Lauren Child

I enjoyed both series (two series of 4 episodes each), but they have been edited for a mass audience and sometimes things get lost in editing. Actually quite a lot does as they filmed *loads* of footage. The guys that do the filming are pretty knowledgable and were great to work with (though my some total on-screen is as a yellow dot during a pan shot), but if I remember correctly I think they said it gets edited by a different team when they get home. Interestingly they did mention that they do different edits for different markets, so the US show will be slightly different from the UK one etc. Looking at the Duxford one, our show got mixed up with the tank museum's "Tankfest", and I'm pretty sure they re-dubbed the sound on some of the vehicles and mixed up Centurion and Chieftain, but the result is an enjoyable watch and I'm hopeful that they'll do a third series. It's always nice to see more of our hobby on television, and overall it did a good job of being educational at the same time as being entertaining. As Steveo mentions, a tank restoration does take several years. The Centurion Mk3 is still in the workshops being worked on now with probably another year left to go. That puts a complete restoration out of the scope of most documentaries. It is a shame as it would probably be very interesting.

As it's not been mentionned so far, one vote for Duck Oil here, though it has to be freshly sqeezed from local ducks. http://www.debgroup.com/en/products/selector/specialist-cleaning/uk/swarfega/swarfega-duck-oil-retail

Perusing Amazon.co.uk I stumbled across a pre-order for the Tank Overhaul DVD. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tank-Overhaul-DVD/dp/B002XLI9OI/ Looks like it's coming out in March.

When I lived in Martlesham Heath, rumour had it that there were two of these under the old runway, and only one was found when they demolished it and built the housing estate. Waiting for the bang during any building works became a local past-time.

Buildings cost a lot of money to build & operate so it's simply not possible for most museums to get everything under cover. I doubt any of the museums mentionned in this thread would have intentionally left exhibits to rust away, but without the facilities you simply have to rely on enough manpower and funds to keep renovating and preserving over and over again. In this way you keep refreshing regularly enough that serious problems won't have a chance to develop. I would imagine in these cases, a critical problem occurred between refreshes without warning, or other factors prevented them being swapped or sold before they went beyond salvage. No museum would intentionally waste money, effort or exhibits, as all are extremely limited resources.

There are two competing factors for museums. Preserving the vehicle means keeping as much original as possible, and marking any replacements to ensure that they can be told apart in the future. In this way the exhibits can be preserved, but this normally means non-runners, as the original parts are precious and preserved from wear and tear, although the vehicle is left (as far as possible) in running condition. Other vehicles are preserved in working condition to show the human impact of those vehicles. You only get a sense of perspective from the human act of witnessing the vehicles in action. In this way the experiences are preserved, and the other static exhibits are put into context. You can't really do both, as wear and tear / maintenance has an impact on vehicles.

FV432 at Duxford (belonging to one of the MV Wing members). If I recall correctly, it's painted in an experimental urban camo scheme from Canada.

We've agreed to move the date as we had a clash with another show in the area. It looks like it's going to be the 6th June, but I'm just waiting on confirmation.

Centurion was a heavy cruiser that was redesignated an MBT, and marks the point that the naming convention moved to MBTs.

I have an amazon sword and bag from Xena: Warrior Princess

OK, who magnetised the sprockets?

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I would ave thought the oldest bit of kit in use was a building, or something related to a building (door key, etc). Theres a Redoubt fortress still in use down on the south coast, and dover/newhaven forts were in use until relatively recently. Just a ponderance but how old are the Queens Royal Lancers lances?

That one has some useful linformation on it - It's a Bendix made connector (now part of Amphenol, who are the name in a lot of the military style circular connectors) 2822 probably relates to this insert. I would have thought if you send Amphenol support a copy of the pic they would identify the connector, and it's probably available through the likes of digi-key. http://www.amphenol.co.uk/ http://uk.digikey.com/ Looking at this website - http://www.aecsinc.com/Catalog1.pdf MIL-DTL-5015 has a 2822 insert. and http://www.amphenol-aerospace.com/catalogs/12-025/lo/12-025.pdf shows a 28-22 type in the AC range

Wow, thats not the connector I was thinking of, but it does look famillar. Does anyone know what that's called?

From - http://probablybadnews.com/2009/08/07/funny-news-headlines-ninja-tank-vanish/

No worries, and thanks for the update - I dont work with anything over 32 normally

You may find that the round pin connectors are "Commando" EN 60309 connectors, which are normally standard wiring etc. Those are normally associated with high current electrics (like you would see on a generator connection). Depending on the gender of these connectors you should be able to work out if it is supply or outlet. I would majorly recommend against using the BS1363 UK plug for supply - Aside from the obvious danger using the male plug for supply (i.e. you can touch live conductors), aircon etc. may require substantially more than 13 amps to run. Commando sockets normally run a 16, 32, or 72 Amps depending on size. The colour normally indicates voltage (blue for 240V, red for 415V, yellow for 110V). Theyre pretty easy to find as they're used a lot in industry, and are pretty easy to wire in (or get wired in). BS EN 60309 here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60309 http://www.hardwarebook.info/IEC_60309 Also it could be a military style connector, like http://www.aecsinc.com/D38999INSERT.html http://www.aecsinc.com/D38999.html

Not sure if anyone else is stuck at home with Flu, but if you are there looks to be a bit of a "Military Motors" marathon on this afternoon from 3 - 7. Theres two episodes of something else mixed in with 6 episodes of Military Motors. Of course, knowing how these listings work it may be two episodes repeated 3 times, but I live in hope

Did Starsky and Hutch get transferred to the RUC?

Just a side note - I had a similar sounding (though luckily not so infected) nasty bite on my arm that took *ages* to heal properly. What did it for me was the Elastoplast silver-weave plasters. Itched like the blazes but it did the trick. It's left a scar but at least I don't have a hole in my arm anymore. They may do you some good as well. Hope you get well soon!

Having tried a couple of different needle guns, I can recommend the Trelawny pistol grip ones. You can also load different types of needles with different characteristics.

Second vote for the needle guns in preference. Loud and hard work, but definitely better. Sandblast the small unboltable/detachable bits and needlegun the hull and big beefy bits. The small bits should fit in a sandblasting cabinet that will keep the grit from going everywhere.

I wonder if you could use the solid graphite pencils sold in art shops.... Just a ponderance. Is there any special fitment of is it just a straight carbon rod?

The C8/P is the Predictor version - the one I'm looking at was converted to an AT role. I'm fairly sure thats towed AT rather than portee, but I'll check. Thanks everso!