Im building Italeri´s chevy gun tractor at the moment. From the box there is 3 different canadian colour schemes. Olive drab for europe, dark green for england and sand with battleship grey camo for Italy ´44. I fancy trying the sand/grey camo for Italy 44.
I have some questions. What interior colour would this have been. Still green?
Would this have pulled a 105mm gun (Italeri also)? Would the gun have been painted in desert colours, camo or just left green?
Any and all help, or on anything else related would be appreciated very much.
Cheers!

All of the CMP trucks that I have references for were painted dark green or SCC??( that brownish green that a my wife's cousin, a Canadian Veteran describes as s**t brown) on the production line, so this colour was probably still kept for the interior.
As for the 105, again no references in my books but not impossible; they normally towed the 25pdr & limber. Canadian field artillery units were equipped with the 25pdr as standard.
The gun would have been painted in the same scheme as the tow vehicle.

Thanks a million Dave. At least I can get the interior underway.
The reason I thought about the 105mm, is that I built it for my DUKW, but there were too many improbabilities on how it was fixed in place ... so I dropped it and will add some other detail to the DUKW instead.
Im sure somewhere and at some time a chevy was used to pull a 105mm. I guess the only reason I should drop this idea, is if it were unsuitable because of size or something like that.
I do have tamiyas 25 LBer at home, but as I have built the 105mm in towing mode, I need a gun tractor. This idea, I liked as it was something different.

The quad was certainly able to pull the 105, and probably did. I just can't find any units that were equipped with both. When discussing warfare it's not wise to say that somethjing never happened, as 10-1 it did!!!!

The only images I have seen of 105mm guns, they were the usual US green. Are there any examples of them being painted with desert camo, etc.

It wil be set in Italy ´44. Any ideas??
All help appreciated.

The answer to that would depend on the gun's previous area of service. It would have had to have been supplied from US stocks, but if it had previously been used in Tunisia then it may well have been painted in the appropriate camouflage, if from new stock then it would be green. I think that as you have no photo of the gun/tractor combination that it's your call here!!

Dave, once again.... thank you very much for taking the time to help me. Cheers. I appreciate the help. Green it is then.
I guess it will be something different, but when weathered similar it might look OK!

Look forward to seeing the finished article!

I have it all built up now ... well in two halves plus doors and wheels. The detail on the under-carraige is amazing on this vehicle. Might even paint the bottom as its worth showing off. As the plastic is Italeri´s very dark green or almost black, I´ll wait until the interior is painted before I post pictures ... should be around next weekend. Havent been this enthusiastic about a kit for some time! Thanks for your help.

AFAIK, the only time the RCA had 105mm guns during WW2 was on the "Priest", and that was only until these could be replaced by teh 25 pdr-equipped "Sexton". The towed 105mm did not enter RCA service until after Korea, and many of them are still serving today as C3 Howitzers.

Thanks for your post stormfront.
The chevy I will paint as canadian, italy ´44, but the 105mm never was intended to be canadian. It will be painted a US green colour, but only towed by the canadian truck.
Is this totally inconcievable?
If you believe that this never happened ... or very, very unlikely, I guess I´ll drop it. I dont really get hung up on 100% facts, but don´t want to do something that was never possible either.
I thought it would be something different .... a canadian vehicle pulling an american gun. The chevy with camo and the gun with green, but weather the two the same way!

What would be common options for the chevy to have pulled at this time and in this arena, if the 105mm is not an option? Would the Tamiya 25pdr and limber be an option? I have that at home.
Thanks very much for your help. Much appreciated!

Hmm..Good Question! I had just assumed you were going to do the 105 Cdn as well. Certainly the 25 pdr would be a good choice, and though the tamiya kit of it is a bit long in the tooth, it can still look quite good. You could also have it towing a 17pdr, but depending on whether you go with Airfix or AA, it will be either rare & expensive, or just plain expensive!

Personally, since you have the 25 pdr, I'd go with that, and save the 105 for an LTV or DUKW, or a regular CCKW US Army.

I also endorse what stormfront has said. Use the 25lb gun and limber on the chevy and leave the 105 to one side for another model.

In all my research of CMP (read Chevy gun tractor) type vehicles I have never come across reference to a Commonwealth gun tractor pulling an American artillery piece but that does not mean it did not happen, just that it would be an unlikely sight.

Now, as all 3 of you have, more or less, the same opinon ... I will follow your advice and go with the 25pdr and limber.
Thank you all very much for your help and input ... and taking the time to push me in the right direction. Cheers Lads!

I don't know if I'm too late to this party, but...

Regarding the Chev FAT, SCC2 Brown or BSC. 61 Light Stone are the base colours you should be using, brown if you paint the interior brown. The grey over sand scheme in the instructions is bogus. According to Mike Starmer's book on Italian campaign camouflage the disruptive pattern used throughout the Italian campaign, and seen as early as 1943, was SCC 14 Blue-black over "Light Mud" which he believes was a sort of light drab green (hard to describe colours, but there it is). Sorry to say, but the grey-over-sand scheme just isn't on.

Regarding towing a 105mm, there is certainly no case of a Commonwealth unit using the 105 on operations and except when they are moving through one another American and Commonwealth arty units would almost never have even seen each other. Even if a Commonwealth unit was helping tow a 105 out of a ditch, or the like, they would have used one of the other "B" vehicles and not a FAT as they were too precious to risk losing. If you wreck your tractor, your gun is out of action and that was just not permitted. If you wreck a 3 tonner, no worries, the guns can fire without the Quartermaster's truck

Hope this helps.

Paul

Canada is still using the C3? Man I thought those guns were ancient in 1984.

I used to fire them for ceremonial salutes as we had no local arty boys to do them so we had some training to be able to do that. Always enjoyed that work.

We also used to use the light 105 which the Airborne Regiment had. For some reason we had one of each.

Howdy PB: I think you can get away with the chev towing the 105. I have read about the cdn 1st divsion using captured italian trucks, after they surrendered. I am sure that in the spirit of cooperation somewhere in the Italian campaign a can truck towed and american art piece. Plus that way you have something interesting/unusual and you can always say you have an obscure reference pic somewhere but you can't find it right now, HAHA!!

Those would have been C1's. C3's came in about a decade later, though they share many components. C3 will *probably* find its way back into the RCHA , either towed by AVGP, or mounted on the back of the new ML, using the MOBAT concept.