The Sights of Warbirds Over Wanaka, 2014

Good morning,

Following on from my posts about the sounds of Warbirds Over Wanaka 2014...

1. The sounds of WW1
2. The sounds of WW2 Europe
3. The sounds of WW2 over the Pacific
4. The sounds of Post War New Zealand

...here, for your visual edification, are some of the sights of Warbirds Over Wanaka, 2014.

Some vehicles...from my phone...


...and camera...


Hmm, the phone seems to have better focus, the camera richer colours...

My grandfather rode one of these bikes as a dispatch rider in the Italy campaign. 'Till he fell off, got his wedding ring (and attached finger) caught in some rusty barbed wire, and almost died of tetanus on the hospital ship on the way back to New Zealand.


Ever wondered what the insides of a Kublewagon look like?






And a wee collection of Kiwi jeeps. These would be pretty cool to replicate in 1/72...









Oh, and there were some aircraft too.


Before they wheeled them out to the a/c park, they were waiting outside the hangers, so we could get right up and touch 'em and everything.

Look at this Brisfit's rigging - that's thin flat 'rod' rather than the round wire I was expecting.


The rudder pedals of the Bristol Fighter.








This Spitfire is in the colours of Wing Commander Alan Deere, a Kiwi born RAF ace. The plane itself is owned by the Deere family here in En Zed.
















Overall, a jolly good time was had by all. Specially since I got hold of a special pass that allowed me to park on the airfield.

But to be fair, the Omaka airshow was better. At Omaka, you're standing with your back to the sun, so you can see the a/c in all their full colour glory. At Wanaka, you're looking towards the sun all day, and can only really see the aircraft as dark silhouette against the sky. Also, you get twice as many WW1 a/c, and about the same # as WW2 - no Avenger, but one more P-40.

Mind you, Omaka didn't have the 1st NZ jet race - one L29, three L39s and two T11 Vampires. Won by Vampires, as it happened - greater speed, though lower G loading than their Eastern counterparts.

And it's hard to beat Central Otago...

Nick

The Sounds of Post War En Zed

Good afternoon,

And here, finally, the sounds heard in New Zealand skies post WW2. From Warbirds over Wanaka, 2014.







Nick

The Sounds of the Pacific

Good afternoon,

Not to be outdone, the sounds of the Pacific, including a couple of original RNZAF warbirds. From Warbirds over Wanaka, 2014.








Nick

The Sounds of WW2 Europe

Good afternoon,

Now, for your audible delight, the sounds heard over Europe in the '40s. Courtesy of Warbirds over Wanaka, 2014.







Nick

The Sounds of WW1

Good afternoon,

Last night's post has just too many embedded clips for my poor tablet to handle, so...

Here are the sounds of WW1 from Warbirds Over Wanaka, 2014.








Nick

The Sounds of Warbirds Over Wanaka, 2014

Good evening,

Just back from spending a week down in Central, here's what I did last Saturday.

(I took these clips not so much for the visuals, but rather for the sound...)

...and found that if I bunched all those clips together, my browser was having a spaz. So I've split them up.

1. The sounds of WW1
2. The sounds of WW2 Europe
3. The sounds of WW2 over the Pacific
4. The sounds of Post War New Zealand

Nick

Warclouds Over Woolston. Game 4.

And so on to Game 4, this time against new comer...rats! I've forgotten his name! Nice chap, first games of HOTT and he was doing really well.

From memory, he had...

• Hero General
• 1 Knight
• 1 Rider
• 1 Behemoth
• 4 Spear
• 4 Hordes

All that heavy foot against my poor wee shooters! So I thought I'd try something sneaky. I deployed with a refused flank, or at least one covered with my aerials...


...all the while planning to use my Air Boat's mobility to fly it over to strengthen where the real action was about to ensue!


I even made space for it by shunting across my Steam Tank. Ha! Get it? Shunting!


In the meantime, my flyer faced off a horde of foe. Or more particularly, two Hordes and a Rider.


The hole in front of the enemy Behemoth duly plugged, in we rolled.

At least my Steam Tank Behemoth was at least facing a mounted element. So, I had the advantage there, right?


To try to seed some confusion, I flew my flyer over into the rear of his end line.


And so the clash began.


Not very well for me, as it happened.


On the other end of my line, my Steam Tank was getting itself into all sorts of bovver. Rather than killing the enemy mounted, it just pushed them back. And back. Until...well...


So, the successful Spear block turned to face more Red Coats. Who were in turn supported by the Royal Naval Brigade.


Not that it did them much good.

Rats!

On the other end of the line, in rolled the Hordes. Urghh!


Worse still...you know how my Steam Tank was sticking it's neck out?


Urghh...

Worse still, the dratted Rider had finally managed to cross into the centre, to the detriment of my brave boys in blue.


Still, against the odds (even though, with the tank being overlapped, the odds were even), the mighty power of steam managed to shrug off the Hero and pursue the enemy.


Talking of against the odds, even though they were even...how did that Gattling gun survive.

So...ummm...yeah...by this time in the game there were a lot of holes in my line.


And it gets worse!



That's another element of Blades. Bother.


Still, at least my Steam Tank was having some success. Not great success, but anything at this point is a plus...


Well, at least I didn't loose my General!


Ha! And I'd managed to kill...a Horde!


But, well...things were looking really dodgy for my General!


He survived (I'm pretty sure this time it was against the odds!), so I pulled him back for some support from the Air Boat.


FINALLY!


And that was the end of that. Time was called, so it was considered a draw. Even though I was on a hiding to nothing. Big time.

Nick