ted angus

Be assure being retired is not what its made out to be; I remained in this area as it was my last post in the RAF i don't know anyone here as all my lads in the RAF have all moved on. I don't have a minute to spare gipsy fire pump models forums household duties its bloody hard work. turnning to the lettering your long post says red letters on brown ribbon, I will have to look at the film again it gives a truer indication. I did think originally it was purple brown whioch is the lower colour used in cabs by many coachbuilders and most famously in the goddess cabs. must think about bed TTFN TED

Gents I know the WVS later WRVS raised as part of ARP later CD were requested to crew the convoys I think there may be stuff in WRVS WVS archives I got some pictures of the 1950s convoys that came third hand from there; I captured the lower of the colour shots as it reveal the lettering colour maroon TED

Thanks for sharing the fruits of your research intertesting to note the roofs to be camo painted I could never understand the colour sceme they were produced in ?? unless it was to try and raise moral whilst at the site of use ? Here are a couple of colour shots I captures from the britian at war in colour TV series ; Post war the new flying squad vehicles were just plain blue TED

Gents just received my copy of “Airfield Firefighting in Eastern England” although I haven’t had time yet to digest every page this appears to be a great book by Eddie Baker. Over 260 pages with over 500 photos covering all aspects USAF RAF and civil airfields/airports. . Priced £19.99 inc P & P The book can be obtained from : Eddie Baker, 5 Lordsway Park, Alconbury, Cambs., PE28 4BF. regards TED

If this is the one from Gordon its one of 3 purchased by the HMG for use at civillian establishments, yours was allocated to the Royal Ordinance Factory Featherstone near Wolverhampton. TED

I have scratchbuilt a crash tender version and I am about to do a GS tender version does that count ?? TED

My Dad was with 15 Scottish Div. 279 field Co RE. they had CMP and Austin K5 3 tonners. We often talked about the trucks and equipment he had driven he never complained about the screamer.

My brother in law was an RCT driver; a bunch of them came over from Bielefeld and withdrew from storage at Coventry airport Saracens destined for Libiya they were all finished in Lt Stone. He told me they drove them for a couple of weekls in N.I. before they were gradually repainted. TED

Sorry I can't help, TED

Yes that's the one, my Dad missed its production. he was called up early 44 and didn't get back to Commers late 47. TED

Yes this was the original tractor for the Queen Mary trailers, the 10 ft WB came in very late in the war

It certainly does Adrian it was to deferentiate between different versions of the Q2 .. The later RAF Commer tractor was refered to as the 10ft WB TED

Jessie great work mate, absolutely great ! TED

Lt Stone over red oxide may give you a problem regarding covering power, if there are any beer coupons left buy some undercoat; for Lt stone it should be Portland stone but vellum or cream will be OK. TED

james make sure you do an off vehicle test piece that tin is way past its use by date fingers crossed it may well be Ok TED

Good luck mate TED

That Smith & Allan stuff sounds good. I have heard of many successes with rollers, in fact its not that many years ago we stoped doing patch repairs on aircraft with them. trouble was with my Gipsy being gloss rollers left a not too brilliant finish; but I have to say it was a decent coat in terms of thickness , dried quickly and has been very resiliant on the areas I did't bother overspraying. Mentioning TCW those trucks we did for Gulf war 2 in the new BS 380 were from a sister unit 1 ACC. they were convoyed up from Boulmer I bet they turned some heads on the return journey ! As I said in my original post we went over to Lt stone once we had completed the stuff for our own use. My second favourite colour after gloss DBG !! regards TED

That is vitually identical to my new one. Yes moisture is always a problem as is oil from the compressor crank. regular draining of the receiver drain tap its worth filling the receiver, allow to cool, drain a bit top up. after a few times you should have a tank of decent air that your outlet trap can deal with. The filters on the compressors and on the pipework and on each outlet in our paint facility on camp were awesome, but we still got the odd glitch.

Yes I'll second that I got a can of synthetic thinners and it was touch dry in 30 minutes or so which was just the ticket when I sprayed my Gipsy in the back yard with white spirit the drying was really drawn out. my only regret was I only had a tiny compressor so it was a slow old job I have a much bigger one now and a new gun all we need is a summer !! the paint is Alkyd based synthetic from frank Burbery exactly the same as the non IRR ised on MT and defence equipment. TED

re IRR No not from normal suppliers try Frank Burbery last time I checked he was charging about £36 per 5 litres. The Smith & Allan seems OK but I have never been involved with a combined primer /finish. I have also heard poor comments re Anchor. TED

It certainly does, by the time the photoshoot was done it looked a totally different colour, its all to do with reflectancy, we were abouit an hour taking the shots the cloud was moving quite fast I recall. . I have attached another shot for you. Whilst there is no doubt what so ever about 361, may I offer a word of caution , the Defstan you refer to is current: whilst 361 has been our standard since 1938 when it was simply 61 and no doubt will always figure somewhere in the plans, Current Defstan should never be used is a definative reference other than for the period it is valid, Since GW 1 the Defstan has changed 3 times. In addition the Defstan you quote is for IRR finishes. None of the finishes applied at unit level from locally blended batches had IRR properties, the priority was visual tonedown as opposed to defeating any axis infra red recce capability. However at a later date vehicles were put into IRR. In case your vehicle has had IRR applied When rubbing down please be mindfull that the dust from IRR paint if far more harmful than normal Alkyd based defence equipment Non IRR products. Good Luck with the project TED p.s. look on Milweb for paint I bought some Gloss DBG from a chap on there great paint !! I will find his name here he is http://www.milweb.net/dealers/trader/frankburberypaints/index.htm

Yes it was indeed, it was alkaline resistant temporary finish, thinned with water and Meth spirit A pig to apply and even worse to remove !! The colour was FS 30279. TED

I was WO ic GEF at Leuchars as we went to war, the paintshops were part of my empire. initially we were instructed by signal to paint all GSE and MT the same colour as the Tornado bombers and Jaguars. this was Federal Standard 30279 Luckily our tornado fighters were remaing grey for the war !! so doing vehicles and equipment became a main focus. Some years previous the RAF had been doing experiments at Kingsfield landing strip in Cyprus trialling various colours and the conclusion was FS 30279 would be the way forward for aircraft and supporting vehicles etc in any future Mid east event. . As Federal Standard colours are one of the recognised NATO standards we have never given it a BS number. There was no depot stock and the paint manufacturers were working round the clock to produce the FS 30279 ARTF finish for the aircraft , so we received lengthy signals on mix ratios to achieve the colour. In addition to vehicles we had to paint dozens of ISO size shipping containers that held aircraft drop tanks. At the beginning of a shift we would mix batches of paint in galvanised dustbins. We bought a plaster mixer from a builders merchant to do the mixing. NO 2 batches ever looked the same. Some were sandy, some were really pink, later we got ready mixed stuff. We then got orders to prep some vehicles which were being allocated to other units and they had to be in BSC 361 Light Stone, The depot stocks of 361 had long been emptied and manufacturers were overwhelmed with orders so again we received lengthy signals detailing mix ratios for Lt Stone. this is where the Banana yellow etc comes in again no 2 batches were the same there just wasn't time for carefull measuring of quantities. For Gulf war 2 a new colour was used for RAF vehicles and equipment BSC 380 Camouflague Desert sand. It is still the current RAF colour. Attached one of a fleet we did for another unit on the run up to gulf war 2 using BSC 380 Hope this is useful regards TED

Sure is ; they are still a demandable item in the RAF. They are used with the cushioned posts in the hangers as stands for items removed from AC. TED

like these ?