Centurion and Conqueror: what colours were the external fire extinguishers?

[David Womby]

I have been looking at lots of pics but can't decide.   The Centurion  pics seem to show the extinguishers mostly painted the same Bronze Green as the tank itself.    The Conqueror seems to sometimes have them the same as the tank but others are a lighter colour.  What should those be?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

David

[Kingsman]

Deep Bronze Green.  Same as the tanks.  The nozzle end was unpainted dull metal.

[Kiwidave4]

Having just recently completed three different Conqueror builds I have spent a fair bit of time poring over contemporary photos. There were of course different extinguishers on Conqueror (and other Post War tanks).

 

The Graviner methyl bromide extinguishers fitted to the front bins of the Conqueror may have been DBG at some time, but most of my ref photos show them to be a different colour to the tank, and the contemporary colour images show a bright red; - even an orange colour, but we must take into account the colour film of the time and years of image reproduction. The neck was natural brass, although I know from first hand experience that in aviation use these extinguishers also had (non-passivated) cadmium plated necks well before the time Conqueror was in service.

 

The Pyrene carbon tet extinguishers fitted to the rear bins were brass bodied and from my civilian experience left the factory in matt black finish. Seems reasonable to assume that when supplied to the MoD they would also be in matt black or perhaps the contract would specify DBG? 

 

Like most 'correct colour' questions there is probably many right answers!

 

 

 

 

[Kingsman]

Pyrene carbon tetrachloride extinguishers were always brass on issue and should not have been overpainted as the instructions for use were printed directly onto them.  Being brass they tarnished over time.

 

The military Graviner bulbous Methyl Bromide bottles were always issued in DBG AFAIK post-WW2.  Wartime ones were most likely SCC15.  The later longer slimmer bromochloromethane type were still green and even the much later CO₂ extinguishers were green.  Camouflage was everything.  Nowadays MOD complies with the regulations and vehicle fire extinguishers are red.  Orange was never a recognised colour for fire extinguishers.  But those on Bovington's Churchill VII have been painted orange at some point, which stands out like the proverbial sore thumb.  There are images online of the Graviner bottles in red and AFAIK they were commercially available at the time, but those seem to have had fancy labels not seen on the military ones.  Reproduction ones mostly seem to be red with black brackets.  Antique ones seem to be in a variety of colours including silver (aluminium?), white, black and red.  The nozzle parts were brass, which again tarnished over time.  The body is reputed to have been copper, and it is said that the methyl bromide ate the copper over time.  But a couple online look to be aluminium.  Either way they are now surprisingly rare, hence the trade in reproductions.

 

All that being said I can see some units in the shiny DBG era painting their extinguishers red for "bull".  External pull handles for internal extinguishers were always red.  By the time the green and black era arrived the methyl bromide type had largely been replaced by the bromochloromethane type.

 

Bovington's Conqueror came straight from the D&M school across the road to the museum and hasn't been touched, so can be assumed to be in accordance with the regulations for such things.  It has DBG methyl bromide bottles and brass Pyrenes.

[Kiwidave4]

I knew you would say that! 

 

As David says in his original post there are plenty of photos of Conquerors that clearly do not have DBG extinguishers. That does not mean that DBG was not the official colour,

it simply means that there are other 'right' answers.

 

I have no doubt that the period when bull was fashionable could have contributed to the use of colours other than DBG. The point is that other colour/colours were used, and there is plenty of

evidence to support that fact. 

 

As a civvie building armour I have always taken great pains to get things right, and have discovered by doing so that 'right' is not always the 'official' way.

 

If I was to build a model of a specific Conqueror, at a specific time, using reference photos that clearly show red extinguishers, should I paint them DBG because that's what the regs said?

Or should I make an historically correct replica? Thats the real question.

 

 

 

[Kingsman]

Actually, I lied about the Bovington conqueror as it turns out.  The single Graviner bottle on it is in fact orange.  But scratches say it was once green.  The Churchill ones there are orange too.  Perhaps it was  "bull" or school thing.  And that's not a standard Churchill fit: one each side of the bin was usual.

  

 

Before this type arrived the brass Carbon Tetrachloride Pyrene type was king on British vehicles, and it survived some time into the post-war era.  It seems there were 2 types, smooth and ribbed.

  

 

After that Graviner model came the longer slimmer Graviner BCF (Bromochlorodifluoromethane) type, outlawed from 2009.  Then came the current dry powder type.  They are red today in order to be legally compliant.

    

[David Womby]

Thanks, gents.

 

David