ajmac

That's the bit that interested me.

Right... I realise it has been around for years and is simple in principle, but how in practice do you stop the lower pistons on a Radial engine filling up with oil? Same question goes for the Multibank lower banks, where the cylinder is lower than the crank centre line.

That Tiger 1 is a replica, EXACT 1:1 replica bar the drive train, I believe it has a Merc V8 powering a Hydraulic pump, the track drive is via hydraulic motors. It won't sound like a Tiger :-)

I hope this is a chat and not a rant, chats are what set this forum apart, Joris et al keep an eye on it. I like the vehicles and associated hardware. Watching them start, stop, manouver and ideally traverse rough terrain as they were designed to do. If they do that on their own or with a back drop (LH) I don't mind. To be honest over the last ten years I appreciate a vehicle more and more for the work that went into restoration than the finished article. There is a big difference between making a vehicle look OK and it being restored to wartime spec. It's a bit like the fibreglass cannons on HMS Victory, looks great but one touch and the illusion is busted. That's why I don't 'get' fake Tigers at LH shows, if it isn't a perfect replica then why bother at all? To me it is those little nuances that set the Vehicle 'restorers' apart from the vehicle 'owners'... if you catch the subtlety. I don't want to own an allied armoured vehicle... I want to restore one. As always nothing is black and white, it's a balance.... do you keep the points in your Lucas fuel pump or replace with the digital controller, it's all hidden under the cap at the end of the day... then you extend that argument to fitting a modern engine as you can't see it with the engine covers closed... see, most reasoning doesn't stand up in every case. Grey - I'd go with the pump and stop at the engine, others would frown even on the pump, other wouldn't care so long as it looks 'the part'.

I think that was the KingTiger (Henschel) that now lives a Bovington.

The start of all this was a very badly worded post by someone who needs a little more of a political bent. If he had worded it like this then we would probably only have had a couple of replies.... Thanks to all those that turned up at TF over the weekend, yet another great show, attendance figures were up yet again! Next year we are planning a couple of alterations to the entry requirements to tweak the look of the show. All armoured vehicles are welcome as usual but we ask owners of softskins to follow the normal enterance route to the show although we will be splitting the carpark up into military and none as many evenets already do. Those who will be entering the 'show' for real are asked to bring a set of appropriatly coloured coveralls to better 'set the scene' for the armour, or if you can, a period look would be nice! See you next year guys. Now.... a post like that would have pushed towards what they want without pis**ng everyone off. Nevermind.

Niels, that is the best 'weathered' vehicle I have ever seen, the Bov Tiger I was good before the restoration but that PzIII is a cracker, looks like it was driven into a wearhouse in 45 and wheeled out for the photo 40-50 years later!

I always thought a Jagd 38(T) WAS a Hetzer? The Hetzer was based on the orignal 38(T) chassis, right? I reckon we are lacking on the PzIV front, there must be more running than that, after all they were still current at the end of the war and used up until the late 60's in the middle east. Perhaps people haven't put the same effort in as the rare heavies. NB: Add 1 to the JagdPzIV list Ref: Pathfinder Issue 1, in Poland, if you check out the Polish web site they have photos of test running the engine. I always get a bit lost with these Jagd versions, as there is a StuG style PzIV and the later sloped glacias version, was that the Gudarian(sp?) Duck?

I don't know to what extent Wheatcroft / Littlefield invested in Engine patterns, it all depends how poor the originals were. In building a vintage engine the show stopper is always the lack of viable block / head castings. Back in 2000 I worked on a project for an Aluminium foundry who were making the first Merlin heads, cylinder blocks and crank cases that had been manufactured in years. All it takes is for someone to stump up the pattern manufacturing costs, machining is peanuts. Most... no ALL VSSC vehicles haven't had any original parts in there engines in decades :-) Rough and ready I'd say a NEW Maybach V12 would set you back £100k turn key. If you had a perfect examble to base it on. New Castings. Billet: Crank, Rods, Pistons, with dimensions adjusted to fit off the shelf shells and rings (again following VSSC) My Dad is currently casting new Ford Essex V6 blocks, and they only faded out in th 70's so you would have thought there were still lots around for rebuild! It all depends how much money you have :-(

Thread is going rather well..... Nice touch with the photographs. It is starting to look like there is preaty much one running example of eveything, bar the Jagdtiger and Elephant, considering how few were manufactured AND survived it isn't much of a surprise. Now here is THE question.... what would be the possibility of getting an example of each at one event in the UK? It would need some inter-museum co-operation as there is only one Tiger 1 and one KingTiger... I doubt the two museums could ever agree which one should host the event :-\ I remember going to Duxford in the late 90s, the draw of the day being the largest number of Spiftires flying in one place since the 50s, IIRC there was 11 doing the circuit, quite a site and sound.

It is rather sad that in order to show your restored MV at Tankfest that you HAVE to 'dress up' as well. I admit that strolling around well presented living history displays is wonderful, but that must not detract from the importance of the vehicles themselves. Are we saying that the public come purely to be 'entertained', if so, all the vehicles might as well be replicas. To 'the public*', replica or original probably wouldn't make much difference if they have come to watch fake soldiers and fake gunfire. At classic car events people don't dress up from the period of their cars very oftern at all, nor at warbird shows with ground crew etc... *whoever 'they' are, surely 'we' are.

Tiger I: The wedsite mentioned above states: 'There have been a number of recent reports of at least two Tigers being kept in Russia, either by the authorities or private dealers. A number of museums, such as the Panzermuseum at Munster, as well as private dealers have made attempts to buy or trade them. One has recently been sold to the USA and another may be destined for Great Britain. (Sources: R. Fleming, W. Schneider). ' Any 2009 info on these possibly phantom vehicles?

Your probably right. http://the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_Panzers.html The above site is great! Just what I was looking for..... Everything you ever wanted to know about surviving Panzers; very well researched.

As I didn't managed to visit Bovington this year I have been looking through the YouTube posts, looks like it was a good day. However this brought about a question over the number of German tracked vehicles 'live* in captivity'.... I am sure you guys can update the current brief list... *fully operational condition, bar main gun. Tiger 1: Bovington Kingtiger: Saumur (talk of other, but I'm not convinced...) Jagdtiger: None..... Panther: Wheatcroft, Littlefield, Munster, Saumur Jagdpanther: Sdkfz, at least one other I have seen on YouTube, but who? 38T: at least two..... PzI: ? PzII: Bovington? PzIII: Bovington, ?? StuG: Sdkfz, lots of others... more details... PzIV: lots of others... more details... JagdPzIV: at least one... YouTube Hetzer (WW2 vintage): 3+ ?? Not considering Self Propelled Guns, Nashorn, modified french chassis etc...

Just popped up on BBC24 in Honduran Coup footage, two Saladins on the streets. 1st time I've seen one outside of the Tank Museum! Some one beat me to it, should read the other threads before I post....sorry. Thanks for moving it.

Any Ideas guys? I always used to use a version of 'Gunk' manufactured by a local agricultural chemical company. The company has gone now and I just brought some 'Gunk' from the high street, I always remember it lifting off the oil and dirt then turning into an emulsion when washed. In an hour the item was dry and oil free. The current version of Gunk lifts the grime fine but doesn't seem to emulsify and thus is really difficult to remove and leaves a slimy residue. I imagine the original formula that I was using in the 90s has been outlawed by environmental regulations.... What degreaser are people using now?

Where have all the armour buffs gone? Forum activity seems to be inversely proportunal to hours of daylight :-D PS. I read that too Jack, I just wondered if we may see two Tiger Is driving together sometime over the next few years at Tankfest.... would be nice.

Chaps, I saw a photo of the Tiger from Maryland which had been cut away on both the Turret and hull for training or the Museum I would imagine. Is it being put back into 'wartime' condition in the UK and recommissioned into a running vehicle or is it only over for a cosmetic makeover? Any time scales?

As I said before I am making my way down, managed to rope my dad and best mate from Collage to come down too (we restored an S2A lightweight in 2001). Last time I visted the show was 2003 when I presume there was no forum..... Is there anywhere to 'gather'? Do we have to wear a white carnation:)

I haven't been posting much... must try harder :sweat: Who / what can we expect at Beltring in the way of tracked armour this July? It's the only show I can manage, so it's that or nothing. Obviously I'm thinking WW2 but I'm not discriminatory!

Isn't that Sexton 'wrong', would they not have left Canada with CDP track and a three piece nose? Alastair (offshore Qatar ATM)

Possibly the 'story' started from this event: Early Meteor trials: 15/8/41 - 28/8/41 The document states: 'A speed trial on the road was carried out while we were at Farnborough. The tank covered the 'flying quarter' at about 53mph. The vehicle weighs 18.5 tones, so the performance was somewhat impressive, particularly since, at the conclusion of the test, the tank removed a telegraph pole.' The tank in question was infact a Crusader with the Meteor installed in place of the Liberty V12. Data from another source concerning the same trials: On the day in question, Robotham saw the course for the first time and anticipated that, with his ungoverned engine of nearly twice the Liberty power, the tank might well exceed 50 mph. He pointed out to the Captain in charge of operations that trouble was likely to occur unless the course was altered....the trial proceeded anyway. 'The Rolls-Royce engined Crusder's appearance at maximum speed was spectacular. A plume of fine oil spray was ejected from the breather of the self-change gearbox (which had never been run so fast before) as the tank thundered down the road. The tank completely failed to round the corner at the end of the track plunging into the wood, decapitating a telegraph pole in the process, and distributing coils of wire in all directions. There was no official speed recorded as the crash meant the stopwatch men forgot to stop the watches. However Clan Foundry had fitted a maximum revolution recorder as a precaution which registered something in excess of 50 mph. Robotham reported: 'It is quite evident, however that the power we now provided has introduced a number of interesting problems which will require solution.' Apparently the Meteor really abused the Crusaders running gear :-) the tracks were lasting an average of 50 miles before they broke! More impressive than the top speed was the fact that a Cromwell could do ~25mph cross country!

According to the book, detailed drawings were sent to numerous manufactiring concerns in the US to enable them to decide if the Merlin was within there existing manufacturing capabilities. When Fords own design of V12 aero was shown sometime later the Rolls guys were suspicious that the Merlin drawings issue in 1940 had found their way to Fords aero design dept... ..talking of engines at B'ham Uni in the oversized books section was a copy of the Army report produced following the capture of the Tiger in North Africa (now at Bovington), it was a delight to read if only for the technical info, the period language was an added bonus - reports aren't what they were! Anyway, the engine section was tremendous all the running tests and then disassembly of the Maybach with opinions on each and every part along with notes on how it was probably manufactured and if it was a useful design feature to use in British engines.

I was reading details of a wartime report by Rolls who were comparing the 'spec' for the Meteor with the available Tank engines from the USA, the Rolls Engineers didn't think much of what was available, stating that they couldn't get the Ford GAA to produce the quoted power output on the dyno whatever they did :-) There were even hints that they thought Ford had taken liberties with the Merlin design drawings which they had received while the British mission was looking for a company to manufacture the Merlin. For those that don't know the V8 GAA was based on a V12 aero engine that AFAIK never went into production.

I too have to give the vote to Bonda, I used it 13 years ago on the Land-Rover bulkhead A posts, the car has been on the road since through the winters etc and those A posts are still rust free with no bubbles. In the areas where I used other primers the steel is rusting quite happily under the top coat! However there is a better primer, but for the life of me I can't remember the name...it came 1st in the 'Practical Classics' salt spray test in about 1996, I brought a tin from the manufacture (Basic tins with a home made label:-), it was VERY thick stuff but even with a scratch through to base metal it will not rust, I used that on the headlight panel which again has stood the test of time. My Dad painted a sack truck frame with original twin pack Red Lead back in 1985, the lifting plate was painted with some Holts product a couple of years later. It is still in his garden, with a perfect frame, be it with the odd spot of rust by now and not much lifting plate remaining!