exet1095

You’re right, it wasn’t the Eagle. It was the RR K60 - a two stroke opposed piston engine, like the L60 in the Chieftain, except that it ran rather better. Both super and turbo-charged. Multi-fuel if you used low enough octane petrol as it was compression ignition. Just had chapter and verse from one of my old VM friends.

The Rolls B60 was four litres and powered the Ferret. A B80 in Saracen, Saladin and Stalwart (the most fun I have ever had driving a wheeled vehicle!) FV430s started off with a Rolls Eagle I believe, which was originally multi-fuel, but were later differentiated into petrol or diesel vehicles, with red or yellow fuel fillers. The Bulldog is still in service, and the FV436 is the main Brigade HQ command vehicle.

The MJT roof profile does not match the ends, with a 2-3mm gap at the apex when sitting on the tops of the sides.

Hi Pete, the Haye kit has a vac-formed roof moulding, along with instructions on how to cut it down, fit the styrene rain strips, add ventilators and fix to the top of the carriage. it looks like you are ahead of me - I need to paint the partition and add seats and compartment floors and walls. I may also repaint the crimson on mine as I have decided that it is too ‘fire engine’ for my taste. Halfords no longer has the range that it had last time I bought, a dozen or so years ago, and I cannot find a decent cream. I do wonder about Mini ‘Pepper White’ or the Fiat equivalent... I will dig out the instructions tomorrow and pm you the roof sheet if you’d like. Paul

We had them in the Royal Yeomanry until 1993, as did the QOY. That’s 8 Squadrons, each of c15 wagons. Other uses were in (Regular) Mechanised Infantry Battalion recce platoons. They used to travel by train a fair amount in the 1980s, often inside 20’ ISO containers. They all went to Germany for the big NATO exercises then too, and down to places like Castlemartin and Lulworth for gunnery camps. I was in HQ Squadron so we had CVRT rather than the wheeled variety, as well as a quartet of Ferrets and a huge number of Bedfords for the regimental echelon. Foxes had a reputation as being easy to roll, but that is down to inexperienced drivers braking hard and then steering. That would make them roll, but otherwise, pretty stable. before the Yeomanry regiments has CVR(W) and (T), we had lots of Saladins and Saracens. The latter had very vulnerable brake pipes, as I discovered in Cyprus in 1986... Fortunately, nobody seemed to mind about the building too much! Paul

Yes, you’re right. It was very difficult to turn up the sides around the partitions, but that is the way described in the instructions. I do wonder, were I ever to build another, whether it would be better to build it like a Comet kit, cutting the sides from the floor, and adding brass right angle strip to strengthen the floor and give something to seat the sides against.

In the paintshop. First coat of Halford’s primer applied. The old tin had lost its propellant, and the replacement came this lunchtime.

That’s looking really good. I’m building one of these at the moment too. You are missing the small underframe etch. It mainly had truss bars etc on it. just a word of caution. I have gone for Bachmann plastic wheels, ex-Collett 3rds, as the metal wheels you have fitted tend to rub through the paint if you have tight curves, and then cause short circuits.

I have not heard that, even though one of our antecedent regiments has a very hard time in their Cromwells at Villers Bocage. This is after many trips to Normandy over the last 28 years, sadly with an ever diminishing contingent of Old Comrades. Different tanks for different jobs. With over 500HP of RR Meteor engine, the Cromwell had great speed, and thanks to its gearbox, was also very manoeuvrable too. Firepower was up there with a Sherman, with better accuracy on the move, and protection was roughly similar. The Cromwell was mainly there as a recce tank, but could engage the German Tigers and Panthers too, as was shown at Villers Bocage. What the Sherman has was reliability, with crew jobs taking roughly half as much time as on the Cromwells. Anyone who has spent what he had hoped would be his downtime track-bashing and vehicle servicing will appreciate this! That its replacement was the Comet, which had an improved (the best in the world at that time) gun - the 17pdr, but without significant changes to the shape of the armour, indicates a lack of concern about the protection side of the triangular principles of armour. (Firepower, protection and mobility.) Finally, the British Army rarely threatens disciplinary action. In over three decades of service I have never heard, “and that’s an order!” You have the chance to argue your case. It is listened to, or isn’t, and then you get on and do your job. That was true in the Peninsular, and has been ever since.

247 Developments brass buffers fitted and Airfix Siphon G bogies added with an M4 screw protruding down through the floor. I need to take the moulded collar off the bottom of the bogie stretchers, but an M4 nut and one washer gives a good ride height. The E82 is shown next to the last coach I started (in 2008...), a GWR C81 - Comet apart from Hammond sides. I may put the body on a Mainline Collett underframe and use the Comet chassis for a Sunshine Brake 3rd for which I have finished the body, but have no running gear.

Today has been busy with lots of things, but I have finished the soldering on the coach. The end steps are fitted, the lampirons are not. None of my other coaches have them. The step boards also went in nicely and I made up and fitted the Frogmore battery boxes. These had no instructions , but go together easily. Finally, I fitted the door vents. Some came off during the scrub, and needed refitting. Not so the mistakenly placed one, which defeated a 40W iron and refused to come off at all. Afterwards, lots of hot water and a toothbrush, followed by the last of our Viakal “Shiny Sinks”. Later in the week I shall look at bogies, fit a floor, mark out the roof and glue on the whitemetal and plastic parts before attempting to paint, glaze, fit an interior, and giving it a run!

I just folded the sides up using the end on an engineer’s square to put the fold in the right place, and the tumblehome sort of formed Itself against the partitions. I used garden wire and clothes pegs to get it all home and as straight as possible before soldering. It’s not going to win any prizes, but it was a fun way of hiding from the rain yesterday, and I’ll try to finish the soldering today. Steps and footboards to add, along with the lamp irons, grab handles and door vents.

Seeing a couple of these coaches pictured on RMWeb over the past few weeks reminded me that I bought this kit from Roger Slade at an exhibition in Southampton back in about 2008, and it has been sitting in a cupboard ever since. In fact, very few of my kit pile have been built since I became a father in 2009... It is the hardest coach kit I have ever built. I have been following the instructions, and am now concerned that it will be almost impossible to glaze, And pretty hard to paint. I have avoided fitting the guard’s projections as I didn’t want to fold up the body with big chunks missing. Not decided on the bogies yet. It has nice w/m Americans in the box, bu they may get swapped with the 9’ ones on an old Airfix Siphon G. Apologies in advance, but I don’t seem to be able to caption the pictures. I’ll try when it’s all uploaded.

I lived in Luxembourg from 1977-79, aged 11 & 12. The city had lots of great model shops, including one which had loads of Kitmaster kits (until my friend’s father bought the lot...) I became an expert on the old tram system, and knew where all the remains and grounded bodies were, and used to spend a lot of time at the depot in Merl where their preserved trams were kept. No local children seemed to want to bunk the shed, so my friend Peter Bennett and I spent a lot of time there, with official benevolent disinterest. I once drove a train to Wasserbillig - the driver has never been asked for a cab ride before! I also had fun exploring the industrial lines. There was a steeple cab electric loco, to my eyes identical to the Triang one, which lived in an almost-Airfix engine shed just before the main Villeroy & Boch works. I was lucky to know lots of enthusiastic people, including our neighbour who was in the British Embassy, and had a collection of Railway Modellers dating from c1959. Thanks for stirring my memories! Paul

Paul

Thanks Ade! Very good of you. All the best, Paul

A very fine Gunner officer’s sword. I used to be in the Gloucestershire Volunteer Artillery in Bristol from 1990-92, and we had some lovely and similar pieces in our armoury. if you come across any 1912 pattern cavalry officers’ swords, having just been commissioned after working my way from Tpr to WO1, do please let me know.

Metal coupling and connecting rods.

The very village. The rain is stopping us hearing the Voyagers and Freightliners going past today!

Oops! Duplicate post removed.

And hello from 600 yards from the site of the Great Western’s worst ever train crash! Paul

MTP is an incredibly effective camouflage. AFVs are quite hard to see out of, and are very noisy. High-visibility tabards are there for a reason. After all, loading wagons onto a wagon is not something you would be doing in a hot zone!

More on the Army website; with the latest update, Ludgershall gets a mention. https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/events/tractable/

More detail on the Army website: https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/events/tractable/

I think it’s to do with the full equipment rotation for Op CABRIT - NATO’s enhanced forward presence in Poland and the Baltics. I have seen some Facebook chat about this. The vehicles shown include RWMIK, Jackal and CVRT, which are all part of the ORBAT.