Went for a look at a couple of Tilleys and came back with this. I'm sure I read a bit about blue heat deflectors being rare. Are they? It's not the best condition but hey-ho. Also had to take a Bialaddin 305 from 1954 in the deal. Looks in a bit of a mess but it all seems straight and tidy. Enough to keep me busy for a while.
Blue is rare - but sadly, not one of those... Having said that, I'm almost certain that dark blue heat deflector came on the cream W&B civvie lantern of the time (1942 - 48 according to Peter Sunderland) and we're not exactly tripping over those. Neil has one that I know of and there will be a few others - so a good find but not a Rothmans/Rothmans style hood...
Cheers David. Wasn't meaning the Rothmans style. Think as it's military I'll do it grey. The other civilian one I have I'll do cream.
Nah grey was Air Ministry and that one was green so it's army. Wants a touch of BRG. Odd with a blue cap but possible and I dare say the army weren't fussed. ::Neil::
Cheers Neil, it's grey under the green paint. The base is very dark grey. So maybe Air Ministry with a different hood?
OK if it is grey under the green then AM it is. Mind you we actually don't know about these. Some are marked with the AM crown logo but with the broad arrow could be any of the services. Grey would imply Air Force or Navy rather than army though. No good trying to second guess if the cap is original because they were often mixed up when in use by the forces. Might be though because the bue cap sort of looks better on the grey tank. ::Neil::
Hi Neil. You're right. the only certain thing about these lamps is you can never be certain. I think it's fair to say it's been cobbled together over the years to keep in in use. I'll go with the grey tank and leave the heat deflector as 'wrong' as part of it's history!! Thanks again. Brian
Hi Brian, Your lamp is just how it should be, the dark blue heat deflectors were used around 1945. Here are another two 300s both with dark blue tops and carrying the crows foot marking with 1945 date. I have also added a cream 300 with a blue top. The cream ones had blue tops because they were made around 1945. It wasn't until 4th July 1944 that W&B started to experiment with other colours for the tanks, until that date the standard colour for all lamps was Rapidal Grey. I have seen lots of early lamps painted green but not one that was original. I don't believe they used green as a production colour until 1949 with the Air Ministry Bialaddin 300x and that was a very light green. A true Army green wasn't used till the next year when the updated Bialaddin 300x was fitted with a green enamel hood.
