RAF 500lb GP bombs mid 1930s - colour?

[Vulcanicity]

Hi all,

 

Just starting to think about "bombing up" my Heyford and need some advice on the colours for 500lb GP bombs, circa 1935.  I'd presume yellow, but at least one of the couple of photos I've got showing the real thing being loaded suggests a darker colour (orthochrome film, perhaps?). There's also the Shuttleworth Hind which carries four mock 120 pounders in a sort of beige/sand colour - at least darker than the "normal" early WW2 yellow.

I'm also fitting eight reconnaissance flares - and have no idea what colour these should be

 

Any thoughts? What colour bands should live GP bombs have?

 

Cheers in advance,

 

Phil

[Graham Boak]

Live bombs should be buff - but they do look more like yellow in most photographs.  I don't know about the flares.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Graham Boak

[Roger Holden]

Pre-War bomb colour was buff, same colour as the Army's HE shells since way back (probably an early BS colour....).  Red band just behind the nose tip and a bright green one about 40% of the length back.  Yellow was the colour of contemporary U.S. bombs.

[Vulcanicity]

Thanks both! Shuttleworth presumably have it correct on the  Hind then.

Did the bombs become yellow at any point before changing to dark green during WW2? I only ask because both of these (I believe original) colour shots seem to show a distinctly more yellow hue that than the buff on the Hind:

 

Stirling Charles E Brown/IWM photo from Wikipedia:

 

Wellington from Etienne Du Plessis Flickr

 

 

Cheers,

 

P

 

[dogsbody]

Look at the colour of the bomb this armourer is sitting on, the one he's working on and the one behind his right arm. These are a buff colour.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Roger Holden]

Not AFAIK. We can see several colours on the bombs in the photo with the Stirling. Some parts are clearly buff, with others more yellow. Probably the result of mass-production during the war by different sub-contractors. 

[Mike Starmer]

HE munitions were BS.381. No.58 Light Buff. A mid mustard shade.  The variations in shade are due to age and the way these were handled, often rolled along the ground.  Even by 1942 this was a commonly seen colour, the green ones are Middle Bronze Green No.23.