I have been trying to come up with how to finish/paint my Armored car. Of course, the Arabian Desert cars are appealing. So are the RNAS cars and the Namibia service schemes.
But I have a love affair with Dazzle Camo. And just came across this picture from Arras in November 1917. And some cool modifications such as a commanders Cupola.
I don't think we've started a thread of original pictures... so if anyone has some other cool pictures of armored (er... armoured) cars to post... Let's see ideas!
There are, obviously, no original pictures of WW1 vehicles in colour. I've always assumed that the RR armoured cars pictured at Arras in 1917 are in the Solomon camouflage used on the Mark I tanks in September 1916, which would have been patches of green, rust brown and desert sand, with each patch delineated by a thin black line. That would certainly be eye-catching !
I've had a trawl through my collection which (unsurprisingly) is largely focussed on tanks. I do have a small section, though, on armoured cars. The Rolls Royce is a small sub-section and, of that, the 1914 Admiralty Pattern is the smallest of the lot ! Here's the two I have:
an original postcard - but it's not going to get far on a flat like that
This is from a set of six watercolour postcards issued in 1989. The description, written by David Fletcher (who was the Curator at Bovington back then), says:
Colour and markings
In Royal Navy service these cars were painted battleship grey or khaki green with the initials of the Royal Naval Air Service in white or red on the sides. 8-C-2 was the second car of C Section in No. 8 Squadron and, for parade purposes, often flew the White Ensign on the turret.
Hope this helps,
Chris
Mark IV (Liesel, Abteilung 14, France 1918)
M3 Lee (25 Dragoons, Burma 1944)
Universal Carrier (2/Wiltshires, Italy 1944)
Panther (Deserter, 145 RAC, Italy 1944)
Centurion Mk 3 (8KRIH, Korea 1950/51)
Morris Quad, 25-pdr & limber (45RA, Korea 1951)
That one has the armored Vickers and the splash plate.
Amazing how many pictures are out there of the cars. They were quite photogenic... and enough of a novelty I suppose that they got photographed a lot.
Thanks for posting. I will go through my archives at some point and post a ton of pictures.
To put in a plug for a friend, James Stejskal's new book "Masters of Mayhem: The British Military Mission to the Hejaz" about the campaigns in WW1 Arab Revolt and the men (including T.E. Lawrence who ran it) is now shipping. It has a ton of unpublished pictures of armoured cars from the Gilman collection and is a fascinating book about the origins of Combined Operations.
I can post a link if it does not violate the board protocols.
Jim will be at the T.E. Lawrence Symposium in Oxford in Sept... as will I. I believe that there will be an Armortek Armoured car there as well.
