A quick question:

Were the fire extinguisher and the "U" shaped cable connectors on Tiger I's painted with the same camo as the tank or left as bare metal?

I'm itching to paint them gun metal for "artistic impression", but think I've read somewhere that they would be sprayed with the camo paints. My B+W reference pics are no help.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Hi Sean
not sure what you mean by "u shaped cable connectors" .
I would say it was down to the crew , if they could be bothered to remove stuff before spraying
Hope this helps
Andy

Sean
As far as I know the extinguishers were the same as the base color of the tank Usually the towing clevices were bare metal

*edit*

Sean
By "u" shaped towing clevis do you mean the ones attached to the front and rear hull? If so they would be same base color However I can see maybe giving them a light drybrush of bare metal

Hi Chad,

I mean this thing:

Sean
I do believe they would be bare metal Generally the instructions will say what color the tools etc will be

Thanks Chad - I thoguht bare metal, but wanted to check before I went ahead. I'm sometimes a bit wary of following the instructions in the kit too closely - it depends on the source the manufacturer used for reference!

Hi Sean
now I know what you mean by "u connectors" I normally paint mine the same colour as the tank,these things are bloody heavy and would normally left on while the tank was painted in the field,from the factory they would be a natural cast steel colour ,but would start to rust quite quickly.
Andy

From what I have seen, the towing clevices can be either bare metal or oversprayed primarily in whatever disruptive colors that were crew-applied on the vehicle. Evidently, they were rarely oversprayed in the base color of a vehicle at the factory because usually the vehicles were painted before the tools were installed. As far as disruptive colors go, some crews removed the tools before applying the paint, others didn't. Perfect situation for creative license in my book.
From my observations (YMMV), externally mounted fire extinguishers were usually painted the same color as the basecoat, as these were installed prior to painting in most instances. Internal fire extinguishers, on the other hand, were generally left in their natural color which was a gray-green, slightly glossy finish.