OTTCYM Mission 12 - Vagabond And The Beat Goes On - 27th September 1916

[Vagabond]

“Why haven’t we got Strutter’s, why have we still got Be2C’s what the heck is going wrong with this war”.

“There are new planes available and they are given to new squadrons with no experience and we have to soldier on, week after week with these obsolete monstrosities”. Joe Ryan’s Strong New York accent added emphasis to his words and they were heard by everyone in the Mess, maybe in the hangers over 100 yards away and indeed probably heard in the French, Café Americaine 500 yards down the small one track road that led to it.
“It’s just the way things are old chap” said Podgy Pogson, Podgy was old school, Charterhouse to be precise but he knew what he could change and what he couldn’t change and knew no amount of logic would change the system the Brass had worked out. In their wisdom they were sending new squadrons to the front with new planes, pre-existing squadrons already there with experienced pilots and crew were only slowly getting the new planes.

“On top of that we have this new and extremely slow figure of 8 to fly” Ryan continued “Just because someone can’t manufacture a radio transmission device that doesn’t have us trailing a long piece of wire out of the back of the plane in alignment with a bit of wire on the ground” “Those blasted artillery chaps can’t hit anything anyway, even with our help”.
“Well I know a thing or two about that” chimed in Plaskitt-Smithe, “it’s another of those buggers up at HQ Magnus is his name”. “I was in the Café Americaine a couple of nights ago and this chap from 32 Squadron was telling me about it”. “It seems that if you tool around for 30 minutes flying this pattern, twice in that time the artillery chaps get a perfect signal from you”. “They can fire their big guns and miss and then twice in the next 30 minutes you get the chance to correct the fall of shot”. “It’s a brilliant scheme to avoid paying out senior airmen’s wages, just get them killed early and replace them with some numpty straight out of pilot school on the basic rate of pay”.
“It’s really no point in complaining about it” said Jack Cowan in his slow, deep, measured voice, “tomorrow morning we are just going to have to make the best of it”.

That seemed to put the damper on the conversation because essentially he was right, so they had a few more glasses of the potato schnapps that they’d all grown addicted to and then made their way to their cold damp bunks for a few hours of sleep, tortured by whatever nightmare their brains individually deemed appropriate.


Magnus’s brilliant figure of 8, which as you can see is flattened - as if a pile of bricks has landed on your normal figure of 8. Jack Cowan and Joe Ryan had drawn the short straw and were going to try and fly a Be2C in this pattern spotting for the artillery who were trying to demolish 2 big German fortifications, or maybe something else but it was vitally important to the war effort or HQ wouldn’t be risking their lives in this way.

As always my text is below the pictures rather than the more normal above.


Cowan and Ryan had formed a deep friendship although neither of them would have admitted it to an outsider and they were in the Be2C with the unenviable task of bringing down the wrath of the Royal Artillery on the heads of their German opponents. Charles Plaskitt-Smythe and his Observer Podgy Podgson were in a Fe2B acting as escort to the poor boobs in the Bee.


In the distance they could see a couple of German planes, Halberstadt’s from the vague outline at this distance, very formidable opponents although not quite as formidable as the new Albatros fighters that were being seen in increasing numbers along the front.

They are outlined against the new hand painted background that I might mention once or twice in the ensuing story, I’m not up for commissions and so it is purely for self aggrandisement that I mention it.


Jack Cowan has banked to port and as I am flying for Jack you must expect a small amount of eccentricity in his manoeuvres. These will be cannily explained in the text as clever ploys on my part, do not be deceived by that explanation, even if very occasionally it is true.


By banking to port Jack moved away from the nearest Halberstadt and towards the first target, but this left Plaskitt-Smythe flying directly at the said Halberstadt, they exchanged shots to very little effect.

Of course this picture also shows off my new hand painted backdrop to perfect effect. Did I mention my new backdrop? I can’t remember now.


Plaskitt-Smythe flies passed the first Halberstadt and straight into the gun of the second one, painted a dull shade of brown, there is an immediate loss of engine power as his opponents bullets strike home damaging the Fee’s engine and he realises that he has to return to base immediately or risk crashing to an ignominious death.

Joe Ryan is moving his Lewis gun to be able to fire backwards through the struts to the port side of the Bee and within inches of his pilot Jack Cowan.

Jack Cowan has started to turn pale under his suntan.


The Brown Halberstadt opens fire on the almost defenceless Bee and jams his gun fairly quickly. Plaskitt-Smythe is going home as soon as he can turn the Fee round and the CDL Halberstadt seems to have lost his way.


Podgy can see his bullets boring in to the rear of the pilots seat and then the erratic flying of the Halb convinces him he has hit he pilot.

This pilot has to return to base straight away, so good shooting from Podgy.


One of my rare in focus picture’s so I thought I should include it here, but it also shows Cowan’s Bee in relation to the first target to its right hand side. Cowan is turning to port so that he can relay the German position to the artillery.

At this stage I hadn’t fully grasped the intricacies of the scenario conditions, once Cowan was flying in the right direction to transmit, which in this case is still 90’ to his left he had to be within 2 rules to be able to transmit corrections if the artillery missed on the 1st and 2nd shots. By the time he had achieved the necessary angle to transmit he only had time for 1 transmission so there would be no corrections.

Did I say I was flying Jack’s plane?


The Brown Halberstadt has chosen to return to base via a series of right handed turns and would have been able to fire at the Bee, if his gun wasn’t jammed. Joe’s cunning positioning of the Lewis allows him to fire a burst back past Jack Cowan left ear and Jack almost whoops for joy when the Lewis gun jams.

Podgeson fires into the plane nearest to him and again hit’s the pilot, not as badly this time but of course he doesn’t know that.


As Plaskitt-Smythe continues to fly homeward bound Podgy gets another chance to fire at the CDL Halberstadt, hitting the pilot for a 2nd time.


The drama shot. Just before….


The CDL plane crashes into mother earth. Things are really going well for C flight, 1 enemy shot down by Pogson, 1 enemy returning to base, hit by Pogson OK the Fee is also returning to base but bar a bad landing will be A OK and this leaves the field safe for Jack Cowan to complete his mission.

I forgot to add that the first call to the artillery had resulted in 5 and 6 on the dice and so the explosion marker over the target indicates its destruction so no need to make corrective calls, which would have been useless as due to pilot error they were already outside the prescribed range to make the calls.


Another meaningless picture, but it looks a bit like a child’s drawing of an aeroplane and some childish landscape, which I rather liked.


Jack Cowan has completed another loop of his flattened figure of 8 and is headed towards his 2nd target, he and Joe have time to wave to the Fee as it heads home.


Bad news for Jack and Joe because as the brown Halberstadt also heads home it passes an Albatros Dl that is flying determinedly towards their Bee.


And it’s obviously going to cut it off before it gets close enough to call in the artillery on the final target. The Albatros appears to be moving at twice the speed of the venerable Bee, or should that be vulnerable Bee and will have no difficulty in bringing on a combat.

Much to Jack Cowans relief Joe has started to move the Lewis to fire from the port forward sector of the plane and so provided Joe doesn’t hit the prop, Jack feels fairly safe from being shot by his own Observer.

This left him with the dilemma of whether to fight or try and carry out his artillery mission. Both Jack and Joe are fighters and Jack banks to port, towards the D1 but keeping it on his port side so Joe can take a shot when they get closer.


Which he completely misses, but the Bee takes a significant amount of damage from this promising young pilot in the Dl.


Joe starts to move the Lewis but there isn’t enough time to get a shot at the retreating Albatros, so he moves it to the starboard quarter and gets another askance look from his pilot.


The Albatros pilot made a huge mistake and started his next attack by turning to starboard as Jack also turned to starboard, this put the Dl miles away from the Bee as it made its run over the next target.

Jack had learned from his previous mistake and was planning on making his run starting well before the target to give him plenty of time to call in corrections should they prove necessary. Figure of 8, flattened or not were proving difficult to achieve but the aerial alignment was paramount.


However that wasn’t to be as the artillery hit first time with a 6 and 4. Mission completed now time to head for home, which might be a little more difficult than they would like, as the Albatros had closed the gap and was moving very fast compared to the Bee.


Joe’s positioning of the Lewis was impeccable, if only his shooting compared but with a short burst the gun jammed again Jack breathed another sigh of relief but the Albatros was coming into a tailing position.


Jack flung the Bee to starboard, well flung is a bit of a misnomer as she gradually made the turn like a disabled duck but it was enough to cause the Albatros to miss. Poor deflection shooting on the part of her pilot.


Jack now started a desperate game of cat and mouse and he didn’t like the role allotted to him of mouse. He had a start and a small lead over his adversary but would that be enough?

He turned to port and safety but Joe waved at him as a reminder that the Lewis was set to fire over the starboard quarter, Jack hadn’t forgotten which was why he was keeping the German away from that quadrant Joe’s bullets had come very close to his ear with that last blast of firing.


I realised after a little while that Dave’s AI works on the enemy trying to attack, not run away and so after a couple of turns this was the situation. The Albatros had done a hard and full turn one way and then the same the other way but kept overshooting the target. I then started to modify the results based on the reality of the situation.


Which fortunately was a little too late and so sorry – another picture of the target making what would be his final turn to port, reaching the table edge, escape and victory.

The Albatros was on his tail, and gaining fast, I’m not a big fan of the table edge being some strange end of the world and all of a sudden the two planes can’t see or attack each other and one is now safe, but in this instance it had been a “heart in the mouth” chase all the way there and I felt that Jack (me) deserved the victory.

[Vagabond]

Butchers Bill



A.M. 1st Class Jack Cowan – RTB – No Kills

2/Lt Joe Ryan – RTB – No Kills


Lt Charles Plaskitt-Smythe – FRTB-E – No Kills
Landed rolled 3+2 OK

A.M. 1st Class Raymond ‘Podgy’ Pogson – FRTB-E – 1Kill CDL Halberstadt (Nülle).
Landed rolled 3+2 OK


Rudolf Lindenberger - Brown Halberstadt – FRTB-P - WIA – No Kills
Landed rolled 6+6 Crashed.
C&W rolled 3 +1RTB -1FRTB -1WIA = 2 Dead
Dave I’m not sure if he gets the +1 for landing safely, I’ve assumed not because he rolled doubles and crashed, please let me know if I’m wrong. Yep, you were wrong, he gets +1RTB but -1FRTB for the crash as well as -1WIA so the net result is the same, he bled out..

Otto Dehmisch - CDL Halberstadt – SD FT WIA Twice - No Kills
A little Boo – Hiss might be called for, as this is the chap who shot me down 2 missions ago.
C&W rolled 3 – 2 WIA twice = 1 Dead. Upps!!

OK I take back the Boo Hiss. This came as a bit of a shock because Otto has been my deadly foe since the start of the campaign and this seems like a small way to go, he just sort of slipped away.Except he died in Mission 11 .!! Replaced with Fritz Nülle in the roster


ObLtn Edmund Neuenhofen - Albatros Dl – RTB – No Kills but he tried very hard.

Having just re-read this I’m not sure if Plaskitt-Smythe could make the Immelmann turn with his engine damaged, or if the turn was already planned when his engine was hit. Too late now.

An interesting challenge from Mr MikeeMagnus, I certainly didn’t expect it to go as well as it did but that was due to some very lucky turn ups and then even luckier die rolls for the Artillery, hitting first time - twice. You might be forgiven for thinking it was quite a pedestrian game but once the Bee had completed its mission I had an extremely anxious time trying to outguess Dave’s AI and escape, the Albatros was so much faster and probably more manoeuvrable as well.

[Vagabond]

This is just a letter home to my sister because I had a fancy to do a roundup of my pilots after 24 games, I felt they deserved the recognition, but if you’re in your right mind you’ll skip it.

Dear Sis
No letter for weeks and then 2 in two weeks, but don’t worry nothing drastic has happened, I’m just answering your last letter quickly, the one asking after the chaps I’m flying with, but first let me tell you about the wheel chair long jump competition I’ve organised, along with a chap called Bobby Brewster from the Artillery.

I mentioned in my last letter that the wheelchair races along the corridors weren’t going too well for me because of my injured arm, going in circles and hitting the wall etc etc. Well that’s a thing of the past, it’s made a full recovery now, the arm that is and Matron insisted I should try and strengthen it. I suggested only using my right arm to drink with, but she didn’t think that would work until she found out how much I was drinking and then I got a real rocket from her. I still think there’s some mileage in my idea but I’ll try that out of her sight.

Anyway I was taking to this chap Brewster, he’s in a chair like me but is quite happy to be sitting out as much of the war as he can. I told him I was in the RFC and he laughed and said I bet you’re pleased to be on the ground and of course I said no. We chatted about this and that before coming round to our school sports and it turns out his event was the long jump and as you may remember I was usually up for the high jump.

Well before I knew it he challenged me to a jump off, winner was the one who went highest and furthest. We got one of the porters to build a ramp at the end of the corridor, just before the double doors and now that I can travel in a straight line I can hit the ramp at speed and my last run resulted in a 6’7” jump. That won me the contest and a bottle of Malt, I also got a broken nose because I hadn’t perfected the landing and went arse over tip. Brewster asked if that’s how I usually landed my plane which was a little unfair as I was in a lot of pain at the time. More so when Matron found out what we’d been up to and dressed my sore and still bleeding nose with some stinging ingredient she said was reserved for Flying Officers who couldn’t land with their wheels down.

Anyway, we’ve been at the front for 12 weeks straight and the squadron or at least C Flight was hoping for a break like last time, you remember we spent Jan to Mar16 fighting but were recalled back to Blighty until July and we were hoping that as we’ve been here July to Sept we might get a bit of a rest but Uncle has said that’s not likely to happen because things are going so badly in the air war.

We started this tour with nine scout pilots on the strength and at the moment only have 2 fit for duty so he’s probably right.


Bouncer Berry or Berry the Cad as I secretly refer to him now that he seems to have stolen my childhood sweetheart The Honourable Bunty Hamster-Crust from under my nose and Ichiro Takahashi.
Berry is now our 2nd highest scoring pilot with 4 kills to his name, but to be honest I think the enemy pilots are laughing so much at his flying skills that they are easy meat for his lucky stray shots. He’s flown 6 missions in total and been shot down twice himself and been WIA 3 times. I think he’s living on borrowed time but I know uncle has been thinking that ever since he joined the squadron back in Jan 16.


Well I rounded up my snap shots of the chaps and am sending them under cover of this letter. Nurse Schultz is also very interested in learning more about the chaps and I’ve been telling her long rambling tales of our exploits in the air. She does seem to know an inordinate amount about aeroplanes and where our squadrons are located, she’s a deep file as Father would say. However she looks after us very attentively and I noticed the other day she was paying particular attention to some poor chap brought in from the field who had lost his memory. He looks vaguely familiar but I can’t place him for the moment.

I’ll just give you a brief rundown of the chaps, I don’t want you falling asleep over your G and T.


Heavy lies the head who wears the crown, I can’t remember if that was Wordsworth, Shakespeare or some other Johnny but it’s true in C Flight. George Drummond was our first Flight CO but we heard a few weeks ago he had died in a hospital back in Blighty, the rumour was by his own hand, a terrible business. Biff took over and revitalized our esprit de corps but he was hurt in a mid air collision, well you would be wouldn’t you, he’s been hospitalised these last few weeks but due to lead us back in the air any day now.

With Rory and Henry both residing in some German POW camp we certainly need him. They were the backbone of C Flight, both experienced pilots on secondment as Liaison Officers from the French but only 2 weeks ago they transferred into the RFC. You might remember me speaking laughingly of Rory’s monoplane that he’d named Gladys after his mother, his Morane went west with Rory, a good job really because they’re not up to dealing with the new planes the Germans are putting up in the air.


The Youngsters of the Flight, Bouncer, Flynn and I joined on the same day, you know all about Bouncer the Cad but I don’t know if I ever said much about Liam Flynn a soft spoken Irishman, beloved by the ladies and for very good reason, unlike Berry. He was a superb flyer, a natural and if he’d lived I’m sure would be and Ace by now, but it wasn’t to be.

Taki and I struck up a friendship quickly, and he’s a true Samurai of the air. A bit reckless it has to be said but when you need someone to get a Hun off your tail, he’s the man, he does have this disconcerting trick of twirling his katana through the air in the Mess, usually when he’s had too much to drink, which is quite often.


No one is quite sure about the new French Liaison Officer Dupont, I know Henry thought him a coward and said so quite loudly, but on his last mission Rory said he just boldly flew straight into a German plane. He was badly injured and will be in hospital for a few weeks to come. I’ll reserve my judgement on him for later.

The amazing news though is about Bob, I don’t know if I told you but we had a madcap mission to rescue some boffin and his assistant from an island off the Dutch coast. Anyway Bob was the assistant and waiting for his papers to join the RFC. He ended up in our Squadron as an Observer. If that wasn’t amazing enough General Melchett came calling at the Squadron, no doubt to find out why I hadn’t been shot trying out Fathers armour. Well he saw Bob gazing up at the sky and asked him what the blazes he was doing. Bob naturally answered that he was watching for Cowan and Ryan to return from their last mission, some ridiculous figure 8 flying over Hunland. Melchett hit the roof and ordered Bob back to Blighty and pilot training school, saying something along the lines that he wasn’t paying Observers to sit on the ground and Observe and Bob could earn his pay as a Scout Pilot and that would put an end to his daydreaming.

Bob’s a quiet one, he doesn’t join in with the drinking and horseplay much, and he has some strange ways. At bed time he insists the lights are out before he puts his pyjama’s on, probably went to Public School or something and was forever getting de-bagged there, anyway he’s always up and dressed first in the morning but apart from that quite a normal young lad.


The Indestructible’s, when I first joined the Squadron the two seat planes were flown by the Twa Jocks and the 2P’s, they go out time and time again with the most difficult jobs and the slowest planes and come back with the planes shot to pieces. The Twa Jocks are mad as a pair of Hatters, when I joined there was a rumour that they had shot down their own Flight Commander because he wasn’t doing things to their liking. I don’t think it’s true but I always keep an eye out if I’m in the air with them, although I think they find me amusing for some reason and don’t believe I’m in danger - not really.

Plaskitt-Smythe and Podgy have flown together for a long time and are inseparable in a companionable way, a very solid pair and we’re lucky to have them, what with some of the daft ideas that come down from HQ.


Frank Lawless I hardly knew, he was shot down my first week at the front and eventually made it back to the Squadron, which is a long story but was then killed on his next flight. This was the thing that nudged Drummond over the edge but that’s another long story.

Jack Cowan was my original Observer, he taught me almost everything I know about staying alive in the air, including how to clear a bullet jam with a wooden mallet. He’s as brave as a Badger, taking on the whole German army at one point, that’s where he got his Military Medal, fighting in the trenches with the Northumberland Fusiliers. He gave me a right wigging because it was my incompetence that got us shot down there in the first place, right in the middle of a German attack on the Northumberland chaps. He was retrained as a Pilot and flies with Joe Ryan who’s a resident of the Bronx which is somewhere in America I believe. They make a formidable team and I miss flying with them, Joe was my Observer when Jack went to do his pilot training and I seem to have got stuck in single seat scouts since, it can be very lonely on your own with lots of enemy planes trying to end your days.

I should probably just update you on my situation, I’ll make it brief. I mentioned some time ago that I upset the CO when I arrived, a small matter of his aspidistra, well he’s never forgotten and I’ve now clocked up the more missions than anyone else in the flight and of course I’m on the leader board for shooting down the most enemy planes, I’m also joint leader for being shot down and being wounded the most, not a very enviable reputation I’m afraid. Somewhere along the way I appear to have won a Military Medal but do you know I can’t remember for the life of me how that happened.

Oh I almost forgot, I was made a Lieutenant, Temp. and Flight Commander. As the CO explained, he had no one else to take the role. Unfortunately I was shot down on my first mission in that exalted position have been in hospital ever since. Never saw a day’s worth of the increased pay either.

Well give my best to Father and the family.

Pip Pip

Flying Officer Vagabond Lt Temp.

[flash]

Well played John - think you've had the most success with this one. Those wounded pilot results made all the difference. Well that and your poor rolls on my D8 charts it seems.
Dehmish is already dead - though marked as such on the roster Uncle neglected to delete his live entry which, along with poor memory & vino is probably why you resurrected him.

Uncle says:

Oh well done chaps ! You got the job done and the Arty snuffed out their opposite numbers in double quick time. It seems you also put paid to what was left of the Eagles flight this time out. Time for a well earned brew in the Mess to celebrate 'Podgy's' second victory

2Lt Joseph Ryan is awarded a bar to his MC for his continued outstanding service to the King
F/Sgt Jack Cowan is awarded a bar to his MM for his continued outstanding service to the King

[camelbeagle]

Nice job! Great AAR!

[ShadowDragon]

John, good job getting a victory with those old crates....bah! Who needs Halberstadts and Albatros? Mind you the cards going your way doesn't hurt.

Thanks for the extra round up of the squadron's cast...er, crew....er, characters. It was nice to read the summary of their doings - and in some cases passings.

Drinks and merry making at the mess, because one never knows what nefarious missions will be dreamed up by that Magnus chap at HQ. Can't trust beagles that claim to fly camels but really are Huns in disguise.



...then Uncle walks in....



Ow! What's that for?

For the next time?

See ya all in the next campaign as Bold Young Men.

[Stumptonian]

John Vagabond you have done it again.

I'd give ye a single malt if they had such a 'smiley' - the pints will have to do.
I really liked your "where are they now" at the end.


I had started keeping pilot logs in the Daring Young Men campaign, but lost interest after "My character" (Karsten Rüdiger) was killed after only 3 missions.
Here's a sample:


Maybe I will revisit it during the lull and only track my pilots and not try to cover all the Bulldogs as well.

[Vagabond]

Thanks guys but I'm surprised you read the last bit, and pleased as well because I wasn't sure about including it.

For the last 2 years I've intended creating some sort of pilot log and not got round to it. At the start of each game it's been a quick check on Daves lists to see who I have able to fly, I hope to be better organised for the future but somehow doubt it.

Pete the sheet you did is really good, particularly the service record, I think that would be well worth showing somewhere in the report maybe even at the start where we all seem to introduce the pilots by name. I personally get confused with the names of other people's pilots but the faces stick better in my mind and showing their history places them in some context for those of us creating context at least.
Cheers

[mikeemagnus]

the new hand painted background that I might mention once or twice in the ensuing story

Impressive John - like that very much, now you come to mention it, once or twice

Chap ....up at HQ Magnus is his name is

He's a very fine fellow, full of bright ideas, that sometimes work, but sometimes don't - know him personally don't you know

As for your AAR - Read it all, John, every last word. And what a good read it was too. The letter home was much appreciated and the result of the mission even more. Just goes to show that the Bee can do it when its in the right hands And to think the Bee isn't going away any time soon either And now that Bob is in training, perhaps we can come up with a training mission. Given that out of 14,000 pilot deaths in the RFC, during WWI, 8,000 were in training, that should put the fear of God into the OTT camp Mmmmm now what can we conjure up next I wonder?

[gully_raker]

Thanks guys but I'm surprised you read the last bit, and pleased as well because I wasn't sure about including it.

For the last 2 years I've intended creating some sort of pilot log and not got round to it. At the start of each game it's been a quick check on Daves lists to see who I have able to fly, I hope to be better organised for the future but somehow doubt it.

Pete the sheet you did is really good, particularly the service record, I think that would be well worth showing somewhere in the report maybe even at the start where we all seem to introduce the pilots by name. I personally get confused with the names of other people's pilots but the faces stick better in my mind and showing their history places them in some context for those of us creating context at least.
Cheers

John I have enjoyed your wonderful & humorous AAR's through out the campaign & you capped it with a beauty this time as well.
Your resume of all your pilots & their escapades also deserved Rep but I had just given you some for the AAR so you might just have to wait a tad.

Will look forward to your next adventures with your now Bold Young Men. Not that some of them have not been quite bold already!

You mentioned a couple of times something about a "background" ? What? there was a background? No only joking mate! Great work & far beyond my skills which are limited to painting little aeroplanes.

[Vagabond]

[QUOTE=mikeemagnus;554052] Just goes to show that the Bee can do it when its in the right hands /QUOTE]

I'm not sure mine are the right hands but as I said in the report it was one of the most interesting battle of wits I've had with Dave's D8AI to date, the Bee was completely outclassed for speed and so the Albatros could be thrown off the scent but each new move it was still able to close any gap I'd created. The only other seriously memorable one was also at the end of a game mano a mano and I gave a lot of thought to my moves and believe in the end actually shot him down. Usually I find there are too many planes skulling about to be able to concentrate effectivly on one plane.

[Vagabond]

John I have enjoyed your wonderful & humorous AAR's through out the campaign & you capped it with a beauty this time as well.
Your resume of all your pilots & their escapades also deserved Rep but I had just given you some for the AAR so you might just have to wait a tad.

Will look forward to your next adventures with your now Bold Young Men. Not that some of them have not been quite bold already!

You mentioned a couple of times something about a "background" ? What? there was a background? No only joking mate! Great work & far beyond my skills which are limited to painting little aeroplanes.

Thanks Barry, the next time I do an AAR I'll point out the background, just so you don't miss it.