Adam Elsdon

Haven't been on here for properly for ages, i have been "Busy":cool2: of late. We have just had a baby boy, born at home on Friday night (planned like that, not a medical emergency involving lots of towels and boiling water like in the films!) and have called him Harry, bigger sister Emily and big brother Mitch are fascinated! Two days before that i handed in my notice, a day later we sold our house, and i still havent had a heart attack yet! Now i have the great job of packing everything up, including my workshop stuff and the Pig, trailer and various spares etc i have accumulated and hauling it down the road to St Neots Huntingdonshire, to a house we havent got yet! woo hoo :nut:. So if you are passing St Neots on the A1, or going over to Cambridge on the A420 and see what looks like a small military encampment in a layby with small children and dogs running around, its not armoured Pikeys, its the Elsdons....feel free to stop in and have a chat ! Anybody else here from these parts? is it an MV rich environment or thin on the ground , i did notice that Duxford is only 25 miles away, and shuttleworth is even closer.

Protegalac Containergard from Smith and Allan dries a satin finish and is very hard wearing, its an Alkyd based paint, costs £35 for 5 litres and the 1006 thinners is approx £16 for 5 litres, that was last years prices, and the p&p was £6. The data sheet recommended spray or brush, brush for smaller areas, although i done my Pig and trailer using brush only and am very pleased with the end result. The landrovers sent out on Granby as used by the RAF Tactical Communications Wing were sprayed Light Stone, the reason i remember the colour was we talked to our spray bay nicely and copped a few tins to paint some of our other kit.

Have a look in the humber pig gallery!

I cant recall the IW Mounts been fitted to anything older than a 110, and i only remember seeing them mounted onto the passenger side footwell, the butt plate holder fixed to the floor, the barrel catch mounted on the dash.

I have just been reading a book about Banff Strike Wing, in it is a bit about the 617 and 9 Sqn lancaster aircraft, they landed at various north east scottish RAF airfields after the Tirpitz raid. Here is a fantastic extract about an unusual event that occurred when Lancasters landed at RAF Banff after that raid.... "The airfield control officer at Banff had know for some time that a unit of Bomber Command Lancasters were undergoing training at Lossiemouth. On this drizzly day in the afternoon the control room officer received word that a couple of Lancasters were in the circuit, and they landed at Banff one after the other. A fault or mechanical defect had prevented one of the Tallboys (a 12,000 lb bomb developed by Barnes Wallis) being dropped, and it was brought back. This highly explosive load was still hung up owing to the weather conditions during the flight. The crew got safely down; upon switching off the Merlins the Tallboy came away, and the crew without debate made a hasty and undignified exit in front of the control tower. It did not explode otherwise it would have taken half the station away! Everyone beat a quick retreat while a bomb disposal team was called, and the base was out of bounds for two days while they made the 12,000 lb bomb safe. The following day the offending crew had a photograph taken for the squadron scrapbook sitting on the defused Tallboy." Didnt report that in the papers !

Getting closer to the event date! hopefully will be going over in the next couple of weeks to scope out the site.

They always need some form of spannering! as Clive mentioned there is alot of stuff to check and make sure its properly lubricated. Even taking it for a spin is a bit of an event, by the time you have unlocked and lifted the engine covers checked the engine fluid levels, opened the hatches up, visually checked how much petrol is in the tanks, checked the brake reservoir, got in it, got back out to adjust the mirrors, got back in, got back out to open the hatches you missed in the back doors, get back in, check the winch and four wheel drive selectors are in the proper positions and the air pump lever hasnt been engaged, turned the electrics on at the dash, pumped the accelerator a couple of times and hit the starter switch, the engine fires up, and then you wait until the engine runs even and is warmed up, a cold Pig isnt a happy beast, turn the lights on and get out and check them, get back in release the brakes and you are off, a bit sluggishly until the oil in the gearbox warms up and makes for easier gear changes. What you have to remember is these things are rapidly approaching 60 years old!!

Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry (SCLI) on parade in Berlin 1961 the Mog is towing a MOBAT. They also used Humber pigs at the same time, the role was to defend Berlin.

That was RAF Dallachy it was home to four squadrons of Bristol Beaufighters, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Brits each had a Squadron for a total of 2500 personnel and 80 Aircraft, it is near the village of Fochabers and Spey Bay. RAF Milltown, the now disused satellite airfield to Between RAF Dallachy and RAF lossiemouth was home to RAF Coastal Command Liberators. We had alot of operational combat aircraft in this area from mid 1944 until VE day.

Try these people, they will post it to you at very reasonable rates, i used Industrial Protegalac Containergard, which is a single pack Alkyd paint, it dries with a Satin finish which looks good, and it is super hard wearing, i cant recommend this stuff enough, i have left the Pig and Trailer outside for the last year in blistering heat and freezing -20C covered in ice and snow, and it still looks as good as when i put it on superb stuff, technically for spraying with a bit of brush painting, but i brush painted both the trailer and the Pig and it came out very well. The paint was £35 for 5 litre and the thinners £16 for 5 litre can, they will send up to six tins of paint for the price of one, and the service was excellent. Paint available in any of the colour charts they have on the site. http://www.smithandallan.com/industrial_paint.html

They were based at Lossiemouth, which is where 617 Sqn currently reside, but little known, they were also stationed at RAF Banff as part of the same operation. RAF Banff was more famous for its Banff Strike Wing which was part of Coastal Command, they flew Mosquitoes on Anti shipping raids destroying U-boats and vessels carrying vital mineral and ore supplies, they flew with the RAF Dallachy wing Bristol Beaufighters and RAF Peterheads 315 Sqn Mustangs and RAF Fraserburghs Vickers Warwick Air Sea Rescue aircraft putting up nearly 80 aircraft, supported by RAF ASR high speed launches from Fraserburgh harbour, for its attacks against the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe. They took some very heavy losses, but inflicted massive damage to the German war machine I was up at Boyndie (RAF Banff) yesterday, and had a quick look at the airfield, there is a trust set up just recently to take care of its history, there are alot of real time warp buildings on site, so it would be good to see something happen to the place to preserve what is left. Link to photos of the derelict airfield as it is now, some interesting buildings remain. http://www.urbexforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6679

I was at the former airfield today, that 617 Sqn used for the raid on the Tirpitz, not a million miles from their present home as it turns out, anyone want to take a guess at it!

Quote; Hello David Time marches on..............I thought you were dead. Bob and You sound like an interesting bloke, welcome to the Forum!

Im pretty certain there are a few individuals on this site that could point you in the right direction for required parts, that arent put off by posting them. Does it have the Rolls Royce B60 petrol engine in it, or has it been changed by the S.A. Army?

Keep it going, top stuff Ray!

That looks impressive, read the article and its made out of fibreglass and steel, i wonder if i could have one as a gate guardian for my house after they finish with them!

I was based at 6SU RAF Rudloe Manor, and used to work in an underground tunnel complex. Down in the old parts of the tunnels It was used for storing ammunition and building aircraft assemblies, and had the facilities of a small town!. The Polish workers that built aircraft parts took to making murals, by carving deep outlines, then making up a cement with aircraft paint added to colour it and filling in the carvings, i remember seeing pictures of horses in one tunnel. Pot holers used to get into the tunnel system, sometimes by accident as there was alot of old mine shafts going back to Roman days, and land up in the tunnels, we used to have an Infrared CCTV set up, and see them walking around in amazement, even more amazed when we escorted them out under armed guard!

A friend had a very similar sounding fault, it would run sweet then start cutting out, we checked the points, tested the condensor with a Megger and tested the Coil, all were fine, we then pulled the carb and opened it up, turned out to be clean, checked the filter in the union, and it had trapped a tiny bit of grit, but not enough to cause it any concern, all very strange? We decided to use an airline and back blow out the fuel pipe from the inside the ferret at the fuel filter (which was clean), disconnecting a union, and leaving the carb union end open, with a catch container to catch the fuel that came out. The amount of sludge and grit that came blasting out was staggering! the tank looked clean and nothing in the filters at the carb suggested the state it was in, so somewhere in the pipe, through the fuel pump and up to be carb had a large amount of heavy sediment restricting the flow. We think that at some point, a load of crud had got into the tanks, either from dirty jerry cans or just been left open or abused, then the fuel system had been serviced, probably in an attempt to make it run better, but left all the heavy sediment sat wallowing about in the lines. It now runs absolutely fine, with its perfectly set up and tested ignition and clean fuel system!

Its a shame you feel you have to hide away yours and your families thoroughly legal interests and hobbies, because of your neighbours own personal opinion. The opinion of the law on the type of person who looks at boys in bedrooms could be taken as considerably harsher however, next time you experience the unwelcome attentions of this individual, politely drop this nugget of information and see how the attitude changes!! Or you could invite Croc and myself down to your place for a spot of Army rations redneck cooking, works on our neighbours!!

As part of my Job, they send me to see a psychiatrist every year to make sure im not affected by my work!. During the interview the Dr asked me about my hobbies, so i gave him the full horrors of MV ownership, going to shows, what my family think about it etc! His response... Excellent stuff, far too many people dont have an avenue of escape from their daily routine, and people who think it is weird etc are generally the type that feel they have to conform with everybody else, i.e. have a new kitchen, wash the car on a sunday and sit in front of the 60" flatscreen LCD watching Sky TV like the neighbours around them. He then went on to say that your friends and family would never remember you for conforming to the perceived "Norm" but they would always remember you for the stuff you do that is totally different, i.e. in my case owning a Humber Pig and taking them to shows etc. It then turned out my Psychiatrist was ex Army, and had a desire to own an artillery piece to put in his garden, and he had quite a collection of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical equipment !!! which as i pointed out to him was the equivalent of one alcoholic taking controlled drinking advice from another alcoholic in a brewery!! :cool2: Further on, myself and Croc were sat in my shed one afternoon after playing with vehicles, discussing the finer points of Army petrol set cookers, so we fired a couple up. It seemed a shame to just let them burn openly so we got out the mess tins and made a cup of tea, and it turned out Croc had never had British Army rations, as i had just got hold of a few, we broke open a couple of boxes and had dinner "Al fresco". Around about this point the neighbours who had just moved in down the road decided to make themselves known! so their first impression was two big blokes with oily clothing and coveralls sat on camp chairs, in failing light around burners eating out of tins with plastic spoons, surrounded by military paraphenalia and a Humber Pig They moved out three months later! :rofl:

I have a number of wood blocks, mainly to stop it rolling away! Theres more than 58 items? enough to send a collector with OCD into a frenzy :-D

What constitutes as a CES for a MK1 Humber Pig? i know it would be getting to the level of a Ferret owner to be collecting every single widget :-D but some half useful stuff onboard could be handy! So far my collection amounts to a 4 ton bottle jack, a vehicle interstart cable, periscopes, vehicle first aid kit and a full collection of convoy flags! I have been offered an original issue type recovery cable wth chains and shackles, which could be useful.

:rofl::rofl: Why they didnt pull it out straight, rather than to the side over all the snow, and they had already stopped and looked at the deforming bumper!

Saturday 15th to Sunday 16th May 2010. If you go to the Show reports threads, last years report is there, cant say enough good things about it, its free to exhibitors, its about as easy going as you can get, and they actually let common sense prevail ! http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?13206-BA-Stores-Vintage-Working-Weekend-Aberdeenshire Its not a Specific MV show, however Alan Brownie the organiser is exceptionally keen on them, and does his level best to sort us out a good display area, last year, he put a road into the woods for us and some nice clean Turdis's, he wants to develop on it, year on year, if you have an idea to make it more appealing, he fully takes it onboard. Been a "Working weekend" there isnt alot that sits stationary, everything gets a chance to strut its stuff, which just adds to the attraction. I spoke to him recently and he is keen to get history displays, so if you have a wartime based historical display, and like the sound of it, drop me a PM or contact them direct at http://www.bavintageweekend.co.uk/ or via the Scottish Military Vehicle Group http://www.scottishmvg.org/1.html

The SLR L1A1, was a british development of the Belgian FN FAL, so im betting if its a shared belgian/brit part thats the weapon its for.