Color of Depth Charges & Artillery Shells

jayman1 wrote:

Revell wants the modeler to paint the shells for the 4" gun a bronze metralic color. That would provide a nice touch of color to the model but I do not think the shells were bronze. And, if they were, they were probably not left as unpainted metal. This gun had separate shells and powder charges.

As a guess, the recommendation for "bronze" is to get a better scale effect.  All of the cartridge cases I've seen were brass, in varying amounts of light to dark.  The actual rounds are all different colors, you'd need some sort of reference on RN 4" ammunition for that.  Steel, schwartzgrun, burnt iron, OD, any of those might suffice until a better answer was known. 

You might find some info on here

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/stephen.johnson/arms/

Rick

RickF, thank you very much for your reference. It proved very valuable and I would like to share my findings with you and any others needing this information for the Flower Class corvette.

First, I am attempting to render the vessel as the USS Saucy on her transfer voyage from the UK to the US via Halifax in May 1942. The only photo of the vessel in this time period shows her with US markings. I speculate that she carried UK weapons and ammunition during this voyage.

The web site mentioned in RickF's post does not show the 4" naval artillery shell that would have been used. But it does have a page detailing the generic markings for a RN Naval artillery shell. The color illustration has the shell rendered in olive drab.

There is another similar page showing a torpedo warhead and depth charges. There are two depth chagegs, one designed to be launched from a ship and the other one is designed to be droped from a ship. The aircraft unit is rendered in black while the naval unit is rendered in a dark grey. The illustration is such that one can't determine the exact shade of grey. But, if one renders them in a dark grey they will probably be in the ballpark. This is in contrast to the depth charges shown in color photos taken on the Canadian restored vessel HMCS Sackville, which are painted a very light blue.

There was also a page on hedgehogs. They are rendered in black just as they are on the HMCS Sackville.

Now that I think of it, I wonder if the vessel had hedgehogs in May 1942. I believe these were a wartime development. When were hedgehogs deployed to vessels? Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Again thank you very much RickF.

Regards, Jay

My pleasure - glad it was of use.

Rick

RN http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WAMBR_ASW.htm

USN http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WAMUS_ASW.htm

Thanks ddp59 for your reference. It was very helpful.

According to the site, the hedgehogs were developed in 1941 and were deployed in late 1942. I believe the photo of the USS Saucy was taken just after commissioning in May 1942. In that case, hedgehogs would not have been on board.

Now Murphy's law applies. Just as you answer one question, a bunch of others crop up.

I was under the impression that the splinter shield abrest the hedgehog position was installed when the hedgehogs were installed. But the photo clearly shows the splinter shield installed. So, when were these splinter shields installed on the Flower Class corvettes? Perhaps we will never know but I would be greatful for any ideas on this.