matadormike Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 Hi, I am part way through building a model pontoon bridge section like this: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205215536 http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205237342 http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205237899 Here are a couple of photos of my progress so far Can anyone help me with the colour it needs to be? I'm thinking an olive drab, although I'm not sure. A friend of mine sent me the following extract from a book, I think it was 'One More River To Cross - The Story Of British Military Bridging'. "Pontoon Mark II (The Clauson Pontoon) The timber framed pontoons were clad in American white pine, with 3/8” side and 7/16” bottom planking; both sides of the cladding were covered with canvas, secured by five layers of India rubber solution, and the canvas was then coated with marine glue." Unfortunately this doesn't really help with the colour. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickBalmer Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Hello Mike, I would love to know where you got your drawings for these pontoons from? I have "One More River to Cross" and although it has a great many drawings of other pontoons and bridges, it doesn't appear to have this type of pontoon. It also greatly encourages me to see that I am not the only person who is scratch building World War I equipment in 1/43rd. It is a great scale for this period. I am currently building a Thorneycroft J to Geoff Lacy's plans, and hugely helped by the Gosling's restoration photos. They are quite the best resource on that truck. As for colour of pontoons, I am unsure, but much WWi equipment seems to have been a shiny gloss green, but I am uncertain if this was later paint used on restoration. We had a First World War toolbox in our barn that was coloured a faded earthy dark Brown with a tinge of green in it. Sadly that succumbed to a rotted out base some years ago. I used a matching colour on the Lanchester I built in 1/43rd scale some years ago. Regards Nick Balmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matadormike Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 Hi Nick, Thanks, brown had crossed my mind, I may end up going for that. The lanchester looks great by the way. I got the pontoon drawing from a WW1 bridging manual, I'll see if I can find the link. Myself and a couple of friends are building a model based on the 2' gauge light railways in use behind the front lines, I'll add a link to that as well shortly, it's booked for the tracks to the trenches event in September. Cheers Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matadormike Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 Here's a link to the manual https://archive.org/details/cu31924030765121 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matadormike Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 This is the thread we've posted about the model we're building http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/10888-ferme-du-pont-17th-light-railway-operating-company/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_bish Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 This is the thread we've posted about the model we're building http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/10888-ferme-du-pont-17th-light-railway-operating-company/ Looks great, look forward to seeing the finished article. The WW1 group at War & Peace last year had a length of small guage trench railway on their display last year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickBalmer Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 Hello Mike, Thank you so much for the link to the Engineering Manual. It will keep me amused for many hours. As a modern day civil engineering contractor I find these sorts of things fascinating. Recently I found out that one of my Great Grandfather Alan Railton was a Site Agent / Contracts Manager for one of the major civil engineering contractors, Topham, Jones and Railton, who built several of the major Dreadnought bases at Singapore, Gibraltar, as well as civil ports including Port Talbot and Swansea during the period around 1895 to 1904 when he died. The most interesting large plate format photos were taken at most of those sites full of details of similar trestles, pile drivers, concrete mixers etc. I have an inclination to make a model something very similar to what you are going with a steam shovel, trains etc. Many of TJR's locomotives came from the Manchester Ship Canal and seem to be very well documented. After my gt great grandfather died Topham Jones & Railton went on during World War I to build causeways at Scapa Flow and many of the Royal Naval Munitions factories and depots. Regards Nick Balmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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