German 37mm pom pom original brown paint?

[Rrickoshae]

good morning, please see the pics of one of a pair of identical pom pom rounds that I picked up recently. The projectiles are painted brown and this would appear to be the original paint (it looks a bit like rust in the photos but it is not). There is a U stamped in the projectile. Can anyone confirm that this is a German ordnance colour code and if so, what it represents. Does the U denote a practice round?

any thoughts?

thanks, Dave

 

[BMG50]

Difficult to see. I thought they were a dark shade of green.

 

[Rrickoshae]

yes normally they are but these are definitely brown. The paint has been on the shells for a very long time and is typically military in style - thin coat but high pigment

 

[Gspragge]

I have only these colourations, however there are practice and or
drill versions. I may have seen a black example in the past but cannot
be sure now. Brown would indicate a different filling which is unknown to me
if this is correct. What is the base of the projectile like, wether that will be
of any help I have no idea.

 

[Rrickoshae]

many thanks for the photo and as you say they are normally green or green/black. I too suspect they may be practice rounds. The crimps are too tight to allow me to remove the projs but looking through the primer socket the 'fuzes' would appear to be the same as the sockelflak type, a mazak plug inset with a brass bleed through centre peice.

Dave

 

[Gspragge]

If they have that igniter in the base they are not an inert practice, but perhaps have
a different filler. Could the Brown be an aged Red ? Without filling / colour code information we may never
know.

 

[Rrickoshae]

yes, I've looked really close but I am fairly sure this was never red. I've sent an enquiry to a friend who has more experience of these items than me & perhaps that will generate an id.

 

[Alpini]

Hope you won't kill me for my question, but isn't it just a thin layer of brown rust? Maybe I would see color in reality but on your pictures I don't see any color!? The case and shell, especially the driving band looks much like polished with sand paper. On shells with original color you can see the turing marks under the color. Also the edge on the top of the shell seems to have been destroyed by grinding which also leads to a wrong shaped ogive.

Maybe in the groove of the "U" letter you can find some remains of the original green color.

These shells normally have a factory stamp on the flat surface on top.

 

[Burney Davis]

The 'U' symbol is common on this model of projectile and can be found on green painted examples as well as ordinary unpainted ones that have remnants of the original tracer filling. Practice projectiles were painted black and didn't have the mazak plug and brass centre piece. I have had one of these (now long gone) that looked very similar to yours and it had been painted with varnish or shellac which had obviously been applied decades previously. Perhaps it is that.

 

[Rrickoshae]

hi Alpini, I think you read too much into the poor quality photo that my camera produces. It is not rust, the case doesn't appear to have been cleaned with sandpaper or the shell ground down. There is no green paint evident.

thanks anyway, Dave

 

[Rrickoshae]

thats interesting Burney, perhaps that is the answer. many thanks, Dave