Renault FT and TSF – Evolving Strategy for the Foundation or Harsh Lessons Learned - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

The Foundation always strives to bring back each artefact exactly to its state when it saw action in global conflict and/or the point of leaving the assembly line even if this was 100 years ago. Determining the assembly firm and the point in time in which a vehicle or object left the assembly line is essential. This determines how the vehicle may be faithfully restored. This presents many challenges as there is precious little remaining in archives for WW1 vehicles on the assembly line and less still for vehicles in the field that photographically recorded their interior and exterior – let alone in colour!. The research to achieve this 100% result, faithful to the vehicle itself at either point in time – assembly or end of service is everything. This usually requires a significant commitment of time to allow for a smooth restoration process by the team. Striving for accuracy, in each area down to the bolts, has serious drawbacks as it adds a significant time element to a project. This discipline has been road tested once again with our First World War tank projects - the Renault FT and TSF. Our starting gambit included original hulls which fortunately still retained original paint (from which we scientifically extracted their registration and assembly numbers), two original gearboxes and engines in condition expected of century old veterans and a few track links, floor plate sections, steering arms, internal seat fittings, hooks etc. What we then faced with the Renault FT, and more especially the TSF, has been well in excess of the very challenging task of restoring World War II vehicles to this 100% standard. Normally, a hull, an engine, a gear box and some internal and external parts would be added to over time by a more comprehensive gathered list of components which would eventually provide a green light for the project to start. Unfortunately, with our WW1 tank initiative, this was not the case as the ability to source a quorum of parts for the project was not possible - as they no longer exist! What we faced was a vast commitment to the creation of patterns taken from original suspension components and gathering of previously inaccessible archive material on the missing internal and external detail. A cooperative arrangement was negotiated with Musée des Blindés Saumur who provided access to period Renault plant blueprints in return for components needed in their own FT project. Without these 100-year-old blueprints an accurate and faithful Renault FT and TSF outcome would never have been possible. Of course, even these period plans were not infallible as many had been updated post WW1. We had to expend hours and hours of studying period images to verify whether each part or modification was indeed in use during WW1!. Additional complications and serious financial leakage was caused through not determining the differences between prototype, early WW1 production and post war 1920 export drive components at the start of our project. These loss leader experiments were added to when realisation dawned that the 4 different assemblers (and sub-contractors to these assemblers) were largely doing their own thing with castings (different designs and casting references) not only for the suspension but also engines, engine bay and hull construction right down to the bolt and nut design. These errors were fortunately discovered relatively early on in this 10-year project but did require wholesale modifications, replacements or disposals of the, by then, large pattern and castings collection that had gathered and established as being prototype, early, post war (non-WW1 Renault) and or competitor (one of the three other assemblers) in origin. Complications arose when we discovered that counterparts claiming expertise in certain disciplines or the subject fell short of being able to deliver quality or accuracy. These costly mistakes formed part of the learning process and led the Foundation to seek out a group of superb counterparts capable of delivering the quality required. This evolving research and subsequent discovery of the detail has brought us to where we are now. Our intention was and is to transfer the knowledge gained throughout the process to all of our supporters/members and will grow as we embark upon the final assembly phase of these two unique veterans of the First World War. The looming and obvious question to be asked at this point is whether this has all been worthwhile? The time taken for the research (with all its pitfalls) started in 2008 with the arrival of the first hull and parts. Pattern making, and castings began shortly thereafter only to be reinitiated once we discovered the error of our ways. In house and external machining started in earnest in early 2014 once the castings had grown sufficiently in number to allow the workshop restoration team to begin. Four years later and we are now finally assembling both vehicles with an eye on completion by May 2018 in time for the WW1 commemorative events planned for the summer and beyond in 2018. The Renault FT and TSF are still far from complete but the end is in sight. This WW1 initiative costs and time have been substantial in relation to all previous projects including even the Jagdpanther. However, the lessons learned will be applied to the forthcoming our leichte Panzerspähwagen projects.

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