• Open bolt, allows air to cool chamber.
• Quick change barrel.

No. 8: Mk19 (U.S.)

An automatic grenade launcher that rains a constant barrage of death, enough said?

• First saw action in the Vietnam War, and becomes universal grenade launcher for the U.S.
• Has to be cocked twice before shooting.
• Massive firepower at high rate of fire.
• Limitation: Lobs its grenades, which can give target time to dodge.

No. 7: M60 (U.S.)

Nicknamed the “pig” due to its heavy weight, the M60 certainly packed a punch and became an icon of the Vietnam War. As made famous by Rambo's akimbo shenanigans.

• Drew inspiration from MG 34 and MG 42 designs by Germany in WWII.
• Parts Riveted together in sheet metal, cheap and easy to make.
• Versatile, shared common ammo among NATO forces (7.62x51mm NATO), and capable of being fired at different stances.

No. 6: PKM (Soviet Union)

Kalashnikov's next invention after the wildly successful AK-47, and he duly produced a MG that was both rugged and deadly.

• Stamping process to make production cheap.
• Open bolt, air to cool barrel.
• Quick change barrel.
• Reliable at all weather conditions.

No. 5: M134 Minigun (U.S.)

An electrically driven dispenser of hell, the “mini” actually refers to its relatively small size as compared to other Gatling guns like the M61 Vulcan. As made famous by the Terminator.

• Original Gatling gun was invented in 1861
• Early service saw it mounted on the C47 Gunship aka Puff the Magic Dragon, spawning the deadly gunship “genre”.
• Favored by helicopter crews in Vietnam due to its phenomenal rate of fire
• Feared by the Vietnamese, due to psychological impact arising from its unworldly muzzle flash and sound
• Experienced jamming problems and was improved over the years.

No. 4: Vickers Machinegun (U.K.)

First introduced in WWI, the Vickers MG was renowned for its reliability and was capable of being fired for 12 hours straight (with barrel changes) without a single breakdown.

• First saw service in 1911, and became a game changer in WWI.
• Originally used to support troops like artillery (indirect fire), derived from the Maxim MG.
• Bolt unlocks up to remove receiver, lighter but still difficult to support as it needed a 6 men crew.
• Water jacket cooling, soldiers actually urinated to make cool but the gun stunk and brass fittings would rust.
• Equipped with a stable mount, accuracy was high as it can hit a man size target at 2000m!
• Flaw: toggle could sever knuckles (it continuously moves up and down very near to the user's fingers).
• Longevity proven: used until late 1960s

No. 3: MG 42 (Germany)

The MG42 served with distinction with the Wermacht in WWII, it had such a high rate of fire (1,200 rds/min is actually one of the highest among single barrelled MGs) that individual sounds of bullets cannot be heard by the human ear...thus earning it the name: “Hitler's Buzzsaw”.

• Germany was fighting a two front war and needed a MG that was faster and cheaper to make than the MG 34.
• Interchangeable parts, which made servicing much easier.
• More accurate than MG 34.
• Feared among allies.
• Quick change barrel.
• Special mount rendered it extremely accurate.
• D-Day: Germans had used them to effectively cover zones in Omaha Beach, and had nearly succeeded in stopping the Allies.

No. 2: Maxim Machinegun (U.K.)

The one that started it all, the Maxim MG became a weapon “most associated with [British] imperial conquest” and played a major role in setting the stage for trench warfare in WWI.

• First MG that changed the battlefield.
• First fully automatic weapon.
• Proved its deadly potential during the Zulu war.
• Distrusted as it jammed frequently during battle.
• Germans made the MG 08 in response.
• Individually made parts proved to be reliable and tough.
• Cold weather: the gun's snow cap allowed troops to cool it with snow and ice.
• Redefined modern warfare, gave rise to trench warfare.

No. 1: Browning M2 (U.S.)

Perhaps one of the most iconic MGs in the world, it is still actively deployed a long time since its first introduction at the end of WWI...demonstrating its unparalleled longevity and tremendous power. The M2 is the No.1 machinegun in the world.

• Max range of 4.5 miles!
• The M2 can destroy vehicles and emplacements, not just men.
• Major design change to make it air cooled, and in effect it made the M2 more adaptable.
• Capable of firing AP incendiary rounds that would light up fuel tanks of light vehicles.
• Heavy, had to be mounted on vehicle or tripod.
• Belt fed on either side, can be used side by side (eg. M1 Abrams commander and gunner MGs).

This list was compiled by John Gresham, a military analyst and historian best known to have worked closely with the man Tom Clancy himself. It's my gut feeling that this list leans toward historical significance over technical performance, as some older guns have finished ahead of their replacements. But I did see the M2 Browning taking top spot!


Do you guys agree with his list...or do you have other dream guns that are not in this list?