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Brass or Steel?

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  • Member since
    April 2007
Brass or Steel?
Posted by Leddy on Thursday, December 10, 2015 3:54 PM

i am building a panther turret late in the war, 1945.  l will include spent shell casings for a 75 mm PaK 40.  Should the casings be brass or steel?

Thanks,

Leddy

  • Member since
    December 2012
Posted by Ixion on Thursday, December 10, 2015 5:23 PM

Thought I just answered this same question a month ago...

Since brass-plated steel looks outwardly the same as solid brass, your choices are "brass" or steel, either one or both.

 

 

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Sonora Desert
Posted by stikpusher on Thursday, December 10, 2015 5:25 PM

Weren't the Germans using lacquered steel for shell casings late war?

 

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  • Member since
    June 2015
Posted by OldGoat on Thursday, December 10, 2015 5:53 PM

stikpusher

Weren't the Germans using lacquered steel for shell casings late war?

 

Yes

 

  • Member since
    December 2012
Posted by Ixion on Thursday, December 10, 2015 6:03 PM

 Parkerized finish can be found too, in both grey and green, but examples of these are hard to find and I've never seen Panther ammo finished this way;

One would think that if they made KwK 43 and KwK 36 ammo Parkerized, Kwk 42 would be too, I've just never seen one. The brass ones could be either dull or polished and the brass-plated could be either brass or copper colored. Bare steel had a bad habit of sticking in the breach and not ejecting, making it unsuitable for use. Some of the lacquered shells look greenish, like the example on the far left;

Some look like ordinary steel, with a slight iridescence.

More examples of different colored lacquered steel and Parkerized casings;

http://www.network54.com/Forum/637977/thread/1275567962/last-1275648965/view+all+messages

KwK 42 rounds, note the more copper-colored plating on the top round, as opposed to the more typical yellowish brass;

This artwork from a French website depicts just exactly what I can't find in real life, green Parkerized KwK 42 ammo;

What basis in reality this has, I don't know, but it theoretically could have existed.

  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by T26E4 on Thursday, December 10, 2015 9:46 PM

OP: you're a little confused.

If you're asking about a Pak 40, then in one of the Panzers in Saumur books, interior photos of the Marder I fighting compartment (with a 7.5cm Pak 40).  There are stacks of cartridges inside -- both brass and steel colored. 

Confirmed also by an unpublished text based on primary sources by researcher Dan Mouritzsen which said cartridges came in two colors: drawn brass and drawn steel (lacquered). 

 

But since you're asking about a Panther with its 7.5cm Kwk 42 L/70 gun, its cartridges were drawn brass or drawn steel, brass plated -- both appearing brass.

 

Panther 75mm cartridges would not be the same as 7.5cm Pak 40 ammo cartridges.

Roy Chow 

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