Depth Charger Colors

With a quick Google search they appear for the most part to be the same color as the vessel they are mounted on.

 This is from a 1940s Depth Charge Manual on the Mk6 and 7:

To conserve critical material galvanized finish of cases has been discontinued. Cases are now
finished as follows:
(a) All surfaces parkerized.
(b) Interior surfaces painted with 1 coat projectile cavity paint.
(c) Exterior surfaces and central tube painted with 1 coat zinc chromate primer.
(d) Exterior surfaces painted with 1 coat dark gray paint.

 Looks like "dark gray" is it, buthow dark and what gray? Can't help you there, tho info above sounds good. Also maybe shipcamoflage (Synder) willhave some info: http://www.shipcamouflage.com

And FYI, from wiki:

"Parkerizing (also called phosphating and phosphatizing) is a method of protecting a steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear through the application of an electrochemical phosphate conversion coating. Parkerizing is usually considered to be an improved zinc or manganese phosphating process, and not to be an improved iron phosphating process"

hope this helps

Thanks fellows for your help. Looks like dark gray is the color.

George

rokket wrote:

{SNIP}  Looks like "dark gray" is it, buthow dark and what gray? Can't help you there, tho info above sounds good. Also maybe shipcamoflage (Synder) willhave some info: http://www.shipcamouflage.com [SNIP}

Similar thread on SteelNavy within the last couple of weeks.  It has since rolled off the bottom.

One poster indicated that depth charges were to be painted in 5D (the very dark ash gray) color used by the Navy immediately prior to and during the few months of WWII.  The purpose was to use up the remaining stocks of pre-mixed 5D.  

Another poster showed charges painted in a countershading manner - topside dark and bottom side light.   That may be good on a K-gun,  but ineffective on a roll-off rack where the topside/bottom side changes as each charge rolls down the rack.

Another photo showed them painted light colored,   on the deck with overspray sircles on the deck.    Color looked to be close to 5H Haze Gray.

I've seen other photos with them looking to be 5O Ocean Gray.

The answer is "it depends".    Find a good reference,  (like NAVSOURCE) surf the pictures for your particular subject, and paint them however you wish.

The "LIFE" pictures showed them matching the grey of the racks that matched the verticals.

Watching "Enemy Below" last night they tended to match or at least where very close to the darker grey used on the deck.

Eric... 

When I served on the "Cans" the DCs were haze grey. I helped the Torpedomaen paint them. I was in Fox Div, so GMs, TMs, FTs and SOs were all together.

Mike K.

Mike, I didn't think about it, but of course, cans before the boast!

Enemy Below - I just watched that recently too, and thought about it as a source...and I just KNEW that numbskull was going to lose his fingers!

Maybe the DCs should be painted some of both...do a few dark, and a few dark with light finish off/touchups  and a thrid different again. (to capture that - "what's handy/does in a pinch" etc. feel).

Well, now we are talking two different scenerios---what color were they delivered in from the factory, and then what color could they be overpainted during the regular painting maintenance that takes place on a boat...

Sounds like they were delivered in dark grey, then a lot of colors could be applied to them depending on what color the ship had on hand to do re-painting/touch-ups...

Got to say though that the "counter-shading theory" sounds half-baked...if depth charge cans were that conspicious on a ship as to give it away, there were other issues...

Depth charges were delivererd from the factory in 5-D Dark Grey until something in 1942 when supplies ran low and the Navy started getting requests for more 5-D. At this point it was changed, but I don't know to what. This Photo of USS Buchanan shows that the camouflage paint was extended to the cans; note the darker charges on the left. From her Navsource page.