At Christmas in 1940 sets of Dinky military vehicles & equipment were put on sale at Hamleys, the well known toy shop in London. What made these sets special was the fact that the toys within the sets had been partially over-painted with a brown paint to create a camouflaged effect. Because the brown paint was painted on by hand there was no set pattern and so each model is unique.The largest set was the "Mechanized Army" set which contained almost all the current military vehicles & equipment that was available at the time. Another set was the 162 18pdr Quick-firing Field Unit.

My first acquisition of one of these camouflaged military toys was in 1994 when I was successful in bidding for one at a Christie's South Kensington auction. It was a 151b 6-wheeled Covered Transport Lorry. I later discovered that this particular toy was shown in the coloured photograph opposite the title page of the book "The Great Book of Dinky Toys" by Mike & Sue Richardson. Over the years since then I have managed to acquire a few more of these hard to find toys.

Just recently I have managed to find another 5 camouflaged models all in one go.

I understand that these camouflaged models were never advertised in any Meccano or Dinky literature but only in a Hamleys advertisement before Christmas 1940.

There are still questions about these sets that I would like answers to, though perhaps they will never be answered.

(1) How many of these sets were made for Hamleys?

(2) What were the other sets that were put together?

(3) Were any of these camouflaged models sold as individual items?

(4) Do any other members have some of these special models that they would like to share?

Chris