Oil drum colour, RAF WW2

[stevestrat]

My next build is going to be the 1/24 Typhoon and I'm thinking forward to a diorama to display it. I see it in the corner of a hangar under maintenance to show the engine detail. I picked up a couple of large oil drums as "set dressing" but its proving difficult to determine what colour they should be and what info was on them. Anybody point me in the right direction?

[simplyapainter]

 Have you tried contacting/using the research department of the Royal Air Force Museum?   There are very good views of a fuel dump in the first few minutes of the film The Battle of Britain where the oil drums are stacked under camoflage netting.   Hope this helps.

[stevestrat]

I had a quick flick through "The Battle Of Britain", the ones at the French airfield at the start are the only ones I saw, standard olive drab. Not sure if those used at airfields in the UK would be the same.

Never thought of going straight to the horse's mouth, I'll try the RAF Museum. Thanks for the suggestion.

[simplyapainter]

 Pleasure.   Let me know how you get on.  I asked around the family and a long convoluted discussion with lots of head scratching is still going!  I now know that oil drums could possibly be either black or drab but why I don't know.

[nmcabecadas]

When I don't know, I paint black and rust. Oil drums can become very dirty and the colour may change to black and the rust can provide some dept.

[Ratch]

I had a quick flick through "The Battle Of Britain", the ones at the French airfield at the start are the only ones I saw, standard olive drab. Not sure if those used at airfields in the UK would be the same.

I wouldn't rely on fictional film footage. "The Battle Of Britain" didn't even have the correct aircraft!

[Kenneth ONeill]

I had a quick flick through "The Battle Of Britain", the ones at the French airfield at the start are the only ones I saw, standard olive drab. Not sure if those used at airfields in the UK would be the same.

I wouldn't rely on fictional film footage. "The Battle Of Britain" didn't even have the correct aircraft!

Sure, particularly the Casa IIIs and Hispanoschmitts, but show me (1960s or later) a flying Heinkel III, or a staffel of Bf 109Es! ;-)

[Kenneth ONeill]

I don't have colour references, but the mono shots I have of the Banff and Dallachy strike wings show oil drums as "darker than airfield vehicles", whish makes me think that suggestions of "black or olive drab" are probably correct since they photograph darker than RAF blue-grey.

[stevestrat]

I've emailed the RAF Museum at Cosford and the query has been passed on to the Curatorial Department. See what they come back with.

Kenneth, out of curiosity, do any of those B&W shots show the markings on the drums?

[stevestrat]

My email is bouncing around various departments within the RAF museum, last head of in the Research Department in London!

[Kenneth ONeill]

The best I've been able to do is pale stencils and "luggage labels". I'd guess at white or something like "trainer yellow" for the stencils because that's what they are now! As to legibility, a 2" high text IRL is 6 points high in 1/24 scale, and 6 points is about the minimum that's readable for most people.

[stevestrat]

The fact its readable in 24th scale is why I so want to get it right. The Typhoon could turn out to be the best built model ever but if the details in the diorama aren't right....

[Kenneth ONeill]

And why I've reached the limit of any help I can offer; I'm looking at now 70 year old monochrome photos which have been reproduced in the equivalent of 1/72 scale or smaller.

[Braille Dave]

By the time of the Banff and Dallachy strike wings there were no Blue-grey vehicles in the RAF- in fact by 1941 ALL RAF vehicles were camouflaged to one scheme or another- All field force (i.e. deployable units- fighter and army cooperation sqns, generally)  were camouflaged on the outbreak of war, and vehicles on operational stations shortly after. The only vehicles that weren't were vehicles allocated to very senior officers or air council members- and those were generally black.

 

Blue-grey only returned to the RAF in 1946, and even then wasn't common until 1949.

[Braille Dave]

As for oil drum colours, it depended what was in them and which company supplied them...

 

 

In the UK petrol was supplied bulk, using MoS tankers (some stations were supplied by rail), in Europe after D-Day the majority of aviation fuel for the RAF was transported in 50gal drums, painted either Olive Drab; for US originating supply, or SCC2 Brown for UK originating supply- they would'nt have been stored near the aircraft for obvious fire risk reasons.

 

For oil: In the UK, it was supplied direct from the manufacturer, so although it was generally in black drums with a coloured band( colour depending on the company) and the type of oil in large, white letters, and smaller letters for the contract, batch and issue numbers, you could potentially get coloured drums, with lettering in a contrasting colour. In Europe, same colour as petrol, but with 'OIL' and the spec and type in large letters.

 

I reckon you could get away with black with white lettering... I don't think there would be any rust though, oil stains for sure, but not rust, not inside the hanger anyway- generally any rusty drums would be scrapped or recycled (can't rely on the seams being secure, see).

 

You could have a waste oil container, which would be revoltingly oily.

 

...or you could have 1/2 drums cut open and on a cradle for parts cleaning and similar.

[Braille Dave]

As for oil drum colours, it depended what was in them and which company supplied them...

 

 

In the UK petrol was supplied bulk, using MoS tankers (some stations were supplied by rail), in Europe after D-Day the majority of aviation fuel for the RAF was transported in 50gal drums, painted either Olive Drab; for US originating supply, or SCC2 Brown for UK originating supply- they would'nt have been stored near the aircraft for obvious fire risk reasons.

 

For oil: In the UK, it was supplied direct from the manufacturer, so although it was generally in black drums with a coloured band( colour depending on the company) and the type of oil in large, white letters, and smaller letters for the contract, batch and issue numbers, you could potentially get coloured drums, with lettering in a contrasting colour. In Europe, same colour as petrol, but with 'OIL' and the spec and type in large letters.

 

I reckon you could get away with black with white lettering... I don't think there would be any rust though, oil stains for sure, but not rust, not inside the hanger anyway- generally any rusty drums would be scrapped or recycled (can't rely on the seams being secure, see).

 

You could have a waste oil container, which would be revoltingly oily.

 

...or you could have 1/2 drums cut open and on a cradle for parts cleaning and similar.

[simplyapainter]

 After a long family discussion my brother suggested the following:  that on an airfield any large quantities of fuel would have been moved by bowser and not stored in a hangar.  Smaller quantities would have been easily carried by hand in petrol or jerry cans.  The petrol cans were  square and held, if I remember correctly what my brother said, 2 or 4 gallons (Don't quote me on the amount, the red wine was flowing~!).   There are lots of pictures of these on Google.  The German style jerry can was also used.    The problem with the large drums was that they were very heavy to move  and would have needed a pump attached to the drum to get the fuel into the aircraft:   So aircraft, in the absence of a bowser, were refuelled from cans, by hand, using a funnel.  A small fighter could be refuelled and rearmed in twenty minutes using this method. 

[Braille Dave]

Au Contraire:

 

http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w592/Dave_Haine/9D0A5BF2-3D79-4777-AE7D-739B916F0903_zpslvuavtxu.jpg

 

In the backround, you can see Marauders from 2 Group, 2 TAF, so that would be an airstrip in Holland.

[stevestrat]

If I refer you to my original post, the intention is to display the model bring serviced (100 hour check or what ever) in the corner of a hangar, not on the apron. The drum is intended to be lubricating oil, not fuel and I suspect the colour will be black but its any banding and markings that will make or break it.

[Marto]

Au Contraire:

 

 

In the backround, you can see Marauders from 2 Group, 2 TAF, so that would be an airstrip in Holland.

Interesting photo that, I wonder what the Health and Safety people would think if I stored drums like that at my place of work (Heathrow) or anywhere else around the world for that matter.

[Kenneth ONeill]

Au Contraire:

 

 

In the backround, you can see Marauders from 2 Group, 2 TAF, so that would be an airstrip in Holland.

Interesting photo that, I wonder what the Health and Safety people would think if I stored drums like that at my place of work (Heathrow) or anywhere else around the world for that matter.

Elvin safety not actually invented in the 1940s? 😆

[Braille Dave]

Indeed...

the other thing that always come to my mind was the risk of enemy air attack...

It's no wonder the allies lost so many aircraft during the Luftwaffe's Operation Bodenplatte.

[aj2010]

.

[dogsbody]

Au Contraire:

 

 

In the backround, you can see Marauders from 2 Group, 2 TAF, so that would be an airstrip in Holland.

The aircraft on the left looks like an A-20 while the ones on the right appear to be A-26 Invaders, at least to my eye.

 

Chris

[Braille Dave]

Hmm, you may well be right on the Boston... still unsure on the aircraft to the right. But as the chap in the foreground, doing the security and safety check is most definately RAF- I would say it would have to be a British administered airstrip. 

I know the RAF didn't operate Invaders, preferring the faster, cheaper and heavier bombload Mosquito by then. So I suspect it would be one of the joint airstrips in Holland- without getting out my ref books, I can't remember their numbers and locations...

...We're also getting a bit off-thread now- given that the OP was about oil drums.