From: Think Tank Subject: Think Tank Vol.0088 29/08/2001 Think.tank@tesco.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS' INDEX 1: 6-tonners and colours 2: HP Models 3: French armoured cars in Syria 1941 4: Sdkfz 222 armoured cars in RAF Regiment service 5: Small scale figures 6: Scribing circles 7: Vickers 6-ton tanks 8: Use of Rheinmetall 3.7cm Pak 35/36 by Dutch army 9: Falklands AFVs again -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: Mike Cooper [coopmik1@hotmail.com] Subject: 6-tonners and colours Dear All Gosh, what a great lot of postings! OK... 6-Tonner in UK service - only photos I've seen show a plain dark tone which I assume to be Khaki Green G3. The one I've seen has some training unit marking and I think an "enemy" exercise marking. RAM OPs - go with Rob and SCC15, as Sexton units seem to have overpainted their brown bits on MTP46 schemes. Now... until the MAFVA site gets them up, would anyone like a copy of the Starmer-Cooper WW2 British colours notes? Mail me off list.... Mike Cooper -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: john.baumann@talk21.com Subject: HP Models New: HP Models in 1/72 Scale German Soft-skins HP-Models (Harald Popcke, Caspar-Baur-Str. 34, 46483 Wesel) was recently at a UK Show where I picked up a catalogue listing. The following kits are, or will be available: Henschel LKW Type 33D GS & Box Mercedes Benz LG3000 Kfz 384 Bowser Opel Blitz Kfz 385 Bowser Hanomag RL20 Tractor Hanomag R40 Tractor Hanomag SS100 LN Tractor Regards, John Baumann -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: cdward [cdward@supanet.com] Subject: French armoured cars in Syria 1941 These were the Dodge armoured lorries often pictured in Free French hands in the Western Desert. "De Tobruk a Bir Hakeim" by Yves Buffetaut says (in French) that they were built in Syria designed by a Captain Bich. There were apparently 20 to 30 vehicles built. I have seen at least one picture of a vehicle KO'd in Syria. There was also a preserved example pictured in Syria in a copy of Wheels and Tracks a couple of years ago. Will Ward -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: Richard Marks [richard@marks28.freeserve.co.uk] Subject: Sdkfz 222 armoured cars in RAF Regiment service Can anybody help me please! I remember seeing either a good photograph or a colour plate (of Vanguard style) of an Sdkfz 222 armoured car captured in the desert and being used by the RAF Regiment. I remember that the vehicle had a large RAF roundel on the bonnet, and I think a Bren in the turret, however I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it. Can anyone shed light on which book it is in ? Thanks Richard P.S. If anyone is in the vicinity of the Hexagon in Reading whilst the Colours Wargames show is on, do swing by the choir gallery where we (Mike Cooper, myself and the other guys from the Berkshire Scale Replicas club) are putting on a display in the choir gallery. This year our themes are: The first tanks, Barbarossa, and Korea. Do come and say hi (We don't bite during the hours of daylight ;-). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: Richard Marks [richard@marks28.freeserve.co.uk] Subject: Small scale figures Just having a sort out of my e-mail files, and I came across the posting re small scale figures and the mention of Preiser figures. Preiser figures are available in the UK from Gaugemaster, in Arundel (Tel 01903 884488). or www.gaugemaster.com I find Dapol OO scale railway figures are useful too. They come in a bag of about 20-30 figures for a few pounds, and are hard plastic so can be converted. Richard -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: shanger [shanger@supanet.com] Subject: Scribing circles Like many respondents, I scribe my plastic card discs using dividers. I have not got much to add to the advice already proffered, except one tip for use when producing a number of discs of the same diameter (e.g. roadwheels). At the outset, lightly scribe a 'master' or control diameter onto the plastic card. Run a felt pen around the scribed line and wipe the excess ink away with a finger (preferably one of your own) to leave a neatly-inked circle. When scribing out successive discs, reset your dividers to the correct diameter by reference to this scribed line, not your ruler. If you are accurate, you should be able to scrape out some of the ink from the line - this gives you confidence that you are 'on diameter'. From Andy Lang (shanger@Supanet.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From: shanger [shanger@supanet.com] Subject: Vickers 6-ton tanks I note that this thread has grown in scope to include Thai 6-ton tanks. Rather bizarrely, there is a website about Thai armour of the 1930-41 period by a D P O'Hara (try going through www.netcomuk.co.uk/dpohara/siam or searching on Siam+AFVs). It seems the Thais did use their 6-ton tanks in the short war with the French in 1940-41 (but try explaining that to a competition judge at the MAFVA Nationals....). From Andy Lang (shanger@Supanet.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From: shanger [shanger@supanet.com] Subject: Use of Rheinmetall 3.7cm Pak 35/36 by Dutch army I recently bought Barry Walby's very nice 37mm Pak gun & have been looking for a 'different' user to the Wehrmacht. I read in a old reference (WW2 Fact Files - Anti-tank weapons, by Chamberlain/Gander) that a number were supplied to the Dutch army before WW2. Other books in my library suggest that the Dutch used 47mm guns. Can anyone confirm (or otherwise) whether or not the Dutch did use the 37mm Rheinmetall gun? If so, was it the same configuration as the Wehrmacht gun? What colour would they have been painted? Answers on a postcard.... From Andy Lang (shanger@Supanet.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) From: Listmaster Subject: Falklands AFVs again While digging through boxes of photographs in the Royal Marines Museum in Portsmouth last week, in search of more CVR(T) photographs, I encountered some interesting material on other AFVs which I had not seen (or at least not consciously seen) before. Several showed a Combat Engineer Tractor (probably 23FD51 or 61), which evidently got as far as Stanley, while at least one Centurion BARV carried an elaborately-painted scheme involving red-brown and black stripes over the NATO green base. It also seems that one of the CVR(T) troop commandeers wore a helicopter bone dome in lieu of the AFV type for at least part of the campaign. Can any of you who are knowledgeable about such matters confirm that the radio connections are the same? I have shown the picture to an AAC pilot and he confirmed that the helmet looks like an aircrew type. It hardly seems likely that he would proff something that would not work in an operational setting just to look more cool than his colleagues but are there significant advantages to the aircrew version? Also, there are two prominent loops on the top edge of the front hull deck panel, forward of the engine grilles and the driver's hatch. They are shaped like the periscope guards on a Jagdpanzer 38 but are non-metallic. Anyone confirm their purpose? My guess is for use when lifting and replacing the deck panel. Finally (for now) is there a standard structure to the composition of a CVR(T) troop? For example, if 3 Tp. of B Sqn. has four vehicles with callsigns 23, 23A, 23B and 23C, is it officially decreed which two callsigns will be Scorpions and which will be Scimitars or is it down to the units to decide? The RM Museum also has an ex-Iraqi (but in Russian green) ZU-23 twin AA gun outside, so if you ever stopped working on the kit of it because you lacked some details, it may be worth a visit. Robert -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Lockie (Think Tank Listmaster) Back issues of Think Tank (thanks to Shane Jenkins) can be found at: http://www.tac.com.au/~sljenkins/thinktank/thinktank.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume