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WW2 Era M-1 Colors


NFReg74
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Everything I have read on the net indicates that all M-1s produced during the war were painted dark green however, you see some early shells that are "olive" green. I have two front seam McCords (207C and 325D) that show no sign of being repainted and both have different colors. 207C is brighter, more olive than 325D.

 

So, did they actually paint different shades of OD during the war?

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huntssurplus

I too have seen a similar thing in my own collection. It seems that helmets do have variations in color. While this could be reasonably expected with different manufacturers perhaps it is because they were made in different factories or on different manufacturing lines? Could be plausible especially as they have different lot numbers.

 

Hunt

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Paint was mixed in huge batches every day. So, one day may have been a tad different than the other day. However, the biggest reason would be the settling of pigment during the day. Early in the day, the freshly mixed paint would be more green. Olive drab is made up of the pigments: yellow, blue and black. As the day wore on and heavier pigment(lead based yellow) would settle. If not stirred regularly, the paint would now be darker. Then when it did get stirred later in the day, the paint, which had gone down substantially, would now be a lighter shade of OD as the yellow was now reintroduced into the paint. Thus by the end of the day, the OD could be darker or lighter than it was in the beginning. Finally, you have to take into consideration things like sun fade, sea salt exposure, heat, time spent in the elements etc.

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Paint was not mixed to computer perfect standards so I think it can be reasonably assumed there were some minor variations of "dark green" as war production was more important than the exact same shade of green on every helmet. Additionally, these shells are now over 75 years old so maybe there has been some fading due to age, storage, or actual wartime use.

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...one day may have been a tad different than the other day. However, the biggest reason would be the settling of pigment during the day.

 

I've wondered about this too. I've had a number of WW2 corked pots that have an almost apple green color but there is no evidence they were repainted. I appreciate Bugme's info.

 

Tom

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