102 decals

[charlesp]

Theres a chap on eBay selling replica gold and white tank decals for a 102. They are a white bird motif in a gold circle, with 'British Seagull' in gold.
- see item No 4651191363.

The only other representation of this one that I have seen is depicted on John's site

Click here to see larger image
It may well be that the photo on the SOS site served as the basis for the new one.

The photo on John's site has always made me a bit uncomfortable, it's the only one I have seen, and the lettering isn't, well, isn't very British Seagull, and I'm wondering if this is one somebody has made up. I have thumbed through Yachting magazines from the Marston days up to the sixties, and have drawn a complete blank. I have shown it to past British Seagull employees, and I have searched eBay. No luck

Has anyone out there got a photo of another example? Or has anyone seen one like this?

Any ideas?

[John@sos]

Hi Charles,

this motif came from Australia, from a collector, Steve. I suspect you could well be right about the logo...

What we need to find is an unmarked unused Seagull tank, one for every model.... Fat chance Eh! But if we look for long enough....

I'm still looking.

Cheers,

john
SOS

[charlesp]

More like a dozen of each - there were so many variations. As a mint tank went for £155 on the Internet a few weeks ago you'd need deep pockets, too!

As you know I'm trying to track down a good copy of the 'White Bird' decal; I'd like to know exactly what it looked like. But each that I acquire is slightly different.

I spent ages hand crafting replacement decals for these, thinking I had a good one to copy from, then discovered that there was feathering detail. So I scrapped them, did a new batch, applied them to a couple of tanks, and before the petrol proof lacquer was dry discovered that there was grey/blue shading as well. Third batch in progress, until yesterday with the arrival of an FVP I realised there are two different types of lettering. And so it goes on.

I now have an FV and an FVP with serial numbers that are very close, they must be of similar vintage. The FV tank says 8:1, the FVP is similar to the confusing 10:1 decal illustrated on your site. I suspect that whover wrote up the instructions had spent too much time in the Jolly Sailor at lunchtime.

Shame about that 102 logo on eBay. I'm open minded, but at the minute I'm convinced it's not a British Seagull design.