Took this book to the pub this afternoon for a re-read and noticed some things...
There is mention of Female '555' being fitted with a narrow cab in anticipation of wider [26.5"?] tracks and a rear mounted fuel tank between the track horns in the space vacated by the [redundant] steering tail arrangement. This sounds especially intriguing as it is mentioned in the context of a precursor for future versions... Hence we could be looking at an Mk.I Female with original MGs & MG cab flap [pre Lewis Gun 'petition'], but with a narrow width cab and a Mark IV style fuel tank. What a mongrel! Certainly scope for building it from the available Takom Mk.I kit if this is the inference.
Also, the accepted wisdom - and David Fletcher's oft mentioned thoughts - on squatting sponson crew... For Male Mk.I tanks very probably - kneeling on rubber mats going by the text of this book, but there is clear pictorial evidence of sprung bike saddle arrangements for the sponson crew of Mk. I Female tanks - presumably static in that they don't swivel or go up and down like in the Millennium Falcon but a huge advance none the less... Presumably - if a standard Mk. I [II or early III] fitting - they were only missed out on Mk. IV to keep the enlarged escape hatches clear for use..?!
Finally, *late* Mk. III Female sponsons... The photo shows something looking almost exactly like the Mk. IV Female sponson, but without the tell-tale split that denotes a folding sponson. Presumably *late* Mk. III Females [i.e. not re-using Mk. I sponsons] still operated on the logic of removing sponsons for rail transport rather than swinging them inboard..?
-- Edited by compound eye on Sunday 22nd of May 2016 08:29:17 PM
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"You there on the port!". "S'gin actually, but thanks for noticing [hic]".
The bicycle seats are only implied [in the book] for female Mk. I tanks. The best photo on page 11.
The mention of rubber mats is very vague, but I have always imagined the 6pdr gunner uncomfortably hunched over the arm-rest to counter-balance / aim the thing. Whether then loaders knelt or not [to keep out of the way of the gunner / arc of travel], who knows... Presumably the sponson MGs in the Males had no bicycle seats to impede ingress/egress through the doors and because they were defensive rather than offensive as in the Female. What crews did during during cross country running is also anyone's guess... but I'd imagine that after a very short time of being battered & bounced about gunners would have considered sitting on a rolled kit blanket or a sandbag far better than the sort of half crouch most sources suggest.
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"You there on the port!". "S'gin actually, but thanks for noticing [hic]".
The late Mark III Female sponsons look superficially like those of the Mark IV, in the sense that they are half the height of the earlier sponsons and have the two doors beneath, but as you correctly say they do not fold inside the hull. There are two other points about these sponsons. The first is that at the top of the sponson side, there is a single horizontal row of rivets. On the Mark IV sponson there is a double row of rivets. The second point is that the sponson has lifting lugs so that it can be suspended from a crane whilst being removed for, or refitted after, rail transport.
