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Posted

Hi guys,

been pondering this for a while now ...would the pioneer tools fitted to Tanks/AFV's be the same colour as the hull/turret, with only the wood/steel colour showing through with wear/time?

Thanks Andy :frantic:

Posted (edited)

It depends whose army you're talking about and what period. What I'm fairly sure of so far:

US tools would generally be painted with the vehicle and so be green all over. Not sure whether this means that, eg, the front of a spade spit would be left unpainted.

UK tools would often be painted with the vehicle as well, though I've seen more examples where they weren't.

German tools were generally added after the vehicle was painted, but clasps were painted with the vehicle. Metal parts would be a metallic black finish (dry-brushing gunmetal over matt black is quite good for this) and handles bare wood, except for bolt cutters, whose handles were coated in a reddish-brown Bakelite-like substance. Wooden handles would have started life shiny and varnished but, as any gardener will confirm, they don't stay like that for long. Hasty repainting might mean that tools ended up the same colour as the vehicle later in the war.

Russian, Japanese and Italian tools - no idea.

One thing I've never been able to pin down is whether anyone had metal-handled tools. If they did, I'm quite sure the whole thing would have been painted.

Edited by pigsty
Posted (edited)

We had to remove the paint from our pioneer tools so that they were not a contact hazzard, must be something nasty

in the paint? It was a crew job during inspections if you were found to have painted handles or shafts. More that 3 crew jobs and

you were tapping the boards in fromt of the old man. As for the head or sharp parts of the tools they could be painted as long as there

was no direct skin contact. Any rust was also a crew job so it was not uncommon to find crews using wire wool to remove it from pick heads and shovels.

HTH

Dan

Edited by Dads203

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