by Tracy White » Sat Mar 26, 2011 11:26 am
For simplicity the Navy would classify things essentially as internal or "outside" paint; anything that was outside paint was to follow the outside paint/camouflage directives even if not readily visible. Otherwise you'd have to have separate paperwork and standards defining what was not visible and how to paint it, etc..
Equipment was painted to match the background color, and in this case "background" seems to imply the area inboard of the equipment in question. In 1942 Ordnance was ordered from the various factories in 5-O Ocean gray as a base color as that was the color most of the weapons would be finished in if they were in Measure
12; I haven't seen anything that suggests this was changed later but it's possible. So my guess, for items that weren't re-painted for whatever reason, is Ocean Gray.
In the case of Dazzle and Measure 12 Revised (AKA "Measure 12 Mod") the weapons were repainted to match the background; the exception being barrels and pieces that needed another type of preservative coating. If the line between two colors was drawn on the design sheets to cross over a weapon, they would comply with that. I've seen splinter shields on 20mms that were two colors, for example.
I have also seen variation though; some ships would carry the dazzle to the inside of the splinter shield while others would not. If you have the "Anatomy of the Ship: Gambier Bay" book (presently not cheap) then page 47 might be of interest; photo 80G-289812 (no online copy I can find) has a shot of an unlisted CVE down the port side catwalks, looking aft. It is apparent that the near guns and tubs are painted the same dark color as the bulkheads behind, but that a tub (can't tell if it's a director or 20mm in the shot, but my guess based on what I see is 20mm as it appears to show the forward stack on this side behind the aft tub in view) behind that looks to be lighter both inside and out. The gun or director in this tub is not visible, however.
For simplicity the Navy would classify things essentially as internal or "outside" paint; anything that was outside paint was to follow the outside paint/camouflage directives even if not readily visible. Otherwise you'd have to have separate paperwork and standards defining what was not visible and how to paint it, etc..
Equipment was painted to match the background color, and in this case "background" seems to imply the area inboard of the equipment in question. In 1942 Ordnance was ordered from the various factories in 5-O Ocean gray as a base color as that was the color most of the weapons would be finished in if they were in Measure [url=http://www.shipcamouflage.com/measure_12.htm]12[/url]; I haven't seen anything that suggests this was changed later but it's possible. So my guess, for items that weren't re-painted for whatever reason, is Ocean Gray.
In the case of Dazzle and Measure 12 Revised (AKA "Measure 12 Mod") the weapons were repainted to match the background; the exception being barrels and pieces that needed another type of preservative coating. If the line between two colors was drawn on the design sheets to cross over a weapon, they would comply with that. I've seen splinter shields on 20mms that were two colors, for example.
I have also seen variation though; some ships would carry the dazzle to the inside of the splinter shield while others would not. If you have the "Anatomy of the Ship: Gambier Bay" book (presently not cheap) then page 47 might be of interest; photo 80G-289812 (no online copy I can find) has a shot of an unlisted CVE down the port side catwalks, looking aft. It is apparent that the near guns and tubs are painted the same dark color as the bulkheads behind, but that a tub (can't tell if it's a director or 20mm in the shot, but my guess based on what I see is 20mm as it appears to show the forward stack on this side behind the aft tub in view) behind that looks to be lighter both inside and out. The gun or director in this tub is not visible, however.