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Posted by Ron Smith on November 27, 2022, 4:22:46, in reply to "Re: Painting guns - notice white counter-shading on barrels"
Not countershading that's deck blue on the top of the barrels. It's not uncommon, one ship even had scalloped edges to the deck blue. Guaranteed the secondary and main battery barrels also have it.
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In the upper two photos, notice the white (5-U) counter-shading along the lower halves of the 40mm gun barrels. Previous Message
Looks like they tried to keep it as uniform as possible. A quick google search shows several real color images of the WWII era showing most everything painted. It probably helped corrosion as well and what wasn't painted appears to be bare brass. An image of the West Virginia looks like her crew took the camo scheme serious on a 40mm mount. The top of the gun is painted dark blue, the sides lighter grey and you even see the barrels are painted dark on top and light below like what is seen on the larger main battery.
You see the same thing here on the Alaska, but use and heat stress is showing some Zinc Chromate showing through
Here you see the Brass handwheel
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I can’t believe they painted all the components of ship mounted guns the same color as ships camouflage. Shield yes, barrel maybe but all the other mechanisms? Any thoughts or opinions.
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