Landships II

Francisco · Sergeant

Ready to Paint Lusitania

Rhomboid · Field Marshal

Francisco, have a look at the thread "Looking for operational information on the Mk.II LUSITANIA" from February for more about this topic. The location of the bow markings are well shown in a photo there. Briefly, a faded WD number 788 is seen beneath LUSITANIA, with the tops of the numbers slightly overlapped by the bottom of the letters "USIT". I have not seen a photo of the rear of Lusitania, but other tanks of C Bn. had the battalion number (C47, in this case) in white on the storage box between the rear horns.

Most sources agree that the Mk.II males at Arras were in a monotone brown scheme, variously described as "neutral" or "mud coloured", but the shade of brown is open to question. The Mk.IV D51 recently unearthed at Flesquieres retains traces of its original brown paint. Having been buried in 1918, the paint is not likely too faded, but its colour may have been affected by prolonged exposure to soil and rust. The Association 1914-18 site has a number of photos of D51. The Landships site has several colour photos of the Mk.II at Bovington. While the sides of the vehicle were re-painted in a pseudo "Solomon" scheme in the 1940's, the upper surfaces of the tank do not show signs of obvious re-painting, and may be in the original brown colour, undoubtedly much faded by now.

mad zeppelin · Commander in Chief

I've been kreeping around D.51 - there are some remnants of the original "chocolate brown" paint job, but they are very small. What you see on photographs of D.51 is just "rust brown".

Francisco · Sergeant

Thank you for your help, that thread cleared it up a bit. Landships decal sheet doesn't have the 788 nor the C.37, I should take a lot on my spares..

Here are some pics of what I've done so far:

Rhomboid · Field Marshal

Nice work so far, Francisco - can't wait to see her painted! While we're on the topic of Lusitania, I think the attached photo may show her final resting place. It is a highly magnified detail from a panoramic photo taken shortly after the start of the Battle of Arras. The view is eastward from Observatory Ridge, across Battery Valley to the Feuchy-Wancourt line. Lusitania was cruising south along this line on April 9, 1917, shooting up machine gun posts, when her magneto failed, and the tank was abandoned. The circled object is quite indistinct in this scan from "The Battlefields of the First World War" by Peter Barton, but the CD images which accompany the book show it with sufficient resolution to make out a lozenge shape with a cab and rear horns. The line of dug up chalk behind the object is the Feuchy-Wancourt trench. Barton's book is well worth a look, full of detailed low-angle panoramic photos taken by the Royal Engineers during the war as aids to orientation for all the British battlefields.