"Bits" Crossley Crash Tender

[Heather Kavanagh]

I hope this one can sneak in under the radar! While it isn't actually an Airfix kit, it contains about 90 per cent Airfix parts...

 

For many years Airfix produced 1/76 scale sets of wartime airfield vehicles. As a railway modeller, many were used as the basis of other models, and a lot of spare parts remain in my Bits Box. The Emergency Set was always popular, with the Austin K2 ambulance and K6 crash tender, although neither really were suitable for airfield use, with the fire engine being a post-war type. For a long time, I've wanted an authentic crash tender for "set dressing", and managed to buy a cast metal kit for the Crossley FWD type. A bit further back, I also bought a resin and metal kit of a Crossley 6x4 workshop/breakdown truck. Crossley, along with Albion and Morris, were big favourites of the Royal Air Force.

 

Spool forward, and having built the FWD and been left with some useful spare parts, such as pump details which are hard to scratchbuild, I wondered if the breakdown truck might be a willing volunteer to be re-engineered into the late 1930s Crossley FE1.

 

/media/tinymce_upload/15e23c9509399754258836ee0f8a4611.jpg

 

Turns out, it could! The bonnet, front wings, and wheels were carefully salvaged. Austin K6 fire engine parts, including the chassis and running gear, seats, water tank and CO2 cylinders, were retrieved from the Bits Box. The spare castings from the FWD build were the hose and pump details, and various bits of brass wire and styrene sheet and strip were thrown into the mix.

 

/media/tinymce_upload/b297fa6c1330507019a32a76cd19bd90.jpg

 

It's not totally accurate. It's a bit out of proportion in places. It does look like a Crossley FE1, though, and that's good enough for me until someone comes up with a proper kit.

 

/media/tinymce_upload/49bb101d720af4be443c65158a05ee07.jpg

 

I need to add an aero-style windscreen, and I've adapted a couple of Airfix emergency set figures to act as standby crew. I may show them later when they've been painted. All in all, I have quite enjoyed bodging about with various parts to make a passable resemblance to a common RAF airfield crash tender, and I hope you like it too!

[John Symmons]

Him Heather

Now that looks like an interesting model, thanks for showing what can be done with the Airfix bitza-box. You must be amassing quite a few airfield vehicles. waiting to see them all displayed on your airfiels diorama with maybe the Hamden and Wellington or Blenheim.

 

Remember we do tjhis for fun                                         John the Pom

[Tomek22]

@Heather: this looks very good! What about the color sheme? I always thought RAF vehicles must be in RAF blue.

I am looking forward to see it in "action" with some planes. 😀

[Heather Kavanagh]

You must be amassing quite a few airfield vehicles. waiting to see them all displayed on your airfiels diorama with maybe the Hamden and Wellington or Blenheim.

Yes, the MT section is growing a bit. I've a couple non-Airfix kits to build and finish, then I reckon a photo session might be in order. 

 

 

[Heather Kavanagh]

@Heather: this looks very good! What about the color sheme? I always thought RAF vehicles must be in RAF blue.

I am looking forward to see it in "action" with some planes. 😀

Thanks! 

 

Up until the "Munich Crisis" in 1938, all RAF vehicles were painted in the RAF blue. The blue did continue until September 1939, usually applied at the factory. To make vehicles used on an airfield less conspicuous from the air, many vehicles were generally painted a dark matt green. I understand it was the same shade applied to Army vehicles at the time, though I've tended to adopt the aircraft camo colours as they would have been available to the airfield maintenance units at the time. Vehicles new from factories were delivered in dark green during 1940, later dark green and dark earth. I've always assumed the camo colours were applied in the field rather hurriedly over the blue on vehicles already in use, so on some models I've made the finish look a bit rough and ready.

 

RAF vehicles that went to France in support of the British Expeditionary Force air component were camouflaged in dark green and dark earth in the same way Army vehicles were. Home-based units eventually followed suit, and in 1941, an overall dark earth with black "Mickey Mouse" pattern, again matching Army vehicles, was adopted for all RAF vehicles. Blue didn't really make an appearance again until 1946 or so.

 

So, in 1940, according to my reading, the colours of airfield support vehicles could be quite a variety. It's a fascinating area to study, and all feeds into my desire to produce models that accurately represent the way things were at the time. One area that eludes me at present is what markings were used on vehicles. It seems that until the end of 1940, most vehicles were registered with civilian number plates under Middlesex County Council, and most were only identified with the letters "RAF" on cab doors. It was only later that military registrations were used, along with red, white and blue roundels, and the various group and squadron markings that are found in some kits.

[Heather Kavanagh]

Just to round things up, here's the crew. The driver is a cast metal figure that came with one of the other vehicle kits. The chap in the asbestos suit started out as one of the Emergency Set figures. I chopped the helmet off, which is now on the ground, and grafted a head from another figure on the shoulders. I understand one member of the standby crash team was always dressed in the suit while on duty. On the running board sits another Emergency Set figure, who originally was wielding a fire extinguisher, while the chap at the back comes from the figures in the Refuelling Set.

 

/media/tinymce_upload/4679d391d8cbe232b4ae39696f29174d.jpg

/media/tinymce_upload/cd297e18bffc242de908e54f3b3d029b.jpg

[Ratch]

 Nice work Heather. Until I saw this version I thought Crossley Fire Tenders all were of the flat-front ones like that at Cosford. Good to see another conversion possibility 😎

[Heather Kavanagh]

Thanks Ratch!

 

If you dig around on the Museum of RAF Firefighting web site you come across a Crossley IGL 6x4 tender with a streamlined body. Now, that would make an impression!

[Ratch]

 Yes I did that on Googleimage

[Braille Dave]

Hi Heather, 

Interested, in what you're saying about RAF vehicle colours and markings: 

From what I researched it is a little less clearcut than you think. Basically, the colour history goes something like this:

1918 to 1920- Service Brown- Same colour as army vehicles- Think a browner version of Khaki-Green No3 (the base colour the army started WW2 with, which was a mucky greeny-brown) 'RAF' painted in white on the body of large vehicles, and on the cab of smaller vehicles (i.e. Below 3t). Registrations were standard WDnnn ones.

 

1920 to 1933- Dk Brunswick Green- same colour as army, 'RAF could be painted in white on the body, OR 9" aluminium letters (something else for the drivers to polish!) screwed to the cab side. Registrations- Displayed registrations initially were civilian (and, initially, allocated from the local council that the station was in, but eventually allocated from Middlesex CC in the Jxx nnn series).

 

1933 to 1939- RAF Blue-Grey (precisely BS381, tint 633), with letters as above. Vehicles purchased after 1936, were allocated 'RAFnnnnnn' census numbers but were to display their allocated Middlesex CC registrations only. From August 1939 new RAF vehicles weren't allocated civilian registrations.

On mobilisation, units & stations were to enact the instructions in their war book- from what I've gleaned (Retired RAF Station Clerk at my local RAFA), the section on camouflage was detailed and comprehensive, going so far as to include the Nobels colour chart. Registration-wise vehicles were only to display their issued number- this allowed some stations to leave the civilian registrations on, others changed to the RAF census number and some units, notably those who deployed to France, removed all registrations.

There is even photographic evidence of a Fordson E917T Crane, still with it's Middlesex CC registration, on an airfield in Holland in late 1944!

In fact, the only time registrations were properly changed was in 1949, when all vehicles still on strength were allocated nnAxnn census numbers, replacing all other marks, including a Crossley IGL and an Albion AM463 ambulance!

Camouflage-wise After 1941, the RAF followed the army closely, usually issuing AMOs about two weeks after the relevent army council instruction.

 

Seems nice and simple? However... What screws that all up, is various parsiminous instructions over time to the effect that vehicles were only to be repainted when required, or on mobilisation. In fact, a number of squadrons and at least two stations enacted their war book at the time of the Munich Crisis (1938) and Balloon Command mobilised on 24 August 1939. Even then, only operational stations and mobile units would be expected to camouflage their vehicles immediately, non-operational and other units would repaint as soon as possible. So it is possible that some vehicles were in B/G as late as January 1940, but they wouldn't have been on operational stations, or with Fighter Command units. AOC's cars were generally exempt from the instructions but were usually black anyway.

And...Just to really muck it up- Some (only some) contracts were changed to deliver new vehicles in Nobels Khaki-Green No3, rather than B/G, in 1938! Most notably those placed with Fordson (The RAF's most numerous pre-war make).

There is even a picture of a Bedford KC 30cwt truck still in gloss B/G, with 'RAF' on the cab, but with a matt disruptive pattern in another colour- haven't quite worked what colour, but I suspect KG3.

Another thing that my retired Station Clerk friend (unfortunately recently gathered to god) told me- from about 1937 Station MT Stores actually held quantities of the approved Nobels paints, for issue to units in the event of...

So while I can't say the repainting of vehicles, using aircraft dopes didn't occur, I certainly don't think it was as extensive as some pundits would have us believe. In fact, I think the RAF were more prepared than is commonly thought. There was one circumstance where aircraft dope was definitely used though- vehicle canopies and canvas covers- there is an AMO that authorises the use of Dk Earth and Trainer Yellow (even in the depths of war, vehicles used on any aerodrome were meant to have yellow panels for visibility- or brightly coloured indicator shapes) for vehicle canvases.

None of this should detract from your nice Crossley FE1- I've done one too- there's something about Crossley's isn't there.

 

 

 

 

[Heather Kavanagh]

Dave, that is superb information. Thank you for that. I'll snaffle it away into my reference material.  😉

 

I realise there were officially issued colours, and as you say the RAF was probably way more organised about things than is often given credit. Interesting about the visibility mark colour. I've not found that mentioned anywhere before, and would rather make something of a mockery of trying to camouflage a vehicle!

 

What I have done for my modelmaking was to use the plane camo colours, essentially as they're what I have in stock. I know they're not strictly speaking correct, but I take the view that as long as I am consistent in their use across all the models, they'll do the job. An expert would notice, but most people wouldn't.

[Kenneth ONeill]

I'm a touch dubious about Dave's source because I have several relatives and other family friends who worked for Nobel's, and they all worked with explosives, mostly in line commissioning and manufacture.

[Braille Dave]

Nobel's also manufactured paint- just the same as ICI (parent company at one time for Dulux). A number of paint references use the manufacturer as part of the descriptor too e.g. "Nobels Khaki-Green No3", or "Nobels Dark Tarmac No4"

 

You might also want to reference Mike Starmer who discusses this in his book 'British Army Colours & Disruptive Camouflage in the United Kingdom, France & NW Europe 1936-45"

I quote:

"...Some early documents refer by name and number to a small number of colours that were selected from a Nobels Company paint chart, the colours from which..." (Pg2, Introduction)

 

In fact Nobels still exist (albeit in name only) as a paint manufacturer; Akzo-Nobel, who own a number of well-known paint brands, including Dulux.