Depth charge colors?

Too true.

Make a person wish the film stock info was recorded along with the images.

Especially with color stock.  Ektachrome slide stock has a distinct 4200ºK blue bias versus, say Kodachrome film stock, which is a warmer stock.

Which is then subject to how the film was printed.  And printers can be a unique bunch.  There is a bit of Star Trek TOS trivia on how  Spock was originally given a copper-green skin hue.  But, the film printers were always late, as they were working day and night to "fix" Nimoy's character's skin tone.

Not to mention the type of B&W film being used. I do recall one type was red sensitive do to speak, while another was blue sensitive. These tidbits of arcane knowledge that you dig up help make our hobby that much more accurate for those who strive for that goal.

You give far too much credit.  My 'smart' was in knowin gto involve my LPO in getting tasks done.  (Particularly without letting any paint drip on either the XO or CO).

Given the combination of sparse, missing, occasionally contradictory info out there on WWII paint, your perseverance deserves accolades.

A task further complicated by contemporary photography.  The photographers of the day knew the limitations of the medium and method.  Given an opportunity, they would use depth of field, and exposure times to get full-saturation photos.  Which means reference photos can have every hue value from pure white to pure black--all the better to show off whatever is being photographed.  Those hue values may not have anything to do with the varying colors involved.

So, it's a full measure of work.

You have much more experience with Navy paint than I - my expertise, if it exists, lies in WWII documentation. I prefer to call it a "heavy familiarity" as I've seen a lot, but essentially just enough to realize there's a lot I don't know for sure. There's the directives, and then there's what crews  living in forward combat had time for....

I do not have Mr White's experience with paint. (other than ensuring that my Division or Department painting goals as set out by the XO were met).

I did, back in the Dark Ages (the '80s) spend far too much time reading obscure BuORd and BuShips documents trying to find out what those blobs of plastic were supposed to look like.  Which led to distractions like the streamlined DC.  

The sonar boffins were up against computation and detection limits; and uncertainty is less-than desirable in ASW.  The quick solution was to change the speed the DC got to the computed taget location faster.  Sadly, that only works versus on non-streamlined WWII boats.  

Which is why, post war, the larger charges were needful to get to deeper-diving streamlined subs.  At least until some one came up with strapping a rocket motor to a W-34 as an answer.

In any event, it means I've seen too many low-contrast, high-grain photos of launchers and rails and the like.  Those memories oft run together.  Not at all helped by the old practice of painting training and inert rounds black.

Ugh, now, I'm having flashbacks of studying Absurdly Slow Warfare in Newport.

If it moves, salute it. If it doesn't, paint it!

The only shots I've seen of Depth charges painted showed them being spray gunned on deck (literally on deck, leaving overspray rings on the deck!) but this was during overhaul. I don't know what the procedure was for ships that had a common stock (single magazine) but multiple colors (say the stern racks are 5N but the K guns are part of a 5-O or 5-L pattern in dazzle). My gut tells me that fresh stock might be painted to match the "launcher" but if it was used during a convoy/patrol, they might not repaint the DCs that were left afterwards until the next time the reached a destination with more downtime. In general, the camouflage orders said to paint equipment to match the bulkheads, but I could see something expendable like a depth charge being a lower priority while on duty. Hence my hedge earlier about "as time permitted."

In general was old paint chipped off and then primer applied or new paint applied over old paint?

Specifically regarding DCs, where they removed from racks for painting or only the visible parts were painted over?

It is possible that a ship in action would have different colored sets of DCs as in those which were ready on deck and repainted to the needed scheme and those stored below decks which had recently been brought topside for ready use but not yet repainted?

Raualduke

The depth of knowledge on this site never ceases to amaze me

Yes, I always get a charge out of the posts myself!

The depth of knowledge on this site never ceases to amaze me

I ran into another hangup with the charges. I made them from 40 mil styrene rod, about 80 mil long.  Then, trying to move those things into glue, and then into the photo etched rack- invariably I got glue between the charge and the tweezer points, and it would rather stick to tweezer tip than the rack!

Finally I put down a strip of double sided tape on a piece of particle board, and lined up a rack's worth of charges on the tape, then applied glue to the batch, making a strip of eight depth charges. I was able to take that strip and insert it into the rack, then apply a drop of glue near where the strip of charges touched the rack.  Done and mounted on the fantail!

Well I'm glad you did.

LOL! And you wont come back from that trip with the need to visit a doc for various ailments

Probably safer than hanging out in bars, but the grand I dropped on a research trip to DC last month certainly doesn't feel any cheaper!

Tracy White

P.S. I never intended on becoming so well read on this level of paint minutia :P

Don't be afraid to question or call me out. I try only to speak about things I have direct knowledge or documentation for to back up, but would like to back my statements up or retract them if there's any question?

I'm very happy that you have because you are a great source of knowledge. This will sound weird, but I basically believe everything you post, and that's rare.

P.S. I never intended on becoming so well read on this level of paint minutia :P

5-D was only produced in 1941 - and even then we don't have a lot of hard data as the initial plan was to use up stocks of the pre-war gray by mixing it with a black paste to get it to the same tone as the "official" 5-D, which was a alkyd resin paint of a different formula. I've found no official documentation about when the remixed pre-war paint ran out and the official stuff began, if ever. We just know that by July of 1941 they decided to go with something else, and when that happened and they had the leftover dark gray, they decided to use it up on depth charges. Once the factories got low on that, they sent a request to the Navy for more (not knowing the background) and were told to use 5-O Ocean gray as that was the standard paint to be used for equipment.

By late 1944 the Navy had learned that the expensive blue pigment didn't really add anything to camouflage, so they went with neutral paints starting in early 1945. It's possible that the "5-N Navy Gray" that replaced "5-N Navy Blue" was used on depth charges, but I haven't seen any BuOrd manuals yet that discuss that.

I have a vague memory that, when the streamlined depth charges, there was a standardized dark gray color associated with that Mark.  But, that may have been one more "1945 thing"--where many things were started, but did not much last past August '45.

Tracy, I just knew that they were all painted the same color at the factory.  

seasick

They were produced and painted a standard gray at the factory.

I don't know how to describe this, not trying to be "accuracy police" or anything, but for what it's worth, the Navy used up its stocks of 5-D Dark Gray (1941 paint color, essentially) on depth charges. When that was out, they switched to 5-O Ocean Gray, but as you said, they were painted on the ship as time permitted.

Depends on the navy have read where Allied submariners noticed some IJN patrol craft with red painted depth charges.

Thanks, that will be easy enough.

They were produced and painted a standard gray at the factory. When they arrived in theater and were loaded aboard ship they were repainted according to the camouflage measure the ship they were loaded on to was painted in.

There were inert handling training rounds, and training rounds with smaller explosives.