PlasticPanzers.com Forum

Compressed gas cylinder colours are now pretty much standardised across the globe - especially medical - but any idea on what they were like during WW2? I'm specifically seeking to find out what colour compressed air cylinders were for my DD build.

Cheers

Gary

Well, if it's on the outside, and more or less permanently installed, why shouldn't it be green like the rest of the tank?

Trains with air brakes have cylinders all over the place and these are usually the same colour as the rest of the undercarriage.

Philipp

That's the million dollar question isn't it I've seen some colour pics of the pipework set up and that's unpainted brass/copper so that doesn't mean everything was necessarily painted OD. The cylinders would be ditched along with the screen as soon as practical so there is a potantial the cylinders were another colour. Just don't know which one

Gary

I'm hard pressed to find good color photos just now. But I'm pretty sure that at least within the US aircraft factories and shipyards, the color coding 70 years ago was just the same as it is now.

Grey with a green top then?

Gray

For oxygen, yes. Or entirely green for welding bottles.

Since these are for a swimming Sherman, Would they have contained pure O2, or would they have simply been pressurized a day or two prior to invasion with atmospheric air? Doing that would have lightened the shipping weight and minimized the risk of errant gas bottles zooming around the hold of a damaged Liberty Ship.

Definitely compressed air. O2 is an oxidising gas and supports combustion. You wouldn't want them on the outside of a tank going into battle!

http://www.boconline.co.uk/en/products- ... d-air.html

Gary

Having been issued with compressed air cylinders as part of my Rarden maintenance kit as an armourer I can say just plain light grey with no colours anywhere.

Chris