Radar colours

[Caio Mario]

Hello everybody,

One of my friend gave me a some interesting question:
- What colours had been used to paint warships radar antennas during world war two? If any ?

Can somebody help me with that question?
Maybe navies didn't covered any radar scanners ?
Presently i.e. in merchant fleet it is forbiden to paint any radars because scanners are plastics and in that case we will be lost guarantee and quality of waves.
So how was in warship radars? Like i.e. german mattresses type?

Brdgs

[Russ2146]

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ship_northcarolina9.jpg

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DD 484.jpg

[Russ2146]

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[Olaf Held]

Like i.e. german mattresses type?

Brdgs

I think it depends on the ship. For example, on Bismarck all three matresses appear black on photos, whereas on Prinz Eugen, during the same time frame, the two matresses were painted the same light grey as the superstructure.

Happy painting ~ Olaf!

[Russ2146]

The point, I guess, is that the antenna were not plastic but metal and required corrosion protection, hence they were painted.
A US Mattress antenna was not painted or repainted for for many years as it stood outdoors at the Navy's museum at the Washington Navy Yard and a good number of the thinner elements rusted away.

[Timmy C]

Also be wary that the protection given to the antenna was not always the colour of the surrounding structure - there are a few shots of some early-war USN DDs which had a much different colour appearance in their Mk.4 antenna. See the third last post on this page for a picture: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=8105&start=570
I think Rick E. Davis has more info on that - I don't remember quite where he posted it.