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Smoke float color and markings


Gabriele Profeta

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Hi fellow britmodeller members,

 

recently I have modelled an HC Smoke Float Mk I as used aboard US and Commonwealth vessels during WWII. I have found online an Ordnance Pamphlet dated September '43 (OP No. 1042) describing its construction and usage:

 

https://archive.hnsa.org/doc/smoke/index.htm#pg57

The said document has B/W drawings of the said float, showing the lettering 'HC SMOKE FLOAT', apparently in light color over a navy gray background:

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A drawing of the similar Floating Smoke Pot M4A1, displays additional markings relative to filling station and lot number in a similarly light color:
 

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I have also found in another website (http://jproc.ca/tribmod/details.html), a picture of the museum ship HMCS Sackville with (reconstructed) smoke floats on top of her depth-charge racks. Apparently, their body is painted light grey under their waterline and light blue above it. The black markings read 'SMOKE FLOAT MK [unreadable roman number, probably I or II]' and 'NOT TO BE STORED BETWEEN DECKS IN HM SHIPS'. Moreover some vertical lettering, too small to be intelligible,  is stenciled across the waterline and repeated at intervals of 90 deg one from the other:

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I am now wondering which paint/marking scheme would be more correct, and whether different Navies might have used different schemes.
Knowing that British smoke ammunition had a red band painted around the body, and wanting to depict the smoke floats in RN use, I opted for this color both for the band and the markings, but I am in doubt about the correctness of my choice:

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Update. I have found a better detail of those floats as depicted abord the Canadian Flower-class corvette:

 

https://c8.alamy.com/compit/wahetw/guerra-mondiale-2-esplosivi-sul-hmcs-sackville-wahetw.jpg

The vertical markings bring the lettering 'INERT', so I wonder whether using in its place the 'HC' code (for hexachloroethane mixture) would be correct for non-inert ordnance.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi,

The  body  of  the  British  Smoke  Float  Mk6  was   Light  Brunswick  Green  BS 225.

 

https://fmfcoatings.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/BS6-1024x574.png

 

The  red  band  was  about  2  inches  down  from  the  top  of  the  Float.

 

The  markings  were  in  white  just  below  the  red  band.  “Float,  Smoke  No 6”  and  “Not  to  be  stowed  between  decks  in  H.M.  Ships”.

 

Regards

 

Danny

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