ajmac

I'm going along with Jenni and our new little crying milk monster :-) As I don't own a vehicle am I 'the public'? On the face of it I would want to see as much of the tank drive on Saturday as possible then have a stroll around on the Sunday 'public day'. Recomendations? Jack.....

It really is good to see all the blow by blow detail of a restoration from an AFV is such poor condition. It has always surprised me how few are displayed at shows with photos of the restoration and a little history. The guys who post their restorations in the restoration blog section deserve credit. So to those of you who are in the throws of armour restorations, post your photos! There must be some of those Finnish Comets and Cromwell hulls being restored at this very moment!

Jack, How close are you to getting the number you require?

Looking at the size of the breech, you can understand why on the face of it people thought fitting one into a Sherman turret was an imposibility!

It wasn't originally, but I don't know if he brought it or not, he must be getting on now so I don't know if his son has taken over the reins, I haven't seen his Sherman for ten years. Last time I spoke to him, he said it was up on pallets having the bogies restored. I was going to pop around over and see him at Christmas but never managed it in the end.

Your right about a Kangaroo being the best setup for representing a vehicle from NW Europe and in my opinion RAMs look ugly with a turret, however there aren't many turreted RAMs knocking around... but from what you say there will one more than present within the next couple of years. PS. Did the Cromwell feature in your New Years resolutions :-)

Reading between the lines I presume it is going to be restored into an original turreted RAM but what configuration was it when sitting as a target on the range? RAM or Kangaroo...

Great photos, a really serious job - seeing the restorations in progress is the best part of the HMVF for me. Perhaps I should tackle my 1969 Land-Rover bulkhead now rather than let it continually leer at me each time I go into the workshop :-) PS. How did you heat the rivets? Just with an Oxyacetylene torch or in a mini furnace / induction coil.

This was available to buy last year, I haven't looked to see if it is still available. Anyway, is it any good, in terms of a blow by blow record of the restoration process?

We all have to admit that Churchills are not the most easy vehicle to pin down, my ID starts and finishes on Square or Round Hull escape hatches :-) When did the last Gun tank get retired? Oh PS. Why are there one or two on public display in Iraq? Did the post WW2 Iraqi army use them?

There was a T34/85 runner driven around the back of the Red Lion Pub in Bobbington, South Staffs in the mid 90s, I had a good look inside it and sat in the drivers seat etc... After the initial arrival it was buttoned up and a childrens playground developed around it (official, with swings etc..). I popped back in for a pint last summer only to find that the old girl had gone! Does anyone know where it is now? Bobbington village was quite a hot spot back then: T34/85, Sherman, Diamond T, Willys Jeep and a Centaur :-)

I'm sure we all remember the news reports in the mid 90's from Bosnia where T34s were seen around and about. With the huge surplus of cheap Eastern Block T55s and Chinese T54s does any country still operate T34s or are they all up to T55s and even T72s by now?

We have a few members who seem to be the world authority on MOD ranges, so I'm sure they have an opinion. Why in the early 1990s (it seems) did the MOD start to clear the ranges of WW2 vintage armour? I presume much of the armour had been in place since the 40/50s, what kicked off the sales / scrapping? Given that only ~5 years before the MOD had been buying Shermans to increase the number of hard targets. If we had been having these discussions 20 years ago (in a pub rather than in the ether), Adrian and John would be telling us that there were dozens of Churchills, Comets, Shermans and German odds of sods in place. Back to the present, there is practically none left.

Spot on, corrosion is a very interesting subject, it costs the world economies hundreds of millions each year, and keeps many University Professors in gainful employment. Not to mention the myriad of Riggers and painters throughout the North Sea.

I'm off to Burma for a few weeks work in January, anything British / US WW2 era to look out for? Someone said they had a lot of Universal Carriers at one time... ....and when I come back I'm off to Gabon in West Africa - I don't expect to find anything of interest there... did they ever get any Shermans?

From my experiance in that neck of the woods there wouldn't be much if anything left of them by now :-) Harsh climate - harsh locals, you should see what thay can do to an abandoned car in the bush in a matter of weeks!

Yup, nice video - the only running StuG IV in the world. It featured in the 1st issue of Pathfinder. Question: Who owns and paid for the restoration? Is it a City museum or the Polish Army?

Lovely T34, I had a look around it a W&P. About 15-18 years ago I was at a classic car show in the Midlands and watched a chap load a T34/76 onto a low loader, I've not seen one before or since in the UK. Is there still a running /76 on these shores?

It's all about metallurgy, those Russian swamps have little or no dissolved oxygen in the layers of silt / mud at the bottom, without oxygen the metals will not corrode. You wouldn't find the same conditions in many places in the UK.

We deserve an update :-) Has said pile of corroded steel been exchanged for a pile of paper yet? If so where is it headed?

I applied for the Budge sales list ohh... must have been back in 93 or something like that. I had a Sherman earmarked, but my dad put the kibosh on it due to space at the time. I can't be sure of the price when I phoned up, but it was something like £10000, oh what if. I'll have to search my desk when I'm home again, I'll scan the list in for historical interest.

Thanks for the link, a great resource.

Following on from various posts this year.... which people / companies do WW2 armour restoration work? Could we make a list? We know that the big collectors do some work 'in house' but many of the vehicles must be farmed out for a large proportion of the structural work. e.g. you Adrian :-) I'm interested is all. Is it top secret? I only know from vintage racing experiance that they are VERY cagey about who is working on what etc...

I was chatting the other day to someone with a casual interest in Armour, they didn't know what a Churchill tank was and asked what films one had been in... for reference. That got me. We see Shermans regularly, and one or two Cromwell/Centurs in Band of Brothers. Churchills on the other hand seem to have been largely forgotten. Considering the Churchill must have been one of the last wartime AFVs to be retired as a platform in British service isn't it odd that they are so poorly represented on the UK tank restoration scene - at least in running condition. Are there any currently under restoration in the UK to running condition?

Now that we have has the BBC on it and the local paper the North Kesteven planning authority seem to be up and listening, I just got off the phone to them! Not to say they weren't before but perhaps the pace will quicken. After a conversation with the Lincolnshire wide preservation trust I have some new key pieces of info and names to write to higher up in the local authority. PS. Thanks Jack, inspirational, now what is that address again....24 Grosvenor Sq...