marvinthemartian

Morning Duncan, just scanned in this bit from drivers handbook, showing what all the tits and cocks do. Hope you find it useful.

Blooming snowing here! Had a morning full of rain, and now the white stuff.

Could it be sowing the seed of thought for your next model? The Martian to go with the howitzer....

No, mine not in there, one very close, 44BM72. Mine was in service with 103 Rgt RA TA at St Helens.

They are smashing pics, good to see so many all in one place.

Mine is army number 44BM75, chassis number 538276.

Did you guess correct? An army field oven to fit atop the No3, looks hardly used, racks and spanners covered in a very thick greasy substance, which I presume is a preservative of some sort, as opposed to army cooking!!!! Not 100% sure what the spanners are used for.

Just thought I would post up some pictures of some bits of kit I have aquired. Petrol cookers No2 Mk1, and a No3. Also a very large box has appeared in my kitchen.....

No problems. Would you be referring to Miliblog? There are a lot of pictures on there of many, many vehicles.

Finally the ISP diagram. As for manuals, the only ones that seem to come upon ebay are for the recovery truck, I have managed to get two from there, only because there were a few things that were common to the whole series, or 1103 related amongst them. Vintage mv manuals do list a number of martian manuals, I have emailed them to enquire as to pricing for copies. I aquired most of my manuals from a chap called John Firth, who used to live near Norwich, now lives up in Caithness. He had a good collection of vehicles including an early martian complete with 5.5" howitzer. He sold this and others before he moved. Another couple came from Chris Evans books,bought back in 1990 something when at the Duxford MV show, god knows if he is still around now. I suppose it's just a case of keep ones eyes open, you never know what comes up. There are still a couple that I am looking for to complete the set.

For the rear body, I have a good few shots, from my own truck, one view taken from the User handbook, and another diagram from the ISP. First up the back of mine This one from the handbook along with identfication of bits.

Have been busy with the scanner and such, and have come up with quite a few pictures of the original layout. Firstly is the only shot I took of the rear of the cab before I started pulling it to pieces. The spare seat is the one which hooks onto the spare wheel woodwork in the body. Secondly is a drawing from the ISP showing the cab interior layout.

A shot of mine from the rear when I had the body off, showing original rear panel and winch. It was due to some noob dragging he winch rope completely through the rear rollers and pulleys, knackering them, and right up to the middle rollers, which then started to bend the crossmember it is bolted to. the only way to get the pulley fittings off is up, and the clearance between them and the bottom of the body is very slim.

15.00's come up every so often, roughly £100 a pop. I presume you mean that little door on the left hand side rear, not standard fitment, can only presume that the chap who added the crane put it there to save umpteen clambers up and down the truck. Seating is 3 up front, driver and 2 passenger seats, 4 in the centre above where the auxiliary gearbox is, and at the rear where the floor is raised to accomodate the winch, another 5, there are 3 seats assemblies, 2 2 seat and a single seat in the centre. I will have a shufty through my pics, and I'm pretty sure there will be something somewhere. I will get them scanned as I find them. Simon

Rims are unique to the Martian, they would have carried one wheel for the truck and one wheel for the 5.5" howitzer. When used for towing the Bofors L40/70, they would probably still have carried one wheel for the truck, and there was a modification instruction for the RH side to enable a spare gun barrel to be carried. The spare wheel jib on its own is quite heavy, not really sure how it would have been slid into position, reckon it could be a 2 man job. It is part of the vehicle CES, and stored somewhere on the vehicle, as its not originally carried in that position. After writing this and looking at the pics, it would probably be stored in the same brackets but upside down and slid in from the front. Simon

Also noticed the front indicator guards are on the wrong way round and wrong sides too. The angled cut off should face towards the outside rear. Simon

What I have done a couple of times is jack up the whole back axle so all four wheels are off the ground, good solid lumps of wood are ideal to rest it all on. Make sure rear brakes are adjusted correctly, and make sure front wheel drive is disengaged, start the engine and put aux gearbox in high range and main gearbox in 3rd. Then just keep revving the engine and braking with the clutch depressed, this is where Jake the Pake would come in very handy! It may take a few goes, but has worked for me. Any idea of chassis number, or army reg? Simon

That wont take long, there's not much left :nut:.

They do have a healthy appetite for fuel. I ran mine once when I had the choke disconnected, and unfortunately was set fully on at the carb, 5 galls juice gone in about 5 to 10 minutes! They do sound very nice running, tho' maybe with an intact exhaust system it would be a bit muted. Simon

Morning Ken, welcome aboard again.

Hoping to have a trip over on Fri morning as it's only 1/2 hour down the road. Looking at the pic it does seem that it is a RHD. There is a LHD cab on the auction page currently at £200. Simon

Good to see another one has been saved from impending doom. They do seem to be getting very few and far between nowadays! Hoping more pics will be on the way soon. Simon

I have another shot of the gun tractor for sale that is currently on Milweb, I have no idea where I got it from though! She does look a very good truck.

Just to add a bit more to radiomike7 regarding numbers, I personally think there would have been at least a few hundred FV1103 type built, as loads were later cut up for modification to the FV1121, FV1122 and very likely FV1119 too. As for chassis cabs in storage, these would just have been the chassis, as Leyland did not build any bodies, they only built up to the bulkhead. I would presume they would have left the factory looking something like this, although this is a shot of a pre-production example as noted by air cleaners mounted on the bulkhead. I could be wrong but it looks like it is taken inside Olympia, most definately early 1950's.

Last lot I think, though there may be more if I dig deeper. Leyland Martians, FV1103 and an FV1121 at the end. Still haven't got any shots of the remaining FV1110, but that will change in the New year, before the axe man cometh. The first Martian pic is exactly how I came across the Martian as a vehicle, and it just went on from there.