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 Author  Topic: Torpedo Colors ??
Carl M

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Carl M  Posted on: Oct 28, 2010 - 12:30pm
Before I get too, far I'd like to ask about torpedo warhead and engine shell colors.

Here, I have some pale and light green, black, off-white, and red warheads with either steel or bronze colored engine seciton shells.

Am I close? Am I way, off?

Were there any other colors that I should consider? Blues? Yellows?

Keep in mind I'm depicting Ron 33 in November 1944 at Leyte Gulf.




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ducati650

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of ducati650   Send Email To ducati650 Posted on: Oct 28, 2010 - 1:17pm
I have seen photos of them painted in camo colors and patterns like the boats. Also,the bodies were metal and often covered with a grease or shellac to protect from the elements and reduce their reflection. The grease or shellac looked like it has something mixed in that was dark, maybe black. The warheads were bronze I think and painted. Some colors, like I think yellow were for practice warheads. I think medium to dark greys, black, and even some of the darker green colors would be hard to disprove as being possible. I know I've seen some artwork depicting red warheads but I'm sure about them. With the boats operating at night, I suspect anything that reflected light or was too easy to see at night or reflected sunlight during the day was probably not used.

Jerry has a good color photo of a torpedo used on their great restoration that shows the tinted shellac coating on the body.

On my 495 build I painted the bodies silver then streaked them with a black wash and overcoated them with a pail yellow clearcoat to hint of varnish, shellac or gease. The warheads i paint a couple shades of green or grey. White and red looked out of place to me. Black might be possible but I figured it would have faded to a dark grey anyway.

At this of the war most action was against barges so only the forward fish were carried to save weight. When I depicted the Battle of Surigao Strait the boats were expecting surface action against warships and carried 4. I made the aft torpedoes look "fresher" than the forward ones.
Hope this helps. not actually being there puts me at a disadvantage and if I'm wrong i hope someone jumps in and corrects me so as not to spread false information.


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  Jerry Gilmartin

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Jerry Gilmartin   Send Email To Jerry Gilmartin Posted on: Oct 28, 2010 - 7:40pm
Hi Carl,
Ed colored his torpedoes the most authentic way in my humble opinion. The PT boat Torpedomen smeared/brushed on sort of a thinned out brownish cosmoline onto the outside of the bare grey steel afterbodies, and had to do this fairly often to prevent the afterbodies from rusting in the salt air. I have seen photos of a lot of the warheads that are painted sort of a primer grey color. The torpedoes on a tender were stored in two parts, the warheads separate from the afterbodies. Then they would bring them up from below and assemble the warhead to the afterbody. I think the torpedo depot on a lot of the bases would keep these parts separate. Frank Andruss sells a PT Boat Movie that shows the crew of a PT Tender assembling and loading a torpedo onto a nested PT Boat. In the color movie, it shows the dull grey steel afterbody and the primer colored warhead. Here in this picture, you can see the color of the torpedo taken at an Alaska Naval Air Facility of a Mark 13 torpedo. I have read and heard that some of the PT Boats at the front lines may have actually painted the torpedoes to match the camo pattern on the boat. I guess it depended upon the boat crew and boat captain. I think CJ was a TM so he would be able to shed some light on this as well. Jerry PT658 Portland

Mark 13 torpedo warhead painted primer grey at Alaska NAS


Jerry Gilmartin

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ducati650

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of ducati650   Send Email To ducati650 Posted on: Oct 29, 2010 - 5:11am










The lighting reduced the yellow tint somewhat. I used future floor polish with a little bit of yellow fd coloring in it. The more coats you apply the more solid it gets. I used it to paint the props on the fish too.


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Will Day

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Will Day   Send Email To Will Day Posted on: Oct 29, 2010 - 11:47am
I have at least one photo of an Elco with the cammo carried over to the fish themselves.

Will

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ducati650

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of ducati650   Send Email To ducati650 Posted on: Oct 29, 2010 - 3:33pm
Sorry for the poor quality. The original is better than this scan turned out. Here is a boat leaving Elco. If you look closely you can see the top of the torpedoes, including warheads, are painted the dark cammo shade and the bottom seems to be the lighter shade of the colors used on the boat. The very bottom is shadow so don't let that confuse you.




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Will Day

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Will Day   Send Email To Will Day Posted on: Oct 29, 2010 - 4:53pm
It looks like the cammo pattern (PTs 171, 192) were on the warheads only, not the entire fish.

Will

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TED WALTHER

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of TED WALTHER   Send Email To TED WALTHER Posted on: Oct 29, 2010 - 6:58pm
what boat is thatin the color photo??? I have never seen this one before. Can you do a larger scan of this photo?
take care,
TED


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  AndrewB

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Oct 29, 2010 - 7:38pm
Im with Ted on that one A bigger scan please


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ducati650

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of ducati650   Send Email To ducati650 Posted on: Oct 29, 2010 - 8:17pm
Ted,
I just sent you an e-mail with the jpg attached. It is all i have.
Ed


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