"What color are artillery shells?" Topic
11 Posts
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PigmentedMiniatures  | 23 Aug 2006 6:25 a.m. PST |
The title pretty much explains my question. I'm painting some early WW II soviet artillery and want know what color to use for the shells. |
| Lord Al | 23 Aug 2006 6:35 a.m. PST |
The ones I've seen have brass casings with the actual projectile being color coded as to the type. While it varies from country to country, yellow for H.E, black of A.P., etc. For early Soviet, black or a steel color would probably be OK. Al |
| KatieL | 23 Aug 2006 6:36 a.m. PST |
I've always done the projectile in either "gunmetal" (dark metallic) or steel (if I'm after a bit of brightness. Depends on the figure and era) and the casing using "old gold" (I tried "brass" brass for the casings but they seem a bit redder than I prefer.) Kind of like large bullets… They didn't paint them, surely? |
| jpattern2 | 23 Aug 2006 7:18 a.m. PST |
Short answer: Usually the casing was left in natural brass, which quickly oxidized, but the "business end" was almost always painted, even by the Soviets. I believe the shells were usually painted olive drab (US & UK), gray (Germans), or black (Soviets), with stripes in various colors to indicate the type of shell, as noted by Lord Al, and sometimes the entire shell was painted that color. Descriptive text was stenciled on the shells, but that might be overkill in any scale smaller than 1/35.
Verlinden does resin sets of artillery and tank shells, including WWII sets, and the packages feature beautifully painted examples which are well researched and historically accurate. All of their ammo sets are listed here: link
Here's their 75mm tank ammo for the Sherman, Lee, and Chaffee: link
76mm tank ammo for the Sherman: link
T34/76 ammo: link
T34/85 ammo: link |
| jpattern2 | 23 Aug 2006 7:21 a.m. PST |
Oh, one other point: If you're painting practice rounds, the entire shell (but not the casing) was (and is) usually painted blue, for safety. You don't want to fire a live round during practice, and you don't want to have any practice rounds in a "hot" tank. |
| PigmentedMiniatures | 23 Aug 2006 8:13 a.m. PST |
Thanks for the help guys! |
| Rhino Co | 28 Aug 2006 4:49 a.m. PST |
Shells you find on the beach, what you're looking for is the color of projectiles, to cannoneers also known as "Projos" or just "Joes." The basic colors used for many years were olive drab (OD) for high-explosive rounds, gray for chemical rounds, blue for practice rounds, and black for drill rounds. A system of contrasting color markings or bands in addition to the basic color has also been used to identify the particular type of high explosive or chemical used as a filler. Color coding of recently produced projectiles is somewhat different. For example, illuminating and smoke rounds are no longer painted gray, the basic color for chemical shells. Illuminating rounds are now painted basically white or olive drab, and the smoke rounds are painted lightgreen. (Taken from the FM 6-50) picture Powder bags for separate loading ammunition (155mm howitzers and larger) are either white or light green cylindrical bags and have a red igniter pad on the base of the base charge (Which is inserted into the breach so the red patch points out. Thus the #1 man says the ditty, "Charge 6, white bag, I see red").
Semi-fixed ammo, 105mm, has a brass canister. Fuzes are either black silver or gold color. picture picture Iraqi Ammo was/is (Former Soviet and Chinese) OD with silver fuzes. |
| jpattern2 | 30 Aug 2006 6:55 a.m. PST |
Rhinoco, all good info, but PM was asking about early Soviet WWII, not modern, and not US. (Did the US supply any tank or artillery ammo to the Soviets early in the war? If so, was it painted as per US ammo?) |
| Jemima Fawr | 30 Aug 2006 7:33 a.m. PST |
If it helps, British WWII artillery ammo followed the following pattern: Black – AP
Buff – HE
Brunswick Green – Smoke
Blue-Grey – Gas
Blue – Practice Banding and lettering to indicate fuse types, filling, flash charge, etc was in black or red. |
| Rhino Co | 31 Aug 2006 7:08 a.m. PST |
The colors I listed from the FM 6-50 were describing WWII US Ammo. I was thinking of lend lease and what I saw of old ex-Soviet Ammo in Iraqi service. If I remember the US provided Tanks and 2.5 ton Trucks. I assume tank ammo went as well. |
| jpattern | 31 Aug 2006 2:54 p.m. PST |
Excellent, thanks for the clarification, Rhinoco. |
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