MG barrel carrier

[andy d]

I have seen quite a few of the Lauf schutzer 43 carriers in my time, and no two seem to have the same colour.
Aside from the post war painted ones in Norwegian and Yugo shades of green, I have seen them in tan, blueish and a dark grey (feldgrau?).
I have also seen a few that seem to be blued rather than painted.
Was there any particular scheme that they came in originally?
Bluing would seem to make sense to me, and a lot would have been painted subsequently. But I was curious to know if there was any more detail to the thinking behind this.

[me6_130]

Hello,

I believe that the blued ones are in the less original condition of all. Those would be russian capture, acid cleaned and blued + new transport sling/strap. If they are Laufschutzer 43 I can imagine the correct colour should be tan, as it was made the standard ordnance colour in early 1943. Some of them in the market might be Portuguese contract, I believe painted a dark green shade. Perhaps early 1943 Laufschutzer are painted dunkelgrau or feldgrau...

Carles

[andy d]

Thanks ME6.
good to have a gauge for looking at these.
Very interesting to hear that the Soviets stripped then blued the carriers.
They must have had a load of time on their hands.

[corporalSteiner]

mmm...could we also add that some blue carriers exist from geman stocks...?not all blue denotes capture...id say. germans had ordinance blue for barrel carriers, as i understand.

[me6_130]

Hello corporalSteiner,

When talking about 'blued' I didn't mean paint colour but the black finish of the metal, just like guns are. I know germans painted blue also, it's what I called 'dunkelgrau', known as panzer grey, perhaps I made a mistake in my poor german, sorry.

Russians not only acid cleaned and blued the barrel carriers but also the ammo drums for MG's 34-42.

Carles

[Bergflak]

You are all correct Carles!

But I wonder if the acid-stripping-gun-bluing might have occured in the Balkans as well. I got a Gurttrommel 34 in gun-blue from a officer that served in ex-jugoslavia. He had picked it up as a souvenir.

Blue/Ordinance Blue = Paint. Blued = Gun-blueing.

The paint-scheme of the Laufhalters and Laufschützers followed the German standard. 3-tone camo in 1938, Dunkelgrau/Panzergray/"blue" with brown camouflage in 1939, Panzergray in 1940-43 and Sandgelb/Tan 1943-45.
The dark green ones I have seen are from the Portuguese contract.

What about the "Spanish contract"?

[me6_130]

Hello,

Here are three 'Spanish contract'. I managed to get 6 out of a lot of 13 some years ago. They were all painted light green post war. It was quite easy to remove the green paint and preserve the original 'dunkelgelb'. Slings are original german canvas kind, with 'LUX' metal clips.

Carles

[Bergflak]

Standard WH contract stuff then, re-directed for export. And not made to specifications like the Portuguese stuff!