military vehicles in Northern Ireland

[fv1620]

Postwar British AFVs should be painted in Dark Admiralty Grey primer. The finish for this Pig was Light Admiralty Grey. This was the colour that I found inside the vehicle & is a very close match. I know that the 10 Humbers used by the RUC were painted this colour in 1962. This was to match the fleet of Commer armoured cars.



According to the records in 1963 the colour was changed to "olive drab". Now I don't know if this was genuinely olive drab or some clerks word for an army green. I have it documented that in 1969 they were definitely painted in a Rustoleum Green. It has been impossible to find what shades of Rustoleum were around in the 1960s.

Colour pictures I have vary with the degree of sunlight, its angle & the degree of wetness, let alone the individualities of the printers.

So the colour it was in this season gone was only a provisional green but a colour chosen to be quite diffrent from a colour used by the British Army. Besides it was very cheap & I had a lot of it.

Unfortunately the pig suffered a major rebuilt when it was taken over by the Army in 1970. So matching the original green has been a problem. However I have been able to cleanly lift a 4 inch patch of paint off an ex-RUC Shorland. This reveals the proper paint to be a satin, in a dark almost Brunswick Green.

I have large quantities of gloss Brunswick Green & intend to blend it to the correct colour. The problem is to get it to a satin finish. I have been told that adding French chalk, talcum powder etc will do this. But nobody that offered this advice has done it. So I don't know the quatities needed nor know how it will effect the strength of the paint etc.

The reason for moving on from grey was that I got somewhat depressed that the vehicle was largely ignored at MV shows. Because it was not green it was not in general taken seriously. I remember I was at a show next to a standard Mk2 Army pig. Visitors ignored the display information by my vehicle & were looking all over the green one & said "wow this is a Belfast one". Well mine has the registration still on it 2996 OI which means it was registered in Belfast in 1958.

[FV1611A]

Originally Posted by fv1620

Postwar British AFVs should be painted in Dark Admiralty Grey primer. The finish for this Pig was Light Admiralty Grey. This was the colour that I found inside the vehicle & is a very close match. I know that the 10 Humbers used by the RUC were painted this colour in 1962. This was to match the fleet of Commer armoured cars.



According to the records in 1963 the colour was changed to "olive drab". Now I don't know if this was genuinely olive drab or some clerks word for an army green. I have it documented that in 1969 they were definitely painted in a Rustoleum Green. It has been impossible to find what shades of Rustoleum were around in the 1960s.

Colour pictures I have vary with the degree of sunlight, its angle & the degree of wetness, let alone the individualities of the printers.

So the colour it was in this season gone was only a provisional green but a colour chosen to be quite diffrent from a colour used by the British Army. Besides it was very cheap & I had a lot of it.

Unfortunately the pig suffered a major rebuilt when it was taken over by the Army in 1970. So matching the original green has been a problem. However I have been able to cleanly lift a 4 inch patch of paint off an ex-RUC Shorland. This reveals the proper paint to be a satin, in a dark almost Brunswick Green.

I have large quantities of gloss Brunswick Green & intend to blend it to the correct colour. The problem is to get it to a satin finish. I have been told that adding French chalk, talcum powder etc will do this. But nobody that offered this advice has done it. So I don't know the quatities needed nor know how it will effect the strength of the paint etc.

The reason for moving on from grey was that I got somewhat depressed that the vehicle was largely ignored at MV shows. Because it was not green it was not in general taken seriously. I remember I was at a show next to a standard Mk2 Army pig. Visitors ignored the display information by my vehicle & were looking all over the green one & said "wow this is a Belfast one". Well mine has the registration still on it 2996 OI which means it was registered in Belfast in 1958.

I quite prefer the original grey as it looks more imposing!

[chrisgrove]

Nice to see a pic of two types of barrier removers. The mesh covers over the driver's hatches also varied a great deal (quite apart from the different shades of paint favoured by the opposition), If I can work out how to post pics, I'll try and show you what I mean. How about a Pig hit by a 3.5 RL (at about the third attempt)?

Chris

By the way, most of the Mk IIs I saw had a fold up hatch above the cut down rear doors, but I never saw transverse seats inside.

[chrisgrove]

First pig shows the roof of a Mk II, tastefully decorated.

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...e/Pig-01-1.jpg

Second pig shows rear observation hatch on Pig Mk II, even more tastefully decorated.

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...ove/Pig-02.jpg

Third pig shows another pattern of mesh screens.

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...ove/Pig-03.jpg

Fourth pig shows one hit by 3.5 RL.

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...ounded-pig.jpg

Chris

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Interesting Chris,
obviously some of the population hated the Pigs with a vengance. What did the crew think?
Rich.

[fv1620]

Chris those are interesting pictures thank you. I've never seen that particular grandious arrangement of mesh before.

Do you have a date? I would assume between 1972 (earliest Mk 2) & 1977 when wing mirrors were then moved to the front of the wings. I know there are no mirrors but there is one just visible on the O/S of the far Pig & that is halfway along the engine cover. The original place for a Mk 2.

The other very 70s thing is the aluminium painted wood on the O/S optically balancing the ERM plate on the N/S.

[chrisgrove]

Clive

Now you've got me. I have no certain reference about the date of those pics, but I reckon they must have been first half 1977; possibly second half 1976, but not desperately wintry that I remember. All my pics show Mk II Pigs with mirrors mounted halfway down the bonnet. And they were in Andersonstown in West Belfast.

Incidentally, there are various colour discussions here. When I first went to Belfast in Sep 70 to join the resident battalion at Palace Barracks Holywood, we had Mk I pigs which were painted in gloss deep bronze green and matt brown. Unfortunately my pics from this time are in black and white and do not show this well.

Rich

The local population were not too keen on us! However, my only personal experience was being in a Landrover hit by a brick in the Bogside a few years earlier. I can certainly tell you that if you wish to take no notice of sleeping policemen (speed humps), a pig is the thing to do it in. You simply do not notice them.

Chris