NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 12 OCTOBER 2009

Hi everyone and welcome to this week’s newsletter.

Well we’re very excited here at Miliblog this week. One of our favourite Military Vehicle publications, Military Machines International recently published issue No 100 and we sent their editor Ian Young a congratulations email wishing him all the best for the next 100 issues. Well we just bought issue 101 this weekend and our jaws dropped open to read a lovely response from Ian. To quote, he said ‘I took a look and found it to be packed with information and photos and is definitely worth a look. It’s easy to navigate and features loads of photos and military vehicles of all types that are sure to be of interest to readers’. Similar to say, we also enjoy reading Ian’s magazine and highly recommend people to source it out if they are not already readers. Also their website is www.militarymachinesintl.com if you’d like further info.

OK, that’s got the back slapping done and onto what new photos we have for you this week. We start with a selection of old Bedfords and AEC’s of the 1960′s & 1970′s and two samples are shown below. Firstly a Bedford J Series Luton Van in camouflage, and then an unusual Mandator 4×2 Tractor in use at the HM Dockyards in Portsmouth. Must have been pretty powerful looking at the size of the trailer.

Next for you we have some Unipower BR90 8×8 Bridging System Vehicles. I believe they were made in Birmingham, someone told me and unusual as they weren’t actually given full MoD registration numbers, Rather they were issued with ‘CP’ numbers which stood for ‘Civilian Plant’. Perhaps someone out there may be able to help with some more information on them.

Next is one for our friends in The Netherlands. A nice Marirus Deutz S3500 Fire Rescue, which we are pretty certain is an ex-military fire engine.

And next to keep our friends across the pond happy are two photos of the twenty or so illustrating a junk yard on the I1 or Interstate 10 in the USA. Below are two examples, a US Marine Corps Dodge M37 Cargo and a US Army Kaiser Jeep M715 Cargo. Hopefully someone will rescue these trucks and give them a good home.

So that about wraps up this week’s newsletter. Next week we’ll be digging into our collection of e-photos built up over the years from a number of sources. Not as good as digital or scanned photos, they are very interesting to look at and see the details. Especially useful to those amongst us who make scale models of military vehicles. Whether straight out of the box or some good ideas for conversions. You never know, perhaps amongst us are the guys who work for the actual companies making the models and they might find some ideas for new models for next year. Enough rambling, Simon !

Cheerio !

Simon 

Bedford J1 4x2 Luton Van (38 FL 70)

AEC Mandator 10Ton 4x2 Tractor (1493 RN)

Unipower BR90 8x8 Bridging System Vehicle (12 CP 96)

Magirus Deutz S3500 4x2 Fire Rescue (VN-17-38)(Neth)

Dodge M37 Cargo (USMC 306588)(US Junk Yard)

Kaiser Jeep M715 Cargo (US Junk Yard)