US MkII Practice Grenades?

[peregrinvs]

Hi,

I recently bought these two MkII bodies with a view to fettling them up with a correct OD + yellow filling band paint scheme. The previous owner had slapped a load of satin green paint on them which I immediately attacked with some Nitromors.

However, I was a bit surprised to find traces of red paint which I believe was an early practice colour. However, they both have screwed in filler plugs and I thought these were left empty on practice bodies? One of them also seems to have some traces of blue.

So what do I have here?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[peregrinvs]

Addendum. Things found whilst googling:

1. Examples of red painted MkII practice bodies with base plug intact:

https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/294585-early-mk-ii-practice-grenade/
http://www.inertord.com/grenmkfrag.html

2. A possible example of a red MkII practice body overpainted blue in the body markings section (marked ‘BS’):

http://tgrm.foxed.ca/Americangrenades/Mk II/The Mk 2 grenade.html

So is an early red practice body being updated with a coat of blue a realistic scenario?

 

[peregrinvs]

The end result. I decided to paint one as an HE and the other in practice red. Unfortunately I currently only have one repro fuze/lever assembly to share between them. I think I’m also right in thinking that the early red practice grenades had a shorter lever?