In 1942 commonwealth troops from Canada were in the UK including those of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division. The time passed rather uneventfully and much of it was given to training. The 4th Field Park Squadron RCE attached to the 5th Division were part of the Canadian contingent in the UK and I thought this little piece would depict a typical "training" scene likely very prevalent at that time. Here we see a more seasoned and experienced engineer "advising" a less experienced chap on the finer points of lifting a load with the crane which in this case is a 12 foot truss section. The model is Milicast and the figures are from the Milicast Squaddie set and a modified operator from the spares box. The decals are a mixture of Starmer and from Aleran thanks to Pete Marshall. Cheers, Neil
Neil, Excellent, thanks for sharing. How many hours does a project like this take to complete? How do you display your collection? Regards Guy
Hi Guy, Thanks for the nice comments. The time varies as I like to scratch-build mainly but this was a resin kit. I guess it was scratch-built however as I did the master for Milicast. I don't really keep track of time as I'm retired and do it when (usually some daily) I can but lately removing leaves from my property has really interfered with modeling. I display them in cabinets but I am rapidly running out of room so looking for other options. Cheers, Neil
Always a pleasure to see your modelling skills Neil. I know where you are coming from with regards to running out of room Regards Tom
Many thanks Tom....glad you like this one and yes, the cabinets are getting really full so I need to relegate some to boxes or find a suitable home for them.
Great work as usual. I know how accurate you are so I was surprised not to see outriggers. That could be a sort of built in load warning for the operator. When the outside wheels start to come off the ground you're lifting too much.
Thanks Dave and I confess you had me scurrying back to my information but I can see no evidence of outriggers on any of the WW2 Coles Cranes. All the recovery/wrecker trucks I have done in the past had them and it is a bit curious why the Coles Cranes didn't seem to. Cheers, Neil
Well. I would have bet my last dollar that if your model didn't have them then the real ones didn't either
Very nice model. The various Coles truck mounted Coles cranes did not have outriggers. They could be used much as the later fork lift was used, in dumps, depots and stores. Interestingly the US equivalent did not have outriggers as standard but they could be fitted if required. Mike
Many thanks Mike for the comment and for your great insight into the use of outriggers. It is strange they didn't have them or at least stabilizer jacks of some sort.