fv1609

Richard I apologise I led you astray, looking back on your original post I see you said it was when it was used as a demonstrator. I missed that then got carried away on call signs :oops: .

Oh I see! These are most likely FVRDE markings for use at shows at Chertsey for foreign arms buyers put on by MOD & The Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders. Large numbers to identify exhibits, not call signs :oops:

Richard According to "Staff Duties in the Field" FAC = Forward Air Controller. Callsign 47 was used by: FAC in D Coy of Infantry Units FAC in Amoured Engineer Sqns Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, most artillery callsigns seemed to be prefixed with G. I've got an earlier version of this book & will see what it says, but I can't find it. :oops:

Richard. Red & Blue horizontal is RA. 46 is the serial no for RA Light Regiment (as opposed to Field Regt which used 42, 43, 44). 47 is the callsign for FAC

I picked up a 1971 book that covers vehicle callsigns. So if you have callsigns painted on side of your vehicle in large letters this is the callsign eg 1A, 29B etc. I may be able to tell you the role, troop & squadron.

Ah yes I haven't got AC 312324 which should be the CES, I've got the other two thanks. It might seem fussy wanting the AC Nos but I have quite a number of books here & they are not entirely in a state of order! But with AC Nos I can instantly see. I'll pm you with my email if I may. Thanks

Can you quote the Army Code Nos please? Then I can see if I have got them already, thanks.

Sorry the other link I thought I posted was meant to be http://www.tankmuseum.co.uk/library.html

Lee What you need to look out for is: WO Code No 12757 User Handbook for the Equipment 120mm BAT L4 (MOBAT) consisting of Gun, 120mm BAT, L6A1 and Carriage, 120mm, BAT, L2A1. Published 1960 superseding WO Code No 12243. Maybe try http://www.rememuseum.org.uk/index.htm or http://www.rememuseum.org.uk/index.htm. They may have it & produce a photocopy for you. But I could scan the odd diagram, if there was something in particular you were stuck with.

Just bought Army Manual of Chiropody 1931 on ebay. Nice & cheap as normal people aren't interested in these sorts of books :roll: Caught my eye the sense of discipline gets everywhere: At the command "Foot Exercise No.4" place feet parallel six inches apart; at the command "One" bend the toes upwards; at the command "Two" bend the toes down; at the command "Three" bring the toes to normal position. Repeat eight times" Far easier to say "Chaps just wriggle your toes up & down for a bit". But I suppose it wouldn't look so impresive as a sanatorium of troops doing toe movements by numbers & in unison. :wink:

Paul Maybe wrong end of county but there always is http://www.sussexmvt.co.uk/

Well improvisations include: Broken fan belt: Use a cut down leather belt or for a light engine leather bootlaces Oil on clutch: Squirt you pyrene fire extinguisher (carbon tetrachloride?) in lining Distributor carbon brush missing: Foil from chocolate or fag packet Take the lead out of a pencil Trim a piece of carbon from a dry battery Thick piece of electrical cable with end bits of insulation removed Broken contact breaker spring: trim pieces of rubber to gently push cam against shaft. To move a vehicle a short distance: Remove plugs, engage low gear and turn the starting handle thus moving the vehicle. Leaking fuel tank: Soap or chewing gum to plug it. Hole in fuel tank: Cut a wooden peg to be driven in. Leaking fuel diaphragm: remake out of oilskin or rubberised material Punctured carb float: Make hole large enough to wedge in a piece of matchstick And so it goes on, largely relying on string, wire, matchsticks & larger pieces of wood.

Yes it is for real as stated in REME Recovery Manual 1968. A/26/GS Trg Publications/2912. Section 778. Also describes how to make a condenser out of an old tin can!

Jack Welcome. Do you ever come across any Humbers ie 1-Ton FV1600 trucks, although the exported ones were designated Commer FV1600? I have had contact from a couple of people over there, but always on the look out any more info. Only identified two Commers so far. My other interest is in the Australian missile Malkara made by Government Aircraft Factories in 1950s. I have a launcher vehicle for them (FV1620) I believe Prototype No3 is still in Australia, but no idea where or what state it is in. Do you know anything of it? Your IIA Rover, if it is FFR, what charging system is it 40A or 90A?

really it should only be the white of egg, but if you have no mustard powder, pea flour will do in the ratio of one tablespoonful per gallon of water. Recovery Manual Sect 778

egg? in the REME Recovery Manual it describes how to mend a rad leak using mustard powder.

Post war is my era 1950-60, I suppose that was my Dinky toy time, well the 1950s was! I saw Marco on MLU & nearly tried to link him up to the photos he had posted there! Clive

Richard is refering to an incident in the summer when I was apprehended on the motorway with a bucket & watering can of water which I had cadged from a service area. I had foolishly taken out my water jerrycan from the pig as it was in the way & I thought it looked cluttered up enough. The sickening point of my engine overheat, was actually that I was not overheating! It was the water temp sensor had gone open circuit & when that happens it goes off the scale. Had I used my multimeter I would have twigged that. But when you are the side of the motorway with a temp gauge reading max, its a hot day in a hot vehicle, it's natural enough to believe what it says! That's why I carry a spare temp sensor now. :wink:

Everything! I am over weight (the vehicle that is for AA etc) I am my own most of what I carry has been needed in by many years of breaking down. starter motor dynamo generator regulator panel complete carb + extra diaphragms, jets etc set of 6 brake hoses brake pipe + flanging device ignition coil distributor spare: rotor, condenser, carbon brush, points, distr cap fuel pump set of plugs set of ignition cables track rod ends accelerator linkages & connectors power distribution thermal relays starter switch + light switch assembly thermostat thermostat sensor dipstick rad cap oil filler cap head gasket tyre valves & caps sealant & gunge compression tester multimeter megger continuity bulb on leads soldering iron + solder (so easy to forget that) wire all bulbs all fuses all relays horn horn switch insulating tape gaffer tape water WD40 carb solvent spray brake fluid engine oil gear oil GP grease copper grease 2 CO2 fire extinguishers (one each end of vehicle) MOD intervehicle jump lead misc lumps & blocks of wood vehicle jack 2 x groundsheets 2x 3-tier boxes of tools large hammer wheel brace starting handle (actually easy on a pig) selection of nuts, bolts, cable ties, rope & string selection of rubber radiator hose + jubilee clips user handbook with circuit diagram vinyl gloves (not latex as brake fluid & fuel dissolve them) mobile phone + charger first aid kit lots of bog paper NO spare wheel - pig is runflat wire coathanger The coat hanger is partiulary useful for fishing out things from behind a hot engine etc & useful to bend up to support a droopy pipe

presumably you have seen: http://www.hmvf.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=892 Those books I referred to make no reference to DUKWs as I believe the books of 1939 & 1941 predate the vehicle! I don't have much on wartime vehicles. I have a Fighting Vehicle Design Department spec of 1948 which is meant to cover Army, Navy, RAF & RM vehicles. The Army & RM vehicles AFV or MT should be finished in high gloss Deep Bronze Green BSC 224. The only refrence I can find to painting amphibians specifically is some 1959 Regulations. Whether these regulations could well apply to earlier vehicles, I don't know. Primer - red oxide Undercoat - Light Admiraly Grey Finishing coat - Light Grey The undercoat as quoted is of Admiralty origin & was used for painting vessels interior & exterior above & below the water line. Light Admiralty Grey is BSC 697 & was added to BSC in 1949. It is different from Light Grey BSC 631 which was introduced in 1948 but was only the new name for Light Battleship Grey from the 1931 edition of BSC. Wheeled Ambhibians were required to be marked "ARMY" in 10-inch black lettering on both sides of the exterior of the hull. The bilge areas were to be painted with two coats of Paint, Bitumous, Black, Brushing. Thats all I've got I'm afraid

For those have you who follow threads & then wonder when someone offers to help why it all goes quiet. Did A help B? Was the help no good or did they fall out or lose interest? Well Neil (ArtistsRifles) has been working away furiously on my behalf setting up a database for me. A task which I reckoned would taken me over 2 weeks CONTINUOUS work, assuming I could get the thing set up in the first place! It consists of a the tabulation of appx 760 Army training manuals, regulations, user handbooks etc I can now compile lists of: All documents that cover eg Humbers, Rovers, trailers, gas protection etc Groups according to type eg Vocabularies, regulations, parts lists etc Documents for a given year WO/Army Code no The system that predated WO/Army Code which was like this 57/Regulations/1234. But curiously when WO/Army Code was introduced documents also got a 57/Regulations/1234type of classification as well. This will enable me to 'break the code' for the logic (if there is any!) for these two systems. When 57/Regulations/1234 system was dropped a new system eg D/DAT/123/13/3 appeared now how that is structured is even more mysterious. (I know what the prefix which is most commonly 57 is used for) Furthermore all these documents include a Gp category which is up to 3 digits once I have entered these for all 760 documents I can arrange them numerically & see if a logic is evident. I am not needing to do anything like this for the EMER & AESP collection (sigh of relief from Neil) because they have a very sound & logical (well almost) structure. So well done Neil & many thanks

Another pig experience. Man comes up & stares at pig & smiles. Man: "I've spent many an uncomfortable ride in the back of one of these things" Me: "Oh well. what unit did you serve with?" Man (no longer smilling): "No the b*stards used to drive round the block & beat us up in the back!"

Yes H1(Part 1) now in COSA, used to be H1(a) in VAOS, why they had to change that I dunno. Anyway I've looked in several editions just says: Fire-Resisting Paint, Paint Finishing, Brushing, Aluminium to DEF STAN 80-9. Looking in a 1948 FVDD FV Spec 2012, paint for interior metalwork & woodwork paint, Aluminium GS to Spec CS1199 for closed & compartments of armoured vehicles except ACVs. Painting it on wood is optimistic, I painted some of the missile carriers in the Hornet in 1994 and it STILL hasn't dried :roll:

Metallic colours like silver & gold don't seem to appear in BS systems. Looking at the 1931 BS381 there is nothing like that. Although I see in next edition of 1948 that Silver Grey 628 makes an appearance only to be deleted in 1964. I agree all charts be they online or printed, only give a rough idea. Someone just sent me an old Trimite chart & Deep Bronze Green looks almost black & it does online.

As Richard says the crucial thing is defining the era you want to represent. I have found a later publication, Military Training Pamphlet No.46 Part 4A Painting of Mechanical Transport 1941. "The basic principles laid down apply to the painting of every vehicle. For convenience, two colours only are generally used. For England and Northern Europe the light colour may be Khaki Green No.3 or Standard Camouflage Colour No.2. The dark paint should be Standard Camouflage Colour No.1A" The diagrams now show quite a diffrent arrangement, with the dark colour on all the roof & cab areas seen from above with coverage of the wings & bonnet. These areas fuse into the sides by splodges, dappled or streaks. I have quoted chapter & verse as firstly I have a fetish for documents & also it gives some authority rather than my opinion & also it gives you a date. The first document was June 1939, this one is November 1941. One other thought the traces of paint you can see, are you sure that is as it was because owners sometimes paint their vehicles strange colours :wink: