Hi guys, haven't been able to track info down yet, wondering if someone may know.
Im building a Marder II with the Pak 40/2 in normandy and was wondering if replacement barrels for these guns were shipped in the same semi-gloss grey lacquer as larger tank guns?
Just thinking it would break the colour scheme up a bit, thanks!
Eric.

The dark lacquer was a heat resistant coating that wouldn't blister off during prolonged firing, so it would be appropriate for tank guns and towed artillery alike. That said, it would likely be overpainted in Dunkelgelb at the factory. Still, under pressure of time and delivery schedules, who knows?

Thanks Gerald, I was aware of the treatment for tanks, just not sure if the Pak got the same treatment. Ive seen some pics of Pz.Iv with seemingly grey gun tubes from replacements. Im going to go for it on this tiny beast.

Stony;

Hi!

It'll look COOL - I'll grant you that!

But... historically-speaking??? IMHO, I doubt it. ALL big gun barrels - howies, "guns', AT-guns, tank guns - were enameled with that heat-resistant dark gray when produced - that was the industry norm of the armaments biz. A barrel was, in and of itself, a finished item - but needed to be mounted to a breach, maybe have a muzzle-brake attached, and then get assembled to a gun mount.

Assembled guns were all factory-painted with the appropriate reg finish before being issued to the Wehrmacht depot. So guns arrived at the receiving Wehrmacht depots wearing regulation dunkelgrau, before Mar 1943, and arrived there wearing reg base-coat dunkelgelb, after Mar 1943. This would have been your PaK40 when "new" and ready-to-issue to a unit.

The question would be "what happened when one needed to replace the worn/damaged barrel?".

That's the kicker. For tanks, barrel-replacement happened at a refurb plant like Nibelungen, or at a big rear shop. Probably rarely, if ever, in any unit shop - those shops would much more likely simply swap the whole gun and mantel from some "shop queen" - perhaps making for an interesting different camo scheme mixing tanks A and B at the gun! They did NOT rebuild these pieces in small rear shops.

Smaller shops very unlikely to have taken a new, unpainted (no base-coat) barrel and swapped it onto an old breach - that took work and tools probably neither available nor "worth it" - there being other more-urgent and "doable" repairs to be made. I'll suppose that MAY have happened at a big refurb center - but from what I know, all guns removed from vehicles or mounts and NOT being swapped directly to another vehicle would go back on the train to the factory and get rebuilt - repainted, and re-issued.

Same for AT guns. IF that PaK40 managed to live long enough and get fired enough times to be "shot out", or get somehow damaged sufficient to merit replacing the barrel... I would expect that the unit would have sent that piece back to a rear shop, and that shop would probably send it back to a refurb center, where a new barrel and breach would have been set into the old-but-servicable mount - and that finished gun sent back to fight. The new barrel and breach would likely have arrived at the refurb center as a complete gun wearing the reg base-coat. I doubt that a AT gun barrel without a breach would have been sent all the way to a unit shop - and even if it had been, it probably would have arrived there in base-coat -

BUT we can never say NEVER when it comes to what things folks MAY have done "back then"!

It would look pretty cool to build a gun where the old mount, wearing camo and scars and such, went back to the shop and got married with a gun (barrel and breach) either pulled from a truck "new" in base-coat only, or maybe swapped from a busted carriage - a different paint-job!

Just my opines and a suggestion!

Bob

Maybe the factory got bombed & they had to scrap up what they could find .."hey, look, barrels!" They're not painted ..only heat resistant coated...who cares!!" "Load'm up, let's get out'a here"
Just like when the Panzer III chassis factory got bombed, which they were using to produce Stug III's...they switched over to the Panzer IV chassis...hence the Stug IV.
I bet that a barrel would have made it out with only the dark grey coating on it...from the Pak factory.

David; I'd go with your scenario almost any day... were we talking about some folks in some cases, but NOT our uber-consistent and methodological German industrialists!

"Herr Direktor Schmidt! Der factory building ist all gebombed und those workers all gone! But... There are still some PaK40 gun-barrels left on the shop floor... They could still be salvaged and used. What should we do, mein Herr?" "Ach, Hans, wy, of course, they should be saved and sent out to the boys at the Front! Schnell! But... make SURE that they are properly painted and securely boxed, BEFORE you call those Heers-WaffenAmt guys to come get them, right? Wouldn't want them complaining to Dr. Speer about how Krupp hasn't been properly finishing stuff, would we?"

(NO disrespect to anyone intended here - just funnin' with the scenario! I, for one, have great respect - even awe, over the fact that German industry managed to keep producing finished and working weapons right to the bitter end - under working conditions which are probably completely unimaginable to most of us today.)

Bob

It's a possibility, but I don't think it's appropriate for Normandy. The Germans hadn't quite figured out they were screwed yet and weren't in quite such a hurry to neglect painting things.

Some of the barrels would have left in their heat-resistant paint though. The first Hetzer that was displayed for Hitler had a lacquered barrel and no brake.

Maybe you could add some scrapes along the barrel; "Careless gun crew takes a corner to quickly and scrapes up the gun on some old ladies stone, garden wall." to still show the lacquer coat.

David; it came from the Pak-tory!

Wow, ok, this is great. Thanks all for the input.
So,the grey lacquer barrel is out for this project. That said, as Bob pointed out it a replacement would have shipped in the factory dunkelgelb, so I think Ill go with a slightly worn chassis in 3 tone sporting a new mono-tone tube and breach.
Have to set the paint booth up tonight and get some shots up!
So thanks to all of you again, very helpful!
Eric.