| August
10th 2019
In the first week in August, I got a message from a friend asking if I would be able to supply a Jeep for a photo shoot in support of a WW2 preservation project. I said yes, and a date and time was arranged. I thought nothing of it for a couple of days and then the cog wheels of my mind began to turn. Which Jeep should I take? "Hope" looked more like a normal army Jeep, but "Jessie" was at the front of the garage and easier to get out without much effort. They couldn't just be swapped over in the garage, as wall mounted cupboards would get in the way of "Jessie's" roof. If I was going to have to take the sides and roof off anyway, I might as well take "Jessie" on the shoot. So if I was going to take the sides and roof off, the "Flying Control" would still be very prominent across the screen. I could fold the screen down, but then the dummy radio would be more visible. I really wanted the Jeep to fit in more with the theme of the site, an ordnance depot. Another thought popped into my head, which
was that I still had some magnetic plastic left over from my RAF
markings. There was enough to cover up the "Flying Control"
words on the screen. I could make a new sign with "Ordnance
Depot" on it. Out came the computer, a font was found and a paper
template was printed out. The paper template was taped onto the plastic
and the letters drawn through with pencil. |
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| I contemplated masking out all the white letters, but really couldn't face that much masking. Instead I put some WW2 and space documentaries on the TV to listen to, while I hand painted the olive around the white lettering. It took a couple of coats to give reasonable coverage. Since the magnetic plastic I had remaining was a small rectangle, the sign was made in two sixteen inch long pieces. This had the benefit of a small piece to work on which could be left to dry while the other piece was painted. |
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| The "Ordnance Depot" sign would work well to cover the screen, but there was still the 8th Air Force markings on the front bumper. The RAF bumper markings, made a couple of years ago, just used the Jeep registration number along with the letters RAF and B/1 for the group. This gave me a basis as I could use this, but add a second layer of magnetic plastic over the RAF letters. I would add "ORD" on a new piece of plastic to hide the RAF and leave the rest as it was. That was enough to convert the Jeep for the photo shoot without excessive effort and would make the Jeep look far more appropriate for the location. |
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| The paint on the plastic was baked a while in my curing cabinet, before being temporarily fitted on the Jeep for a few photos, shown below. The three plastic strips were then placed back in the curing cabinet to fully cure. After the photo shoot, I'll add a report to the events gallery, giving a bit more background to what it was all about. |
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