Sorry it's long overdue - but a big thank to Greg for his help in posting the photos on my behalf.
Recently I had the privilege of speaking to the former English owner and the new Dutch owner of ' Little Chicken ' a Federal Pacific who both explained without any prompting from me that the tool case with the vehicle was red in colour - but had been repainted black, had no badges nor decals, with the original factory Blackhawk red still visible internally, and was something that had puzzled them both leading them to believe that the case was not in fact correct.
This is exactly the same colour combination as mine which suggests to me that these sets were factory supplied red, and repainted black for military issue which is now how I intend to refinish my tool case.
How I came to put this set together is pure chance - earlier this year I purchased some 1/2'' drive Blackhawk items for possible inclusion in my GMTK, when they arrived I was impressed with their quality, and the fact that they were period correct. So I managed to purchase the other remaining Blackhawk items from the same vendor - they had similar date codes, showed little or no wear as if they had originated from the same set, so it seemed an opportunity not to be missed.
Fast forward several months, and this ' tool box containing some Blackhawk tools ' came up on the auction site - I had to have it, and the rest is history. At the moment the case contains some sixty pieces, is not complete, and weighs in at a whopping back breaking 96.8 lbs ( 44 kgs )
By a rather strange coincidence my Grandmother once owned a race horse named ' Blackhawk ' which ran in the 1939 Grand National, and while leading the field with just one fence from home was jostled by another horse at Valentines, and fell loosing the race to ' Workman ' !
Wishing you all a happy Christmas & thanks for the kind comments
Len
Owner & Custodian of GPW 24043 since 1976.
MVT No 366.