whats the best way to paint and make old, german oil drums for a desert setting hope someone can help cheers bobby098

Hi bobby098,

Germans didn't paint their fuel drums so it is better to keep them in steel.

Best regards,
Angel

Bobby...;

Hi!

There are a couple of nice discussions of this topic, along with cool color pictures, on various sites... "natch", fuel drums being of great interest to many of us German builders!

For the most part, German drums were not usually painted, much as Angel has noted - but they were seldom left as rusting naked steel... most were apparently "galvanized" or tinned and actually had versions of a gray-silvery color! (These galvanized drums actually could appear dull-shiny varying to light gray, depending on exposure and oxidation.) A smaller number were secondarily painted in black and fewer still in dark yellow, etc. Later-war drums saw more painting.

Those conspicuous rings seen on German drums were an add-on bit, unlike the stamped form seen in many US "55 gallon" types. These rings were pressed steel, and these often looked pretty rusty... with staining and bleed-over onto the drum-sides.

The end-caps also had (usually battered and rusty) rims.

See this thread: http://www.network54.com/Forum/47207/thread/1297007808/Colour+of+German+ww2+oil+drums+-!

and see http://sdkfz7.free.fr/efut200ltr.htm for what I think are some awesome close-ups showing the color and details of these drums!

IF you are familiar with the old "galvanized" steel bucket, the German drum probably took on similar coloration with exposure and use!

Bob

hi bob... thanks very much for the info thats great i can now get on with the drums cheers bobby098