Search and Rescue Weasel - Colour scheme

ozm29c · #1 10-09-10, 02:54

Fellows,
I am not sure if I have posted this previously but it won't hurt to ask again.
Attached is a black and white photograph of a search and rescue weasel. My question is what colour scheme do think they painted it in?
Best guess on the weasel forum was Red and Yellow.
I look forward to your thoughts

Cheers
John W.

warren brown · #2 10-09-10, 10:46

G'day John -
from my days as a print artist retouching black and white photos on newspapers - red would invariably turn out as strong as black - almost indistinguishable. Light blue wouldn't appear at all - hence light blue pencils were used by compositors and the marks wouldn't show up when printed.
My suggestion is that the stripes might be more of an orangey/red perhaps, as the black type still shows up over the top - if the stripes were bold red you wouldn't be able to read the black type as red stripes would appear straight black too.
Just a guess - in the UK and Australia some diesel locomotives on dockyards were painted yellow and orangey red stripes... dunno if any of this helps but good luck,
cheers Warren.

ozm29c · #3 10-09-10, 23:44

G'day Warren,
Thanks for your reply. Interesting thoughts about colour when looked at from a Black and White perspective. I have attached two more photos that may be of help to you. The first is of a set of weasel flotation tanks (painted yellow)that I imported from the US of A years ago and second is a photo of the ANARE Museum weasel that is painted an orange/red. Would these photos better describe your thoughts?
Cheers
John W.

warren brown · #4 13-09-10, 13:17

G'day John,
I completely understand where you're at - we've all wrestled with what exactly is 'olive drab' - and I have a couple of vintage Dennis fire engines as well and fire engine restorers have the same problem - what is fire engine red?
Someone mentioned to me years ago that paint colours such as OD were pretty much mixed by eye - in the old days no spectrometer etc to determine colours precisely so there are a multitude of shades from brown to forest green. And in the case of a SAR Weasel, a specific task vehicle -it's probably a very good example of a one-off type of colour scheme decided by what the painter could get, which gives you the same licence - paint it as close to what you think it should be. The yellow in the photo looks as I'd imagine it - like plant machinery - the red, which is a great red btw, I think is probably too dark - in that i don't think the black type would show up over it. Maybe a colour somewhere between the orange wheels on the Weasel and the red body.
I don't know if this helps, Cheers Warren.

Mike Kelly · #5 10-12-20, 11:14

Still in use in 1968

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoX3oe9aHd4

Mike Kelly · #6 10-12-20, 12:04

The closer one went to the NSW Govt. Tourist Bureau its listed in the ARN book as a Lorry . Think these ended up at the Thredbo ski resort

Unidentified Australian Women's Army Service personnel sitting in a Studebaker, M29 Weasel, tracked amphibious cargo carrier. Both vehicles have been finished in alpine camouflage and bear the Army Registration numbers 145623 and 139999.

maple_leaf_eh · #7 10-12-20, 18:45

I agree that red is a sign of danger, but it disappears in the dark. Years ago in Alert, NWT where I spend a happy summer as a construction worker, just about everything important was painted bright orange. Marker posts, Bombardier oversnow vehicles, huts, and for our purposes, the plywood utility corridors between buildings. The trucks were factory fleet yellow. And some SMPs were issue Army green. In the depths of a months long high arctic winter, white makes no sense.

ozm29c · #8 10-12-20, 23:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

The closer one went to the NSW Govt. Tourist Bureau its listed in the ARN book as a Lorry . Think these ended up at the Thredbo ski resort

Unidentified Australian Women's Army Service personnel sitting in a Studebaker, M29 Weasel, tracked amphibious cargo carrier. Both vehicles have been finished in alpine camouflage and bear the Army Registration numbers 145623 and 139999.

Mike,
Both Aussi weasels have been found and are in the hands of a fellow weasel restorer/collector. 13999 has been resurrected from the ashes using a donor hull and 145623 is yet to be restored as it was only found and recovered in 2019. The first photo shows 13999 as found and the second photo shows the hull repairs completed. The last photo shows 145623 as found. Here is a youtube link to 13999's hull after repairs;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl9tq7LncHk
Cheers

Mike Kelly · #9 11-12-20, 01:05

Ah OK. Great to see that those two ARN examples are in good hands.

Only Weasel I have seen in Aust. was owned by Ian Ledwidge , he has the museum at Moama . Ian Grieve, the GPA man, had one too. Were these two post war imports ? Both of these were in running condition at one stage , I saw the Ledwidge one running when the museum was at Pakenham, I helped him getting it started one day

ozm29c · #10 11-12-20, 02:08

Mike,
I purchased my Weasel from Ian G. back in 1998 and I have been slowly restoring it back to a floater weasel ever since. Attached is a photo taken last weekend. My weasel was definitely a post war import. The Moama museum weasel is still there. It made an appearance at
Corowa 2019. You can see it in this you tube clip;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKtGj_3avRA
I am not sure of the history for this weasel. Apart from the Antarctic division weasels, there were 5 other amphibious weasels imported post war and they were subsequently stripped of their amphibious gear with exception of the float tanks and were employed as Ski tows on the snow fields. The weasels are long gone but by pure chance I came across most of the gear that was dumped. Photo attached shows the five sets of track aprons as found.
I have also attached a photo of one of these ski tow weasels.

Mike Kelly · #11 11-12-20, 03:56

Ok If the snowfield ones were post war imports then the ARN ones must have had a life doing something with the NSW Govt. tourist bureau... you would think it would be on the snow fields but that's a guess.

I remember finding that book at the op shop , with the pics of the snowfields weasel, it may have been scenes of Kiandra , not sure , I think Thredbo was a later village constructed in the 60's maybe.

ozm29c · #12 11-12-20, 04:12

The Two ARN weasels did end up on the snowfields as shown in the photos below.

dcrfan · #13 11-12-20, 07:35

As the Australian Antarctic Weasels have been mentioned I hope this info is acceptable. I share it as it provides some rare history on the vehicles and it is surprising just how many Weasels were used by a number of countries in the Antarctic.

fullsizeoutput_1acd by tankienz, on Flickr

fullsizeoutput_1ace by tankienz, on Flickr

fullsizeoutput_1acf by tankienz, on Flickr

fullsizeoutput_1ad0 by tankienz, on Flickr

Mike Kelly · #14 11-12-20, 11:40

Found this..maybe the weasels came from the UK ?

Mike Kelly · #15 11-12-20, 12:10

...............Mt. Buller had one it seems

Mike Kelly · #16 11-12-20, 12:48

.................................................. ..https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/a...l%20vehicle%22

Mike Kelly · #17 12-12-20, 00:53

The Govt. must have been buying Weasel spares for ANARE because I found a reference to " Weasel spares " in a early 1960s Govt. gazette. Can't find it again though

Article https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-297273158...e/n27/mode/1up

https://collections.museumsvictoria..../items/1813265

https://ehive.com/collections/6085/o...le-sponar-coll

https://khuts.org/index.php/the-huts...252-kunama-hut