Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

Sanding back the layers of paint on this case has revealed the most complex set of stencil markings I have ever encountered on a piece of Canadian Army equipment from the World War Two era, either vehicular or signals equipment related.

The attached five photos highlight the major finds as I worked my way down through the paint with both power and hand sanders and damp cloths.

Starting from the factory to most current:

On the factory Flat Olive Drab paint is the 1/2-inch stencil in six lines starting one inch below the lip of the case and centre justified. Lead line is the CMC part number for the case and the second line is the CMC version of the ZA/CAN Number.

On NATO Green, a 1/2-inch stencil in six lines starting 1/2-inch below the lip of the case and left justified 2 inches inside of the left hand latch assembly. Here, the CMC ZA/CAN Number has been replaced with the actual VAOS Number for this case.

On NATO Green, a 3/4-inch stencil in six lines starting 1/2-inch below the lip of the case and left justified 2 inches inside of the left hand latch assembly. This stencil also uses the actual VAOS assigned number for the case.

On NATO Green, a 3/4-inch stencil in six lines starting 2 inches below the lip of the case and left justified 2 inches inside of the left hand latch assembly. Again, the actual VAOS Number was used.

On NATO Green, a 3/4-inch stencil in five lines starting 2 inches below the lip and left justified 2 inches inside of the left hand latch assembly. The actual VAOS Number was used but the CMC Part Number was deleted.

On the tan/yellow layer of paint, the final black stencil using the NATO Stock Number data as shown in the photo in Post# 1030.


In addition to all of this, a free floating 1/2-inch stencil of just the actual VAOS ZA/CAN Number was found on either side of the front of the case, centred below each latch assembly, 3.5 inches below the lip. I could not match these up with any other surviving stencil lines on the front of the case, but they were both on a NATO Green background paint, and appeared to have been a one time only application.

What is interesting is the use once again of 3/4-inch stencils. They were also found on one of the two Spare Parts Cases I restored earlier this year; the one that also had traces of tan/yellow applied to the front.


David

[David Dunlop]

After sanding down the paint and checking for the history of stencil markings on this case, the holes, chips and cracks were filled in and it is now curing for 24 hours prior to a final gentle sanding.


David

[David Dunlop]

Final sanding of all the fill work has been completed, straightening of any of the corner guards needing it done and all the corner guards reinstalled.

The case is now ready for priming of all the metal hardware.



David

[David Dunlop]

The metal hardware on the case has now been primed.

If the household chores go according to plan this coming weekend, I should be able to get the finish coat of Flat Olive Drab applied.


David

[David Dunlop]

I was able to get the first coat of Flat Olive Drab paint on the case this afternoon. With luck, I will be able to apply the second coat tomorrow, along with the touch up of the paint in the hard to get at parts of the metal hardware.


David

[David Dunlop]

A second finish coat of Flat Olive Drab has now been applied and a major hardware touchup completed. The case will now sit for two weeks for the paint to hard cure and I can then start work on applying the stencil to the front panel.

Easy enough to carefully handle the case at this point, but the paint definitely has a soft feel to it.


David

[David Dunlop]

I managed to get the stencil done on the front of this case this afternoon. This was the largest of the ID stencils for the 52-Set boxes/cases, at six lines of text and that meant more surface area to get the paper cement applied to as quickly as possible, before the cement started to set up. The oil board stencil also had a bit of a curve to it towards the bottom right, so I went into this expecting a lot of paint bleed under unsecured portions. Turned out to be the best of the four stencils I have done. No bad bleeds at all and just four clean but fat characters to give a slight touchup to on Thursday.


David