Convoy plates

[Mrs Vampire]

OK
I want to know what is the official name for the plates that fit into the plate holder on the front and rear of most soft skinned vehicles.

I have forever called the things they fit into convoy plate holders and the plates that go in convoy plates .

I did a Google search looking for pictures of them and it seems no one calls them convoy plates.

I need the correct nomenclature and a link to a place where I can get info on them . I am especially after info on the markings on my tank which I am told are Mud and Blud .

[hrpearce]

Try tac sign in google

[Mrs Vampire]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Mike Cecil]

Gina,

And technically, even 'tac sign' (as in 'tactical sign') is not correct: they are a Unit sign holder (the formation sign was most often, at least during WW2, painted directly onto the vehicle. The Australian exception is 2nd AIF Middle East).

Tanks did not have unit sign holders: the formation and unit signs and associated tactical signs (like squadron markings) were painted directly onto the vehicle in positions as specified by higher headquarters. There are, as you can imagine, many exceptions and interpretations.

I gather you are wanting to mark your M3A1? Do you have any particular (and appropriate) unit/formation and period in mind? Do you have the tanks original US serial number?

Mike C

[Mrs Vampire]

Taa Mike

I will attach a photo later

It has what I was told was Mud and Blud on the rear. Its original but the colours not quite a spiffy as i would want.

a square with the lower left diagonal a kind of red and the upper right diagonal brown green colour. big white 53 in the middle

[Mrs Vampire]

I also want one for the Blitz but having them both with the same plate might be incorrect ??

[Mrs Vampire]

here are a couple of rear shots. I guess its easy to identify for those in the know .

[Mrs Vampire]

3 rd armoured division maybe ?? I have looked at the picture in wiki and mine definitely has a knight on horse and a boomerang underneath. I painted exactly over the original , which is still underneath my effort.

[Mike Cecil]

Gina,

The Formation sign is 3rd Aust Armoured Division, described as a Knight on horseback over a boomerang.

The Unit sign '53' within that division was carried by the 13th Aust Armoured Regiment, part of 2nd Aust Armoured Brigade, in June 1943. They were located at Manumbar, Qld, at that time. As the third Armd Regt within the Brigade, the background colour would be red (not red/brown diagonal). Diagonal red/brown is not a colour combination I am aware of in use within the Aust army, and diagonally divided plates in the Aust army are always lower left to upper right, ie a colour in the upper left half and the lower right half.

Your No.9 artillery tractor could also be marked to 3rd Aust Armoured Division if you so chose: both 21 and 22 Aust Field Regiments formed the field artillery components of the division. In June 1943, these were both based at Gympie, Qld. The unit signs were 76 on a red/blue horizontally divided unit sign for 21 Fd Regt, or 74 on red/blue horizontal for 21 Aust Fd Regt. The formation sign was that of 3rd Armd Div.

Mike C

[Mrs Vampire]

Marvellous ....Mike

[Mrs Vampire]

I also brought myself a cooks Trailer.

I figured if I am going to have a trailer I might as well have an ex military one.

I dodgied up some unit plates for that as well.

The trailer is ex 1st sigs regiment according to the stickers on it . So I made some AAVA plates and what i understand to be the Sigs colours.

I now need some kind of canvas treatment for the cover ...and to keep my eye out for a new one .

[Euan McDonald]

is just me, or are the pics upside down?

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Euan McDonald

is just me, or are the pics upside down?

Seem to be OK in your post... must be something to do with being downunder.

[Euan McDonald]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

Seem to be OK in your post... must be something to do with being downunder.

Your right, Gina posted it for the Canuck’s to view!

[Lynn Eades]

There you go. For you other blokes O.S., we can do pictures for you where ever you stand. Is there anyone around the corner who wants them sideways?
( we're adaptable down here)

[Mike Cecil]

With the top of image to the left, then, would be for those in the '8th State of Australia', also known as Kiwis or 'New Zilandaars'!!

(except those taking refuge in Kalgoorlie, in which case the top of image would be to the 'roight'......)

Mike C (of Northern Climes....)

[Lynn Eades]

Sorry Mike, I wasn't thinking of you. I'm not sure I can do one on a 45, for a "West islander" taking refuge in Norf Merica.

[Mike Cecil]

Now THAT gave me a good 'ole chuckle!!!

Mike Seeeee

[Mike Cecil]

Hey, Gina, have we hijacked this thread or what???!!!

[Little Jo]

Hi Guys

Nah, keep it going I am loving it. Good old Aussie humour. I am sure Gina won't mind.

Cheers

Tony

[Lynn Eades]

It's just sporting rivalry, like trans Tasman rugby.

Hijacking!... Find me 5 threads that haven't been.... We all do it!

[Darrin Wright]

Made by Cooks Body Works Pty Ltd.
Trailer Lightweight, Cargo, 750kg, (Cooks), MC2.
NSN 2330-66-114-3051
trailer is intended to carry the generator 2.5 kVa and general cargo up to a payload of 750kg. Designed, primarily for towing behind the Land Rover family of vehicles; however, may be towed by any other suitably equipped towing vehicle.
Trailer has an Aggregated Trailer Mass rating of 1200kg.
12 volt DC light system.

Depending what will tow it, towing eye height is 471mm (laden) to 587mm (unladen).

These trailers were a limited buy primarily for Signal units, but many other units utilised them depending on location and entitlement.
The canvas canopy will be a limited buy item as there were not many of these trailers, and I think it would be quicker to get that remade from the pattern that you have, rather than waiting for an item to come up in disposal (I could be wrong).

[Mrs Vampire]

heh Heh Hijacked indeed. Thanks for the info darrin . A printed out and kept with my trailer log .

Here is a close up shot of the unit Badge on the back of my tank. I painted over the origin many many years ago when I first had the tank with Peter.
That is to say I repainted exactly as I could paint over the white. I was not into cutting stencils in those days.

The original paint is under my efforts. The stencil is quite different to the one I have seen on line and used by the AWM . I admit to a little shakiness around the edges of the lines but not to any major reinventions in my copying efforts.

Mike is right so far as the red square behind the "53" is concerned. Again I went to some trouble to get the colour the same as the original and to carefully paint directly over the original 53..

I used my Humbrol model paints to match the red. That would be in about 1972 or 73 .

[Mrs Vampire]

The one on the AWM site