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Renovating Tanks

Is anyone watching the program on tank renovations at 18.00 on UK History? It's on Freeview BTW. Details here

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featured a company on the Isle of Wight rebuilding a British WW11 tank. We would all recognise their type of workshop. Dare I say, stuff everywhere and largely "use what you've got". Tuesday showed a US company rebuilding a Tiger tank. Their workshop was clean, tidy end very well equiped. Generally the sort of place we dream of. The brits lifted the turret off using a tank mounted crane in their collection. The yanks used their workshop gantry crane. The overall presentation is reminiscent of Salvage Squad but only featuring tanks. Well worth watching.

John

Reply to
John
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I saw them welding and grafting two tanks together. A 45 degree fillet in 1" thick metal to weld up with MIG -about 20 miles of MIG wire required and a patient welder!

Have you seen this site:

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I was thinking of buying a T34. They seem good value considering you could easily blow this sort of money on a Mondeo or similar! And the Modeo would be worth SFA in about 5 years time.....

Julian.

Reply to
Julian

I was deeply impressed in that one by the use of the turret ring as a jig to hold both halves together. And the monster rotating platform so you could rotate the tank. Welding, completely out of my league but I was interested in the use of very expensive stainless wire... Cor, the things I don't know and never suspected...

T34? I'd love one. Been in one once at some tank museum just before Cornwall. Can't remember the name of the place but I really enjoyed having a good poke around.

There was another museum I quite liked in Wales. Aircraft - again, I cant remember quite where, but it had a Vampire you could climb in and a Hunter outside.

I wish I could remember things....

So, where do I buy my T34? Anybody got any experience? I was told once that in the Soviet Army tanks were never scrapped, but just sent for storage in valleys... Along with brand new reserve taks (got to keep the workers busy making stuff) ... Guess if thats true there must be many square miles of tanks in the former USSR..

Reply to
Derek Lord Of Misrule!

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The museum you are thinking of is Caernarfon Airword, see:

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The models in the display cabinets were made by me.

Reply to
Richard H Huelin

see:

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The models in the display

Yup, Caernarfon was the place... Hey, those models were good. I'd ditched the wife for the afternoon and spent five happy hours there with my son. Could have spent longer.

He'd just been forced (by evil me) to read The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth, and finding a Vampire to clamber into and feel felt like a special gift from God..

The tank museuem I found in Dorset was not Bovington, but some privately owned enterprise....

Reply to
Derek Lord Of Misrule!

John,

This series has been shown before, although interesting to watch again.

Reply to
campingstoveman

An excellent book. One of those cases where a 'slim volume' tells a story perfectly. A book which won't be sent to the charity shop.

Several years back a flight of three Vampires stayed for a few days at Eastleigh (Southampton) Airport. I assume they were a display team, possibly working along the coast during the display season. All sorts of things drop into Eastleigh at times, en route to elsewhere. The local papers reported that they'd received several 'warnings' for low flying over the surrounding area.

I had only ever seen them in books or museums, so being summoned outdoors by that eerie whistling noise and seeing three of them in formation was fascinating. They were definitely low, and it's no exaggeration to say they were 'being flown with enthusiasm'. If only I'd had the camera I have now...

Gyppo

Reply to
J D Craggs

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