Lauren Child

He's got an account on the forum I think - have a search on the introductions and you should find it.

The US Navy Naval Safety Centre Photo of the Week is often quite good. This week's one (number 516) is also ladder based. http://www.public.navy.mil/navsafecen/Pages/photo/Photo-of-the-Week.aspx

Welcome along - what models have you made?

If you are going for a soviet vehicle, go for an OT. The Czech & Polish vehicles tend to be better built than the general Soviet stuff. Between the BMP and Abbott, the Abbott would win out for me. The FV43x series are very easy to maintain and keep running. Also, the automatic gearbox makes it really easy to drive. Make sure you get a good hull as the suspension bushes go and then it gets very expensive, very quickly. If I were you, I'd also consider a CVR(T). It's lightweight which makes it reasonably easy to work on. It'll fit in an ISO shipping container to get it home, meaning you can spend more on the vehicle and spares. There is plenty of support and spares for it, and something like a Sabre or Scorpion has a good tank-like look about it. The gearbox is like a motorbike. You can actually fit two CVR(T)s into a normal ISO container with a bit of wiggling, so there's space for spares if you pack it well. If you need to transport it long distances to shows etc. then it'll fit on a normal car recovery vehicle. If I could fit in one, I'd have it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately they don't come in my size :banghead:

With all of the changes in IWM London I think there will be a lot of re-arranging of vehicles - I'll see if I can tack your request onto our chairman's list, just for you

I wouldn't pay too much attention to talk of scrappage just yet. Disposals go through a very long process of being offered to other museums, other interested organisations, and finally offered up for sale, before they'd be considered for scrap. There are some very impressive procedures that the museum has to go through for disposals or swaps. The only things I've ever seen scrapped are the odds and sods left over after we've made a good assembly out of two naff ones for a resto. Even those get picked through quite carefully The chances of anything on that list getting as far as being offered for private sale, let alone scrappage, is fairly slim.

It's been out for a couple of the Duxford MV shows, and is a monster to move. It's very very heavy. You only realise how heavy when you maneuver it across soft ground and see how quickly it sinks, causing some level of urgency to get it back onto a harder surface. Alas it's also sufficiently large and awkward to maneuver that a certain amount of off-road maneuvering is needed to get it back into storage. It's normally under cover (in recent years anyway) so if you spotted from the bridge it was probably being moved. The photo's probably don't do justice to the size of the thing - it gets pulled by the Militant/MJ, and the barrell is longer than it by about half as much again (from memory). I'm surprised it's on the list to go, but I'm sure there's a plan at work.

It's a pure guess but I'd say it's from a Bedford RL. The round cut holes look approximately the same spacing and size as the ones in the flatbed for tie down points.

Freeze spray should also shock fracture any corrosion, allowing penetrating oil to seep in further. If it doesn't come out just through the temperature effect, it may be worth a good soak in penetrating oil afterwards.

Right, that's it - I'm wearing gloves to type on here until everyones better, just in case.

To be fair, good on whoever's it is for trying! Here's hoping we see another Tiger on the move. I think they've got a lot of hutzpah for taking on a project like that.

Let us know how you get on!

Vintage Paint still seem to be going (or they were in October anyway), but every time I ask they say "not at the moment". I guess they've got something big on. There's some contact details here - http://members.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=thevintagepaintcompany

It's a 42, 43, 44, 45 Pzkpw Vi, Vii, Viii with an 88, 89, ....

A bit of a go on google shows that there is a training wing in cyprus that's abbreviated "MTW", so one of the previous posts probably has it right

Clearly from it's position, it's "Mind The Wheel", and the other is "Painted Left of Vehicle Other Colour"

If it helps, the WOT6 part numbers are 51E-7566 - Pressure Plate WOT6-7550-ASSY for the clutch plate assembly, which has .. WOT6-7546 facing and cushion plate assembly .. .. WOT6-7549 facing

WOT2 is 11in diameter, but comparing parts lists it's a different part number so it may not be the same. If it's the same, then it's 11" External 6.5" Internal 0.137" thick facing, one on each side of the plate 0.669" internal diameter of flywheel pilot bearing

HMVF disappeared from mine, but a few days later it showed up in the search again so I re-added it. I think they may have been having some problems.

I'd imagine £6-9k depending on desirability.

Blimey that was timing as you say! You're lucky to still be around

Do I have to be the one to point out that if it's got another one that's not a boy boar. Your parents should have explained these things when you reached a certain age....

There's a line of bolts across the top into the bulkhead. I remember those when we were looking at it, but they didnt seem to release anything that wasn't welded in some other spot.

Well that beats the hand crank.

I don't know - I didn't think you could remove it - maybe I'm wrong or it's a different model.