FERRET PAINT SCHEME'SVARIOUS PAINT JOBS FERRET'S HAVE BEEN SEEN IN |
| BRIDGE CLASSIFICATION |
| NATO STANAG 2010 required that all vehicles carried a bridge classification sign in the form of a Yellow circle. On the Ferret this took the form of a chrome yellow circle, about 9 inches [228mm] in diameter, usually painted on the lower front hull plate, either placed centrally or to the right-hand side or on the right-hand front wing. The sign usually carried a tonnage number, painted in black, and of sufficient size to be readable at 15 metres during daylight. The correct classification, in tons, was 4 on Mk 1 & 2 vehicles, and 5 on Mks 3, 4 & 5. |
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| CONVOY MARKING |
| A convoy marking, consisting of four 1¼ inch [32mm] wide white stripes, about 9 inches [228mm] long, alternating with three similar black stripes, was often painted on the hull at the rear on the sloping lower plate beneath the convoy light. |
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| NATIONAL MARKINGS |
| NATO STANAG 2027 required that vehicles operating under NATO control should carry a national recognition symbol. On British vehicles this usually took the form of a painted or, more commonly, a self-adhesive union jack, about 6x4 inches in size, on one of the lower sections of the front wing panels, usually the left hand side and on the right hand side of the vehicle vertical rear plate. |
| NUMBER PLATES |
| The registration number was always a
single line of characters, that was meant to be spaced in three groups,
eg 32 BA 64, with the characters themselves painted in white on a black
background. This followed the requirements of the Road Traffic Act of
the period. The characters were 3¼ inches [83mm] high, with a stroke
thickness of ½ inch [l2mm], and an overall width of 2½ iches [64mm[ with
the exception of the figure 'T'. The space between adjoining figures or
letters was ½ inch [12.5mm] and the gap between the three blocks of
characters was 1 inch [25mm]. There was a margin of at least ½ inch
[12.5mm] top and bottom, and at least 1 inch [25mm] at each end.
Invariably the three groups were ignored and it was more common to find
the characters rendered in one group. The registration number was
applied to the flat area above the driver's hatch at the front, and to
the vertical panel at the rear. Variations in the front location were
noted with the number plate occasionally located on the lower hull front
plate.
On very early vehicles, a metal plate seems to have been used on the rear number plate, screwed to the hull, while later vehicles show either stencilled (rare) or painted numerals on a black-painted background front and rear. |
| OIL LEVELS AND TYPES |
| The type of lubricant was painted near to the axle and bevel box filler plugs, ideally in 1 inch [25mm] high black or white letters. |
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| PENNANTS AND FLAGS |
| Many Ferret carried pennants in the
corp or regimental colours for parades. Pennants could be triangular
[single-tailed] or two-tailed with the two-tailed version prevelant
amingst RAC units.
Where Corp and Regimental pennants were carried the Corp pennant took precedence on the leading antennae. In the case of a single antennae then the Corp pennant was flown above the regimental one. More common were Regimental and Squadron/Company/Battery combinations with the Regimental pennant taking precedence. Pennants depicting Squadron/Company/Battery were usually in the same colour as the tactical marking [see below]. Known colours are as follows;
Royal Engineers - Red over Blue over Red Royal Signals - Dark Blue over White Royal Armoured Corp - Red over Yellow Infantry - Red Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers - Blue over Yellow over Red Known variations were as follows;
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| REGIMENTAL AND UNIT MARKINGS |
| Regimental and unit markings were
applied to the lower panels of the front wings and to the hull rear
plate, and sometimes on the turret front of Mk 2 vehicles. The
recommended dimensions were9½ inches [240mm] high x 8½ inches [215mm]
wide. This practice was discontinued in the early 70's.
The markings generally followed the World War Two style of marking with the Arm of Service/Unit number on the left hand side and the Formation Sign on the right hand side. |
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| In the late sixties along with the introduction of the camouflage painting of vehicles these type of unit markings were abandoned and replaced by the Union jack and the Numeric designation. This designation took the form of the formation number followed by the unit number i.e. 20/3 was the third unit in 20th Armoured Brigade. This type of unit marking was usually gloss black numbers on a gloss white background but was later replaced in the early seventies with the introduction of the black/green camouflage paint by the camoflage version of matt green numbers on a matt black background, this was sometimes reversed depending on the camoflage colour it was painted on. |
| TACTICAL MARKINGS |
| These marking utilised the WW2 system
of various geomtric shapes and their application varied from Unit to
Unit. But they basically followed the undermentioned pattern for
squadrons/companies/batteries:
The general numbering system was as follows:
RAC Ferret Callsigns
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| THOSE MYSTERIOUS WHITE LETTERS |
| A number of sets of white letttering
can be seen on the sides of Ferrets. They include
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| TYRE PRESSURES |
| Tyre pressures, where used, were painted or stencilled onto the edges of the wheel arches in 1 inch [25mm] high white figures; the most common form was to express the pressure as a figure (eg, '20'), sometimes accompanied by the letters 'TP'. |
| WHEEL NUTS |
| At the time that the Ferret first went into service, it was common to paint the wheel-securing nuts white, and those which held the two halves of the split rim together in red. It never really became standard practice though it was widely used for parades and displays. |
| BERLIN BRIGADE |
| Developd as an urban camouflage during the 70's this scheme was colourful and, apparently quite successful. Applying it must have been a pain in the posterior but as the Berlin Brigade vehicles very rarely went anyway there must have been little need for it to be repainted. |
| BRONZE GREEN |
| Bronze Green was the standard vehicle colour for the British Army for many years after the Second World War and was widely liked due to its constant colour. You could repaint a portion of the vehicle and it would not stand out - unlike subsequent colours that were adopted. Vehicles also looked smarter! |
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| GREEN/BLACK |
| The Infra-Red Reflectant Green/Black camouflage was introduced around 1973 and became the standard camouflage pattern of the British Army. It was introduced in conjunction with the new unit markings scheme which basically consisted of the higher formation number plus the units ranking within the formation. |
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| GREEN/SAND |
| During the late 60's and early seventies some trials were carried out on various camouflage schemes for the British Army. One of them was a forest green type scheme with a sand overspray. This type of colour scheme was seen mainly in Germany and to a lesser extent in the UK. |
| GULF WAR |
| During the Gulfwar, the inverted black 'V' of the coalition forces was applied to the side of the right-hand stowage box and the upper superstruture on the opposite side. |
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| MULTICOLOUR |
| In the mid 60's an experimental colour scheme was developed using multiple colours. All one can say about it is that it must have been intended for urban combat either that or the entire development team were colour blind! I haven't an image of a ferret in the scheme but here is a link to a picture of it on an FV438 at the Tank Museum |
| SAFETY FERRETS AT BATUS |
| Probably the most luridly coloured of
the Ferrets these vehicles were used by the Range Safety Staff at the
British Army Training Unit, Suffield, Canada. The Ferret Mk 2's were
painted an overall green colour and had colour coded turrets to enable
them to be easily recognised. They were also fitted with a Motorolla
radio for use on the Safety Net and its antennae was on the hull lhs
rear mount. The outside vetical edges of all bins were painted
dayglo-red with the callsign in black on the rhs centre bin and on
dayglo-red panels fitted to the spare wheel and rear of the vehicle.
The colour coding of the turrets was as follows:
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| UN FERRETS |
| Vehicles assigned to the UN peacekeeping Forces were usually painted in white with a wide variety of UN badges applied in variuos locations. |
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