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Armor/AFV: British Armor
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Smoke Candle Question?
SdAufKla
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South Carolina, United States
Joined: May 07, 2010
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Posted: Sunday, November 23, 2014 - 12:49 AM UTC
Hi all,

I'm hoping that someone can post up some photos or other information on the "smoke candles" which were loaded into the standard British "smoke emitter" box found on many WWII tanks?

Here's a picture of the smoke emitter boxes on the rear hull of an M4A4 "Firefly." Each box held two "smoke candles" which were fired electrically from inside the tank.



What I'm looking for are some photos of the actual smoke candles, hopefully with enough clarity to see what color they were painted and any markings, along with the junction where the firing wires exited the round.

I want to show the smoke emitter boxes open on the Churchill that I'm building and would like to get the details of the smoke candles correct.

TIA for any help!
Frenchy
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Rhone, France
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Posted: Sunday, November 23, 2014 - 12:21 PM UTC
Hi Mike

The 4" smoke grenades and boxes are included in Orange Hobby "Churchill Mk.III Infantry Tank Update Set" # G35-011 :

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/orangehobby/images/g35-011inst03.jpg

Terry's review

H.P.
SdAufKla
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South Carolina, United States
Joined: May 07, 2010
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Posted: Sunday, November 23, 2014 - 08:11 PM UTC
Thanks, Frenchy! I appreciate the reply and info.

I was aware of the Orange Hobby set, but my confidence level for the research and details of the actual smoke candles provided is not high. Orange Hobby doesn't cite any reference or actually provide the official nomenclature for the candles, themselves.

Speaking of which - Does anyone actually know the official nomenclature for the "smoke candles"? Ive spent quite a lot of time surfing Google, but so far, no joy. Maybe with the correct nomenclature, I can find something out.

Thanks again!
majjanelson
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Joined: December 14, 2006
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Posted: Thursday, November 27, 2014 - 02:28 AM UTC
Mike,

Have you seen this webpage? I have no idea if these are the correct ones or not, though.

British Ordnance Collectors Network

HTH Happy Thanksgiving!
SdAufKla
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Joined: May 07, 2010
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Posted: Thursday, November 27, 2014 - 07:31 AM UTC
Indeed, Jeff.

Unfortunately, the pictures included in the last post are not visible except to registered users. It'd be nice if someone with a user's account would repost the hidden photos.

Martyn Smith, offered up this information to my post over on Track-Link: Track-Link::Forums:Research

He posted up copies of most of the No. 8 graphics in the BOCN thread along with a couple of other drawings from some technical manuals.

Although none of this posted information is 100% conclusive, I believe that if it's not precisely accurate, the colors and markings are what would have appeared on whatever the correct actual smoke loads were. I was hoping to find some extracts from one of the tank operator's manuals or perhaps period photos of the smoke emitters being serviced and reloaded. That sort of information would have been conclusive, but I'll settle for circumstantial evidence of the correct loads.

The "Generator, Smoke, No.8" is the right size to fit the smoke emitter boxes and the cylindrical shape seems reasonable. It's clear from the design and construction of the emitter boxes and electrical wiring and junctions that whatever the correct loads were, they were electrically fired and required wire leads from the load to the junction boxes. Other British smoke producing munitions were painted in the apple-mint green with the red stripe, so those colors seem likely.

All in all, the No.8 smoke loads fit the known and understood facts.

For anyone who surfs onto this thread in the future, here's a quick pic of my "Generator, Smoke, No. 8" loads for the smoke emitter boxes on the back of my Churchill build.



Thanks for the link.
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