BC312

The WW1 British Mk4 tank that the Tank Museum displays and rides around at the big events is a War horse replica, why, The original one they have is too fragile to operate, the armour had become that brittle over time, every time the tank goes over a small rut or bump the crack in the armour opens up. The Weald Foundation FT 17 tanks they have the armour had to be annealed as it was full of cracks that had to be repaired. The armour turns like cast iron guttering, one smack with a hammer and it shatters. Speaking to those at the museum some tanks will have to be mothballed in years to come and replicas made because of this. If a replica is made exact to the original then i see no problem. Its nice to see an original but in years to come parts will have to be made ie replicas. Even now parts are hard to find for German tanks, fenders boxes and other parts missing have to be copied to make the tank look as it was or to make it function. The FT 17 tanks they have their carbs are exact replica copies or original as there are non about, plus a new batch of Rubber tyres have been made for the Dingos recently ,replica copies to keep them going. So are they running around on toy tires? Jeep parts are now re made in the far east, you can buy a tub or chassis to keep you jeep going as original parts are running out because people keep driving them about like a modern day runarounds but cant drive it as its now a toy part better hide it in the garage how shameful to have anything connected to anything replica or should i say toy parts. I believe when they build a spitfire or any other WW2 aircraft to fly the original parts are not airworthy they have been subjected to a crash so replicas of parts have to be made. Theres a guy in Canada building a Hawker Typhoon from ground up, he has all original parts but they cant be used they have to be copied, hardly a toy,

A while back a group found a Buffalo amphibian vehicle at Crowland Lincolnshire which is now recovered and under restoration. Any one know what type of detection gear they used or is used these days for locating such vehicles that deep 30 feet i believe.

Funny that the Tank museum is showing off a replica Whippet tank named music Box this year. This will be the world debut of the replica of the Whippet “Musical Box”. The build was conducted by Landships CIC and ran from 2019 to 2024 (with a break for COVID). It involved thousands of hours of workshop effort and research, including interviewing descendants of Musical Box’s crew, over 7 tons of steel for the fabrication, 1000 pretend rivets, 14km of welding wire, and 400 cutting and grinding disks. Another toy.

Has anyone built one of the CNC vehicle plans armoured cars offered on Milweb a SDKFZ.222 and Humber scout car Mk1 or in the process of building one. What do you think and how are you getting on with the build? Based on a Range Rover chassis.

I was wondering where my old Ferret is now 01CA67, cant remember the civilian reg, had great time restoring the vehicle and driving it, wish i had one now. I also had 01CA68, this was a up armoured version. Anyone know.

Open to offers.

I have been wondering what Bren guns go for these days as i have been thinking about selling mine. I can remember you could get them for £150 in box. I know that Mk 2 & 3 Brens sell for less than war time Mk1s with wartime dates and more for double dove tail. Seems to be a lot of over inflated prices and then silly low prices, seems the market has gone mad both ways.

For sale Remote radio set for the SCR 299 399 499 radio truck. This a unit that has a BC 312 and field telephone that works and controls the radio 1/4 mile from radio truck. Comes with hard to find parts chest unit CH121 and legs. Battery box, JB60 unit morse tapper, light and fuze box, radio mounts and aerial set. Working radio BC312 picks up around the world. Ideal as a separate display piece on own or in a truck. Cash sale £850

For those collecting US Army radio parts or need a spare for a BC728 radio, hard to find just missing rubber mast bung and bracket that clips to side otherwise mast is in full working order and cable is flexible with no cracks. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225678151761

The Hogmoore Enclosure show is still looking for a Bofors gun for the Military event on the 24th September this year. If anyone can help out that would be great.

Looking at a BS381C chart online looks very minimal plus the colours dont match original. You need to get a old chart, you can get this from the British Standards Institute, when i rang them years ago they gave me the run down of the history of BS381C, very interesting, worth contacting them, they may be able to point you in the directions of war time paints. I thought that Light bronze green in a matt would be a late wartime Vehicle colour or deep bronze green for the 1950-60s ferrets before the black and Nato green cammo came about. Deep Bronze green is BS381C 224 it seems there is no Light Bronze green on the chart i was looking at and not the colours they should be. Sea green being one that was used before Nato smoke El deNil. have a look here https://creativeawards.co.uk/blogs/news/british-standard-colour#:~:text=In 1948%2C shortly after the,on long-established practice".

I dont suspect any squaddie to know the correct colour code for paint. During WW2 paint was paint, if it was dark green, they called it dark green, if it was brown and it look like it came from a baby's bottom it would be s***brown by the squaddies at the stores. In stores they had paint for different things, and would most probably call the paint related to what it was for, certainly not by the code. In emergencies they had what they had and was made do, if it was Home Guard they had what they could afford or get their hands on. If it look near and done the job. The BS381C code changed a lot over the years, named colours changed, colours were omitted and new ones added. I used Nato green as an example of the coding and was not used during WW2. As for paint manufactures and paint shops today who call themselves experts and professional i spent a year on the phone researching for wrinkle finish paint asking about the paint and paints in general. 90% hadn't a clue about paint, they didn't know much if not hardly anything about BS381C or other codes come to that, so i can see why you got a crap deal, a lot of business amateurs out there, you have to do your home work to get what you want.

All UK government paints for GPO Army Navy and Airforce all came under the BS381C paint code system which started during the early 1930s, so if you wanted to paint something in Nato green you would use BS381C 285 Nato green etc. Of course the chart has changed colours over the years and has amended and deleted some colours now not used. These colours also include ordnance as well. If something was made or manufactured at a factory the paint spec was also specified in BS381C colour, what happens after the made item leaves the factory is a matter of what is available in the camps and institutions they end up. Remember a lot of the interior of most houses before and after the war were drab browns and greens,. A spare tin of household paint on camp to enhance the camouflage of a WW2 vehicle could be knocked up to resemble paint not in stores, may not be a perfect match but near on, as long as it matched the spec of the camouflage manual.

OK, i know these are a beast. Is there anything else you could take like a tank or other type vehicle. Don't worry if you cant. May be next year if the show is successful. The slot is there if you want. I thought it would be good to inform more punters to your museum up the road. They had a small non military history even a month or so ago and it was packed and very popular, so the military event so be a bit of a hit.