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I have this wood case and I am wondering about the gray paint.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...eEnfield-1.jpg
The gray paint doesn't look original. But I know not of these things.
I am wondering if I should strip it, repaint it, or just leave it the ugly gray?
Quite a few of the No4T chests seem to turn up in grey paint. I don't know why as it was never in the Army spec. It wasn't the RAF type blue either. I we knew the disposal point, we could pin it down to an Ordnance Depot...............
Battleship Grey = RN?
I remember ships pistols being kept in a grey box of this identical colour. I think RN grey was made by mixing one part black and nine parts white; if that matches your transit chest then this might be a clue...
Going onto a quick thread hijack: Peter, did you ever see a transit chest in raw wood? This one is in poor condition, but does not appear to have been paint-stripped - there are not even the tiniest flecks of paint in the grain of the wood, just some surface dust. Interestingly, the chest carries a 1944 date stamped or branded into the wood:
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...91616722-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...91616726-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...91616731-1.jpg
Mr. Laidler
Our American Navy painted everything "Navy Gray", did the British Navy or the Royal Marines use the No.4 (T)
On an aside, I seem to remember that Mr. Laidler mentioned that No.4 T chest manufacture was, in part, done by Elliotts of Newbury. I was born and raised less than 1 mile away from the Elliott's factory, and remember seeing it before it was pulled down in the 70's. Elliotts also produced ammunition boxes during the First World War, and produced components for aircraft, including the Supermarine Spitfire, Tiger Moth, De Havilland Mosquito, the Airspeed Oxford and the Airspeed Horsa glider. Only just up the road in Thatcham was the Army Depot where many No.4 Ts (and L42A1s and L39A1s) spent some time. I spent my youth surrounds by military history and didn't even know it!
Useless trivial, but it is a tiny part of Lee Enfield history, and I like it :)
So it's a No4T chest.
I am not sure about the rifle. Is it a No4T?
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../Enfield-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...sEnfield-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...eldscope-1.jpg
Looking at the wood Thunderbox, I would say with more or less certainty, that the box has been pine stripped in that weak caustic soda based stuff that they use.
And Vinny............. If you didn't already know it, that's a No4T that you've got in your grubby little mitts! They are very common and cheap and only worth a few dollars. So I suggest that you sell it to me cheap.
That GRAY looks awfully much like a box of Oerlikon spares I had, once upon a time; it was also marked RCN.
I am wondering about battleship-gray sniper equipments: Royal Marines makes sense to me, but I really do not KNOW.
And that is a SERIOUSLY nice rifle! I look and I giggle and I drool a lot, but I know that the only way I might be able to afford one is if the decimal point were to be moved a couple of places to the left!
.
I asked the man who sold it to me if it was a No4T. He said it was not. Told me it was a "normal No.4 Mk1 with a scope." He seemed to know what he was talking about. My knowledge of Enfields is VERY limited. I am subgun fan. So I wasn't sure.
I think I will leave the gray paint on the case then.
Thanks for the information.
A phrase that is right up there with "He said it wasn't loaded."Quote:
Originally Posted by Vincent
:D
Might be worth asking what other not so special rifles he has for sale...
Thunderbox; Battleship Grey = RN?
I remember ships pistols being kept in a grey box of this identical colour. I think RN grey was made by mixing one part black and nine parts white; if that matches your transit chest then this might be a clue...
Going onto a quick thread hijack: Peter, did you ever see a transit chest in raw wood? This one is in poor condition, but does not appear to have been paint-stripped - there are not even the tiniest flecks of paint in the grain of the wood, just some surface dust. Interestingly, the chest carries a 1944 date stamped or branded into the wood.
I hate it when the British beat me to the answer in forums.....................:rolleyes:
Time for a little history lesson to complement my visit to Lake Champlain Battery Park Yesterday
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...P1010675-1.jpg
HI, I WAS TOLD THAT A J PARKERS HAD LOADS OF THESE TRANSIT CHESTS YEARS AGO & THEY PAINTED THEM GREY???.I DON'T KNOW HOW TRUE THIS IS! . I'VE HAD 2 GREY TRANSIT CHEST IN THE PAST, BOTH THE SAME SHADE OF GREY.:runaway:
My matching #4mk1T also had a grey chest. There must be something to this. I considered painting it the expected green but thought better of it and let it be.
My 4T is Ex-RAF and is in a similar 'blue-tinted' grey case.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../No4T001-1.jpg
Alan, that is a great looking collection. One of the nicest I've seen.
But what is the small tin for?
I never saw a grey painted chest in service, they were all the usual kahki, or certainly various shades of it! Even the RAF stuff that used to come through our workshops in Malaya and Singapore was the usual kahki colour too although admittedly, only very few of them. In fact some of the old hands used to think that RAF stood for Rare As Fairies. But back to the plot!
I wouldn't mind betting that all the boxes started out as kahki. Can anyone with a shade of grey box confirm that there's kahki paint underneath the grey
Oxford Andy - Apparently its a 'bren small parts tin' and was used to keep 'odds and sods' in (not an official part of the CES but a 'standard' extra in a 4T kit) and was used to hold a grenade pin & ring, extractor, screw and spring, compo tin opener, and a butt trap spring that could be used as a double ended screwdriver.
Info courtesy of "An Armourers Perspective"
Written by some guy who appently knows a bit about these things.
I have an L42 chest with a dark dark green paint on the outside, and a paper label indicating the Abingdon location stores it came out of on top of it. The dark green is definitely not the issue khaki but it must have been done before it was released from the MOD and sold to Canada. Any ideas anybody?
ALL L42 chests were painted in the usual kahki matt paint but the armoury storeman has probably overpainted some earlier markings. You ought to get some acetate and slowly lift the paint, layer by layer. It's sometimes very interesting.
Where in Abingdon did yours come from?
Peter,
Didn't L42 chests come new from the manufacturer painted in the gloss "bronze green" - the same as 1 Tonne Landrovers and other vehicles before they got their IRR paint ?
I have a new condition chest and its in the bronze green. My other L42 chests just seem to have been overpainted with the normal IRR matt green (less for one which is gloss black, marked to Manchester Police and altered to fit two Enforcers...).
Tha bronze green, if it's similar to british racing green seems about right for this color off the top of my head.
I'll do a wee bit of stripping from a tiny corner tonight and check it out. also will note which depot it came from, though if brian dick is lurking he may know as it came through him before I got my paws on it.
it came out of Dince Hill, Abingdon. I remember now.
Repainting this sort of stuff was the kind of thing allocated to GDs men or defaulters. I used to have a tin hat that, underneath the sacking, was done in that vehicle bronze green.
Surplus navy paint seems to have been reused by other government departments too. Post Office Telephones had a lot of their older equipment in exchanges painted that colour.
There's no Dince Hill in Abingdon, Newcastle. There's a xxxxxxg great former RAF base that now houses Logistics troops but not a stores as such and definately not a B1 store
I checked rather than relying on memory. It was Dince hill, Abingdon Road, London. this L42 case was number 126 of 151 apparently.
maybe this was just a staging point, I know not.
Dince Hill Holdings Ltd is a commercial firm dealing in defence equipment and weapons spares. They are based in Abingdon Road, London - not the Abingdon town in Oxfordshire where the military depot is situated.
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but there is currently a No4T supposedly of Singapore police issue that has a transit chest with the same paint. Perhaps that is the origin.
I have an L42 chest with the side panels painted dark green. It's a ex Royal Green Jackets rifle and the green is their regimental rifle green. There are another 7 cases out there the same. It could be one of them?Quote:
Originally Posted by newcastle
Rifle w/ grey transit chest is on gunbroker. I neglected to add that in my original post.Quote:
Originally Posted by gundoc2112