What's new
British Ordnance Collectors Network

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

How did the Ordnance factories paint the shells?

917601

Well-Known Member
I have a few US Vietnam era projectiles that I am thinking of repainting.I have stripped some in the past, sanded, or etched and have noticed what I believe to be original paint does NOT appear to have primer. I have an original 1970's 105mm rusted about 60 percent, when the rust was removed I found only OD color, and carefully sanding those areas, ( 320 grit), no primer evident- unless it was green primer? Did they use enamel or lacquer? Does anyone have specs on how the factory painted the shells?
 

Attachments

  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    161.5 KB · Views: 52
Last edited:
Most munitions were lacquered or painted over fresh bare steel, sometimes the steel body had a phosphate finish before the paint was applied. Mills bombs for instance were shellaced on top of a fresh cast body as with HE 2"mortar rounds, you can still see the shiny steel under the original finish. In some cases a red oxide primer is used as a first coat. I suspect priming of war time surplus was a luxury. As for painting you will be surprised some things were hand painted, modern munitions were most probably sprayed and the modern paints Vietnam era were good to last in storage and packing until it was open and exposed to the element's which only lasted a certain time.
 
Last edited:
Most munitions were lacquered or painted over fresh bare steel, sometimes the steel body had a phosphate finish before the paint was applied. Mills bombs for instance were shellaced on top of a fresh cast body as with HE 2"mortar rounds, you can still see the shiny steel under the original finish. In some cases a red oxide primer is used as a first coat. I suspect priming of war time surplus was a luxury. As for painting you will be surprised some things were hand painted, modern munitions were most probably sprayed and the modern paints Vietnam era were good to last in storage and packing until it was open and exposed to the element's which only lasted a certain time.

Thank you, that is what I expected as I have a 1945 dated 105H that the paint has shiney steel where recent bumps removed the paint. Same with a 1943 Navy 3inch and a 1945 dated 75MM RR round. Even my 105 HEP M465 loading round has shiney steel under the paint.
 
As collectors restaurating ammo we often make the mistake of doing this to perfection. When ou look at wartime ammo in it's Original paint it often occures it's done without any care.
Only in peacetime ammo is painted and stencilled neatly.

Regards, DJH
 
Having spent 30 years working on all types of large and small ammunition for scrape and painting .I don't think your correct to say that all ammunition not done to perfection .It has to to come up to a standard that's why we had inspection staff to make sure it was correct to the drawing. For your information the first coat would be red oxide primer then the appropriate top coat colour for the type eg HE Star Prac Drill and markings done to the drawing.The filling factory does not use stencilling as they use rolling pads. Most RNAD Depots use stencilling only use pads for cartridge cases.

Hope this info helps

Steve Ex RNAD Trecwn
 
I have had my hands on great quantities of WWII Russian, German and US ammo items with original paint, none of these had any primer under the paint. All only had paint applied to bare metal.
 
I have WWII U.S. bombs that have a red lead base coat under the OD green, but they are large.

In this posting I have described how they painted the 155 projectiles we made at Norris:

http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threads/70860-155mm-M483A1-DPICM?highlight=paint+booth

The steel parts of the body had a phosphate finish, which helped the paint to adhere to the metal and also protected it. We painted the whole projectile OD green, and we shipped them to the loading arsenals, who put the yellow lettering and diamonds on them according to what they loaded inside as a cargo, mines or grenades.
 
Last edited:
It took awhile, but I found one ( looks like a 57mm ?) being hand painted with a brush, last pic. Thanks for all the input.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    182.5 KB · Views: 60
  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    91.1 KB · Views: 60
  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    74.6 KB · Views: 61
  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    110.5 KB · Views: 65
  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    48.5 KB · Views: 73
Last edited:
In the case of your photo, the rounds are small enough to lift by hand, so it is easy to use a brush.
 
Very interesting article. My primary question answerd, lacquer appears to be the paint type used and as being lacquer, would require no primer. Article dated 1941, I assume they were still using yellow instead of OD. Thanks again.
 
Last edited:
Top