Ivor Ramsden

Marvellous! I hope you're going to restore it into its Irish colours. Anybody can have a British Army Quad, but Irish ones are a real rarity. Let us see the photos when they arrive.

An Irish Army origin might explain why the combined might of HMVF can't identify the vehicle's markings. Have a look here: http://www.irishmilitaryinsignia.com/flash/catagory/army/vehicle%20decals/flash_arm_vehicle_infantry.htm There's a badge bottom left which is yellow and blue, split diagonally. I'm not saying that's the exact one but it's close - a sight closer than any British Army one - and there could be one with a similar background used for artillery. There's an email address on the home page which might be worth contacting.

Dohh! Well spotted. It just goes to show that as soon as you commit yourself in writing, something comes along to contradict you!

Dave, your questions might be answered if you post them on http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/ in the armour section. There are a lot of guys on there who know all the answers, plus a lot more who THINK they do! Have a seach on there first because I'm sure somebody will have asked the same question already. Regarding secondshooter's query on Bofors camo, I'm curator of the 15th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Museum and we've got a lot of photos of Bofors guns in the desert but I've only got a couple which show any disruptive markings. All the rest are appears to be a single colour which I assume is light stone. The barrels are usually in factory finish black, sometimes overpainted to a greater or lesser extent. I've never seen any reference to a standard disruptive scheme for a Bofors. Its shape was probably such that it didn't need much in the way of disruptive. The third photo was a victory parade after the fall of Tunis so I wouldn't put much credence on the disruptive scheme shown there because the guns could have been painted like that as a bullsh*t exercise!

Oooh,Matron!

I wonder if they were the ones that ended up at Jacksons around 1980. They had a lot lined up and they all appeared complete and in very straight condition. I used to "harvest" the headlights from them...

We've built three of them at the museum and we've worked out a few dodges to avoid cock-ups so if you want any advice drop me a PM. I've done some notes on how to build them. None of 'em has fallen down yet so we must have done 'em right!

If you post some pictures of the engine and engine bay we can tell you what needs to be replaced. This photo shows 2 Morris wireless trucks of the 15th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, going ashore in Normandy in June 1944. You might be able to see the 7th Armoured Division Desert Rat symbol and the number 73 on a red/blue square.

I think they will reproduce just about any wiring harness if you send them an original one in good enough condition to identify which wire goes where.

[quote=WCMatt;389102 Has anyone had any experience with the reproduction wiring harnesses that are available for the lightweights? The original wiring in mine was pretty crispy & canabalized to boot. Matt I've used repro harnesses made by Autosparks.co.uk on several Land-Rover restorations and I haven't had any major problems with them, only a couple of incorrect terminals which were easily replaced.

Aye, if you lighten the paint colour slightly on a model it does seem to make it look more like the original. The brain is a strange thing - at least my psychiatrist tells me that mine is .... Seriously the subject of "scale colour" keeps a lot of modellers entertained for hours on various forums but not as much as "accurate colour", for example discussion of exactly what is the right shade of Dark Green for a 1943 Spitfire. Some maintain that it's GOT to be the exact BS colour whereas I reckon that this is cobblers. We've got parts from several WW2 aircraft in the museum. Some of them show different layers of paint where the things have been repainted and EVERY coat is a different colour even though they're all supposed to be Dark Green, Dark Earth etc. Even yellow varies a lot, so my attitude is, provided you paint your Spitfire (scale model or the real thing) etc in something which is reasonably close to RAF Dark Green, nobody can say it's wrong. The same applies to uniforms where re-enactors get wound up over somebody else's battledress being the "wrong" colour. It's utter garbage and you only need to look at wartime colour photos of groups of men in uniform to see the differences in colour - they vary a lot. Sorry, I'm hijacking here.

Tobin, that really is the cat's pyjamas. I shall be glad to take the rattly old thing off your hands at no cost to you .....:cheesy:

The very early Land-Rovers were painted light green, a Rover car colour, from 1948 until mid-1949. At that time the Rover Company received a big order from the Army who would have specified Deep Bronze Green as the finish colour like everything else that they ordered, from bikes to tanks. For whatever reason, Rovers decided to change the standard colour for all L-R production to DBG. It saves cleaning the spray equipment if nothing else! The chassis was also painted DBG from this time until 1954. A limited range of other colours was available but it was only in 1953 with the introduction of the 86" wheelbase vehicles that the company started selling a bigger proportion of non-DBG vehicles. So far as I know, 1949 DBG is the same colour as 2013 DBG. However, it seems to be a very unstable colour over time. The original factory paint retains its lovely yellowish tint for donkey's years but a lot of aftermarket paint darkens with age which I think is why people believe that the colour has been modified over the years. As an example I sprayed one of those new-fangled Series 3 Land-Rovers DBG this summer and it only kept its glowing yellowish shade for about a month. I've got a lot of new original L-R panels, all of them in DBG, and mostly ex-MoD and they are without doubt all the same colour with only very slight variations despite their being dated on their MoD labels any time between 1950 and 1963.

Welcome, from one island to another!

I've been sent this link and I've only just finished drooling over it. Apologies if it's been posted on here before. Find your QL, Diamond T, FWD etc!

This isn't MV related but I need to tell the story. One of the real emotional highs for me is meeting veterans. Today we were visited by an elderly but very spritely lady, Mrs Dorothy Runnicles who, as Wren D. Grover, served at RNAS Ronaldsway in 1944-45 as a radio mechanic. This visit to her wartime base was funded by Help For Heroes and allowed her to visit the grave of her close friend Sub Lt Jim Finlayson who was killed here in a Fairey Barracuda crash on 21st December 1944. She has loathed the concept of war ever since that day. Good lass. It was a privilege to meet her and I'm proud to say I share her principles.

Can't find anything at all about them, mate, sorry.

The "jay bee ell" sequence started in June 1953. I'd expect a Ministry brass plate to be on the tractor somewhere, or just the four fixing holes if it had been removed. Try Berkshire County Council's records office. They might have the original registration details.

Here it is:

The sign on the square plate is a post-war one for 72nd Infantry Brigade. It's the right way up and was originally symmetrical, with two "horns". The bridging plate sign looks like an upside-down RASC sign. The blue bit is normally top left, but going by the position of the bolt holes and assuming it was originally bolted to the RHS of the radiator surround I guess the photo is the right way up, in which case I'm struggling with this, because I'm not too clued-up on post-war signs. As for it being painted in light stone, that's quite possible if the Quad had been used in the Middle East. It would look good in the Caunter colour scheme but I think your Quad might have entered service a bit late for this.

I've got a book that gives dates for them. PM me if you don't want the world to know your number.

A quick start would be the date of first civvy registration. Does it tie in with the manufacturing date of the Fergie or is it later? I know a guy who painted a grey Fergie in Navy Blue with a yellow bonnet top because his wife was fed up of seeing grey ones .....

I used Humbrol model enamel on the Morris C9b. The red is a bit bright but you can always chuck a touch of black in to tone it down!

Yes. If it was a military mod I think we'd have seen it on other C8 FATs.

It looks like the original mountings for the rear hitch spring have been modified to give it a lower height. This is from the handbook: