Chieftain Stuff

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Hi Mark,

What date range would you suggest then as suitable please.

Hi All,

Salt bottle and inner done. Can anyone confirm if it was 10 full tins and less half tins to allow for the salt bottle, Tea packet, Biscuit packs etc?

Cheers

Dave

[Dave Nadin]

Compo 4 man packs, box continents, working from memory, pending on the menu I think it was 4 half sizes tins, Margarine, Jam/ Marmalade, Cheese possessed, Milk powder, 1 Sunders packet, salt bottle. Not sure if the Biscuits AB were issued separately. The box was packed with the centre 2 top half of pockets containing your sundries, salt, tea/coffee. The date marks on the boxes was the date batch code when packed, with a shelve life up to 5years. Most box rations would go to Mobilisation stock first, before being rotated through the RAOC system to units training stocks.
My 1st choice was Chicken supreme & Mock turtle soup, never recovered from it, lol

[Adrian Harris]

Not sure I like the sound of possessed cheese

Adrian.

[Phil Woollard]

Lol, the cheese was surprisingly good, very tangy but turned your cheeks inside out and gave me nightmares!

[Mark Heaps]

For the 4-man box -
Four half-size tins for the items he stated, plus in some 1 for the Oatmeal blocks ( 5 of them in a tin so there was always a rota in place for it )
I seem to recall 10 full-size tins with the other items being packed as Dave Nadin posted.

Biscuits AB were issued seperately if required but normally you got fresh, well 3 or 4 days old NAAFI bread, and eggs.

I was informed by various tank crews during my time that the charge bins had perfect conditions for storing the loaves of bread. And that if they had gone directly from a training phase to a gunnery phase, the IA drill on a main armament mis-fire was for the loader to quickly count the number of projectiles, number of bag charges and number of loaves of bread.

Not everybody liked the Cheese possessed so a lot got binned. I briefed the crews that I was supporting not to bin it but to give it to me. I still have three tins for emergency purposes if the corona lock-down really hits hard.
Mark

[Mark Heaps]

And to answer the question from Dave Dibb, I would suggest he offers a laser cut plastic stencil so people can either opt not to buy it and stow the boxes so the menu and date code cannot be seen, or purchase it so they can mark their boxes with dates suitable for the time-frame their model depicts and their preferred menu.

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Hi All,

Thanks all for the answers.The way I have done the artwork it would not be that much effort to do different dates before printing. I've done a sheet with 3 on it and if this suits would print as is, if not I could always do it with specific customer dates and menu options for the 3. I'll see if I can knock up the ancillaries packet tomorrow then cast the tins and bits. No reason then we can't start putting these out..............so long as Viking deliver the new print cartridges

Best regards

Dave

[Stephen White]

All good Dave. I think someone was asking about labels. The cans came with the contents stencilled on the lids. That might be one challenge too many? I have an idea that some of the cans of Pichards were commercial cans with red labels. Of course, as a Scottish regiment, the Fourth knew all about pilchards so it was not easy to lay your hands on a can. The marrieds used to pochel them for the 'wee wifey".

[Mark Heaps]

For those that never experienced compo or the 4-man pack variant of it,
The salt bottle was a pale blue colour.
The tins were a shiny dark bronze colour, holding a tin up to the monitor gives #8f7143 Hex Color Code as a good match. Apply a gloss varnish over the top of it.
The sundries pack was a clear plastic bag containing white sachets ( coffee, tea powder and sugar ) and a brown "envelope" which held the sheets of toilet paper. In my experience, the married guys on vehicle crews would usually supply normal rolls of toilet paper ( AKA comfy bum ) prior to the exercise and would take the compo stuff back home for their kids to use as tracing paper.

Mark

[John Clarke]

I really like these, but would the packs have been broken down to fit in the Chieftain stowage bins?

Will the boxes fit in the models bins?

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Hi John,

No idea, but got asked for them and liked the idea

Cheers

Dave

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Thanks Mark. Not sure the clear bag will work in resin , May have to be a solid filler under the Brown paper packet.

Best regards

Dave

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Also just realised I need to drop the 0 off the front of the packing date month...........................................

Cheers

Dave

[Mark Heaps]

I really like these, but would the packs have been broken down to fit in the Chieftain stowage bins?

Will the boxes fit in the models bins?

I do not think the ration pack would have fitted in any of the Chieftain stowage bins or the stowage bins on any other armoured vehicle. Standard drills on any re-plen were to quickly break down the ration packs, stow away what you were going to keep and immediately ditch what would never be used. An un-opened box in a turret cage or wedged so it could not fall off the tank would be correct. An opened box, with BV on the turret roof would depict a vehicle in a rest area.
I believe the tank crews wedged the ration boxes to stop them falling off the turret or dropped them down through the loaders hatch . Their priority was fuel and ammo.

Mark

[John Clarke]

Cheers Mark H,
Got the BV, looking forward to when the packs become available.