Lauren Child

You can get the Ford ones easy enough, but that means swapping it out. The original distributor is a Lucas 411052 with a 411026 cap, 411050 body and 411031 rotor. They do show up every so often, but I've not found a regular source.

It's commonly identified as a Ford Pilot distributor if that helps.

It's not that different a size of turret. They kept a very small profile forward to minimise the chance of being hit, and the turret is reduced to 2 crew as a result. It's longer back though to account for the 20 pounder and radio. The hull gunner position has gone to make way for ammo storage lower down.

Some photo's from the weekend - Engine bay looking good, now cleaned and painted A glimpse of the interior Rick, Marek and my kind of garage

That's quite a gallery if you click on the photo at the bottom. Some interesting photos.

Have you tried finding the source photograph and looking in the background? You might get an indication (or at least a glimpse of yours).

Thanks. Now we know where to put the transfers

"whoever isn't busy can clean the toilets"

Thanks chaps, that's very helpful.

I reckon it's showing how women can do an entire tank in the time it takes a man to plan, prepare, and have another cup of tea before the light has gone.

Is there any chance you could give us a bit of her history and how you came by it? You mentioned some in the other thread.

There's the one who writes childrens books. Thanks to her I have the great quote from the Daily Telegraph "Lauren Child is the best thing since sliced bread".

Holy cow Rick, that's looking pretty good inside the turret. Awesome job.

I've got to have something to do for my next project if I'm going to build the Lauren Child Collection

Welcome along - a nice pair of trucks!

Plan is to put a brass plate in the engine bay with all of our signatures when it's done. I'm sure you'll find another project Lance, and I'm really glad that your over the worst of things and getting back on your feet. I've started a new thread as she's now destined to remain a Charioteer. http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?47957-FV4101-Charioteer-Restoration

The Project Well it looks like I've been outed on a couple of threads, so here we go with an FV4101 Charioteer restoration I actually bought her unseen when Lance had to sell up, taking a bit of a risk in doing so. The priority of getting married that month saw me unable to visit, and a very understanding other half said "go for it". It still hasn't really sunk in. :wow: I plucked up the courage to visit when I got back from honeymoon, wondering if I was looking at trying to recoup the pennies through scrap and sparing or whether I had a viable project. Luckily I have a reasonably good hull and a large collection of bits that Lance and Rick had managed to strip and/or collect together. Why a Charioteer? Normally I'd be all over the prospect of doing a wartime spec Cromwell, but this is an unusual beast. It's a) one of the Charioteers that was sold onward and modified by the Jordanians, seeing action in the Jordanian-Israeli conflict, and b) it's an early Charioteer with no fume extractor fitted to the gun. This makes her a bit of a rarity. Given the number of Charioteers out there, and with none apparently restored into running condition, I just can't bring myself to destroy a bit of history. We're both preserving the modifications and restoring her as a Charioteer. This includes the weird and wonderfuls that were done to her during the conflict. What's the plan? The plan is 1) Get the mechanicals sorted and get her driving, including restoration of the hull so they don't have to come out again. This should see her trundling around. 2) Overhaul the suspension and re-rubber the wheels. 3) Restore the turret and detail the vehicle. Sounds easy doesn't it? :nut: Luckily, professional Cromwell-wrangler Rick has agreed to carry on doing the major works, as he's both done it before on his own Cromwell and has the space and help to run though it. The history A decent collection of the work has already been done when Lance was intending her to be a Cromwell. You can see some of her history in the old thread here - http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?43059-MK-IV-Cromwell. I'm not continuing that thread as when we looked at it, it was going to get *really* confusing now that she's going to remain a Charioteer. Whats next? I'm obviously now after a completely different collection of bits and information, so chirp up if you've got any. :thumbsup:

You might also be interested to note that the national archives have the Crocodile training pamphlet among other Croc paperwork. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1806145

Mike Starmer's book is a good reference for colour. It has some matched colour chips in the back that you can use to get paints mixed. Olive drab came in for new vehicles in April 1944' so the Croc is around the time of the changeover with some kit painted one way and some the other. For D-day, Anecdotes (mentioned in 79th division final report) state that the 79th equipment was still painted SCC 2 brown with the exception of buffaloes, but as the Crocodile mod kit was applied to the brand new Mk.VII churchill's it seems quite likely that they'd have been SCC 15 olive drab or some of the last kit issued in brown. SCC2 brown would have had SCC1A dark brown or SCC14 blue-black disruptive camouflage. The book goes into some good detail and is worth picking up.

Awesome - well done

Just in case you are still looking - some here http://milmarket.org/auction_details.php?auction_search=1&auction_id=141609

That's really surprising, as my understanding is that they didn't make much to start with.

Looks like one of these - http://www.nevingtonwarmuseum.com/nevington-news/thorny-croft-amazoncoles-7-crane-and-bedford-ox-tractor-with-queen-mary-trailer

The round temperature/fuel gauges look like CMP, although the needle looks different as they are pointed. Maybe an early one?

Are you looking for the correct paint, or the correct colour of modern paint (this may be a silly question but having visited and seen the lengths the late Mr Littlefield went to I wouldn't want to assume - truly awesome)? Also, have you got a build date for the vehicle?