''£40k to cover shipping, fabrication of all missing internal parts, set of new rubber tracks from JS and there'd you go''
You would need nearer £95k to do all of that, not to mention that 17pdr installations are next to impossible to find.
Maurice Hammond near me rebuilds Merlins. Many well known aircraft in the UK have his engines in and they have a reputation for being very smooth.
Vintech do a large range of engines. They do not do Merlins though have rebuilt Kestrels.
Not from Browning .50 cal, they do not use an ejector as the cartriage stays within the bolt lips and is ejected downwards by the next round.
I suspect some sort of AT rifle.
I can't find any Churchill numbers that end in 3427...
Going through my lists I can only find 22 Churchill IV ending in 27, 10 of which are five figure and 12 which are six figure.
Could it be T172427?
Were IVs always built as IVs?
I have T32427 as part of T32246 - T32470 on contract T301 with Vauxhall for Churchill I, II, III and IV but I have another listing as T32397 - T32470 on T755 with Gloucester Railway for Churchill I and II.
All of the M2 series eject the cases in the same way, by pushing it through the bolt slots with the next round. Are they Browning .50 cal, 12.7 x 99 or Vickers .50 cal 12.7 x 81 or even Vickers .50 HV, 12.7 x 120?
Actually, I don't remember anything on Salisbury Plain having concrete in. It was/ is primarily a range for artillery, the concrete filling being more used on anti tank weapons ranges.
As to when it started, I have no idea!