“Yes” it is! The barracks shown was almost a clone for Dettigen Barracks at Blackdown in Surrey where we did, as Junior Soldiers - a huge amount of “marching up and down the square” - for two and a half bloody years. Mind you, we were bloody good at it - not surprisingly perhaps.
We passed out into adult service well qualified (not just in drill I hasten to add), much to the chagrin of the same adult soldiers who often resented us with a passion; but we were Hitler Youth and coming through, and by God, we did!
Further thoughts on this Brian. Both the Airfix magazine picture, and the AFV profile show what to my eye is a distinctive variation to that shown in the first picture of 03EA61. The former has more generally wavy lines, with curves not too sharp, but the latter two show a distinctive much “curlier” or Curvy pattern. I don’t doubt they are likely the same colour set, but definitely quite different patterns. I quite like the later curly one!
Well Terry, just make it up and adopt the Stonehenge Modellers’ motto: “Who the ***k will know?”
Mind you, I have to say that’s actually bitten me more than once! For example, some years back I first displayed my T-64 dio, (possibly at Yeovil - I forget) citing 10 Guards Tank Division as the unit concerned. A chap was busy scrutinising my efforts, when he said - having read the nameplate “I actually know 10 Guards Tank Div very well”. Aaaargh! Actually, it turned out OK as I’d done my homework, but it could have gone the other way easily enough. It turned out he was a former Army officer who had served in BRIXMIS, so would indeed, have known 10 Gds Tk Div very well!
But Brian, if I guess, and finish the model, you know very well that is when Terry will unearth a 5 view color profile of the camouflage. And my model will be absolutely wrong. We can’t have that, but I must have this scheme. It appears, grey on the corners, and black, brown, and green across the rest of the vehicle, but it’s very difficult to see the pattern. Is there even a name for it?
But Matthew, this is where dust, camouflage nets and figures are your friend!
I find that masses of Tamiya Buff always help, and good old Salisbury Plain seems to be always dusty even in Winter.
I imagine any nomenclature would be listed, somewhere, along the lines of “School of Infantry Demonstration Battalion - Experimental Camouflage Scheme for A Vehicles - 1973-75” and good luck with that anyone(!)
I don’t recall any black on the scheme; grey certainly, on the corners as it were (probably a Royal Navy colour - good old Admiralty Grey perhaps), olive green certainly and reddish brown both within (the corners that is). There may well be a diagram somewhere at Bovington, not least as I’m sure I recall them painting one in the scheme or an attempt; but equally there may not be. Often when files/documents are weeded or earmarked for destruction or ideally, archiving, over-zealous Army Clerks tend to confuse the historical with the hysterical and precious little will remain!
Fallible; gullible; frangible; malleable (sorry, running out of onomatopoeic synonyms here!) and the rest.
Well, sadly I must admit that whenever in my early years I was detailed off to “weed” files, I never gave much thought to very much at all, let alone any historical content, but was just looking forward to getting the job done and for an excuse to get down the Typing Pool and tackle that new blonde.
The actual documents to be destroyed were annotated by officers I hasten to add; it wasn’t left to lowly Corporals such as I.
The physical destruction is another story and best left for another time; I’d always thought about making a small-scale vignette of the process. It would involve a 4T truck full to the very brim with classified waste sacks, an incinerator located on the outskirts of a garrison, a “Thing” (ie troglodyte civilian keeper of the furnace), and a couple of Clerks tasked with said destruction. Oh, and an unhelpful Royal Corps of Transport Driver watching on.
All images purloined off the www - including this one which comes up as quite reddish (new word - not to be confused with radish though almost as red):
Having spoken to the guys here at Bovvy today, that 438 scheme is definitely NOT the colour it was in on arrival at the museum, many moons ago. And I would still go as far as to suggest that way back then, that Airfix magazine scheme, was different to this one:-
The colours may mach (loose suggestion) but the pattern was very different. For me the mystery on that Airfix mag pic (and the Profile) remains.
Maybe the colours were correct, and what we are seeing is two very different applications of pattern perhaps?
I think the red/brown version came after the original “wavy” pattern, as shown on Airfix magazine and the Profile Publication; when I was following those vehicles back in 73/74 I don’t recall the red/brown shade very much at all. Mind you, I was probably thinking of that blonde typist back at Div HQ, and did not have my mind on Humbrol colour charts!, and nor should any 21 year-old to be honest!
I just wonder if the original (wavy) scheme was in fact olive green, grey, and service brown ie the colour of ammo boxes? It may then have been thought that the wavy idea was just too complicated (I feel the more complicated a pattern is - the less utility it has once it’s in the field, when mud and dust will impact in any case) and they then decided on a simpler scheme utilising red/brown.
