Nice work Lionel. good to see another saved. haven't seen too many with camo paint.
Cheers Gaz
Hello Gaz,
Thanks for the reply - there is a link on
http://www.remlr.com titled Australian Army Vehicle Colour Schemes and Paint: AMF-ADF Paint and Camouflage Schemes. From information provided by WO2 Rocky Hema from the 3rd/4th Cavalry Regiment Museum in Townsvillet:
the first batch of cam painted vehicles we did mid 1981, prior to exercise Kangaroo 81. The 3rd Task Force (as it was known then) Commander, Neville Smedhurst, directed 102 Field Workshops to paint everything cam (including weapons).
The selected colours for vehicles overlaid on the base olive drab were: Flat Green (similar to the Huey helicopter green), Sand and Black.
This first scheme lasted till it was changed in Jan 1983 to the: Pink, Brown and Tan
The reason for the change was to align the now 3rd Brigade with our area of operations more so, being the northern part of Australia. Everyone turned their noses up when the vehicles were painted these colours; however, as the paint started to fade, it became very effective to the extent that its worked well during Exercise K83 in the Pilbara. This scheme remained here in Townsville for some time until the new fleet of Land Rovers arrived with the current cam pattern.
Ambulance 112-211 is reported to have been re-deployed from the 11th Field Ambulance Transport to Townsville to reform 2nd Field Ambulance again. Although Howard Barr from the 11th Field Ambulance Transport suggests that prior to their going up to Townsville half the ambulances from the 11th were painted camouflage scheme.
There is also a photograph of an ambulance, 114-183 and it has a camo paint scheme too. I have an in-service photograph of 112-211 and it was well before it received a camo paint job.
What is amazing is how Greg & Tony Egretz posted the in-service photographs of 112-211 back in May 24, 2016, 08:35:20 AM ยป under the title of Owner Help of 112-211. I was actually looking at these photographs the day before I headed off for the first inspection of the ambulance. I was thinking how lucky that ambulance owner is to have in-service photographs of their ambulance being posted up on the forum just through the kindness of other members! It turns out that I was the new owner of 112-211 by the very next day!
How is your restoration going?
Kind regards
Lionel