Hey Tony V, long time no see. Yeah, RAN makes sense. Battleships were grey, why wouldn't their vehicles be!. If I didn't have a particular long-term plan, I would do the truck as RAN vehicle, and not bother with the effort involved in changing color. I'm not looking forward to painting it, to be honest, and it will remain grey for quite a while yet.
Although it has absolutely nothing to do with a light grey CMP that has been modified in many ways, I have put my Sons service number on both sides of the cab nose panel. Sometime soon, I should receive vinyl decals, 3" or 4" high (can't remember which I ordered now), that say A.E.M.E. That being, Australian Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, which was the WWII forbear of current RAEME. That is the Corps my Son is with. I know of no Australian Army unit that used grey vehicles, so it's bound to raise eyebrows of the purists, but my desire to demonstrate my respect and honour for a family member overrides my gyro have accurate appearances. I can live with that.......for now. Having then applied the 'stickers', I'll no doubt want to get my moneys worth out of em before I scrape them all off. I'm part Scottish you know!
The irony is this, I haven't been able to progress with the other truck through summer because the workshop was just too hot, so anything I achieved was done outside, and now a quick paintjob could be a stop gap until later 'good' job, but it's getting too cold to do so out in the open. It would need to be done in the workshop, which is full of big chunks of the green truck. Catch 22, I'm afraid.
All I achieved this past summer was some work on a low tech replica of an artillery piece I am making, just so I have something to drag behind the green truck (or possibly, second truck once green). I don't think anyone here will have heard much about this project. I have been acquiring all the flashy looking bits I wanted to use, but which I simply couldn't make. Still need a lot more though. Most are correct for a 25pdr, but some are just close resemblence and look the part......roughly speaking. The humorous thing is that once completed all of the fancy bits I've been buying will be hidden beneath a canvas cover. After all, it will only be a vague copy. See photos below, including a wooden muzzle brake copy that a Korean War veteran made on a lathe for me, and the canvas cover I had made for it. Barrel is an old lamp post. Breech I made from scrap. Axle is tube steel with Land Rover stubs welded on ends, and wheels are L.R as well. Trails are to be plated with steel sheet on both sides, similar to 25pdr. I forget how many wooden domed top plugs I worked out I would need, to replicate rivets, but have that written down somewhere. It's a folly, I know.
More phtos to follow soon.
P.S: We arrived home from our trip to Albury, at around 1700hrs. Back to work tomorrow, and not looking forward to early rising for it.