This may be a silly question but what is the correct color for a Sherman firefly coaxial machine gun. We’re they SCC 15 like the rest of the vechile or blued steel in color? I’m guessing they were super careful about painting around the barrel but I’m also guessing if they were painted the paint wouldn’t last long with how hot a MG barrel would get.

I tried looking up coloured photos but many museum pieces have been stripped of their machine guns

A picture of my 30 cal (non-firing). It was parkerized and was a dark grey color, now browned by oiling. I usually paint the guns panzer grey, or a gun metal color. I have seen the 30 cal painted black and OD, but I thought PZ grey looked better and matched color WWII pictures.

Thank you! Cool .30 Cal.

I too paint tools and gun steel with panzer grey by making a mix of tamiya paints using 3 parts german grey to 1 part gun metal. I find it gives a nice hue for blued steel with a just a bit of shine shown here:




For a parkerized gun I will probably go with straight panzer grey

No, they didn't have to be super careful, they simply removed the gun and reinstalled it once the tank was painted, or wrapped some protective material around the barrel if for some reason they didn't want to remove the gun at that time (not that removing the gun was anything unusual - it had to be regularly removed for cleaning and maintenance anyway). They may not have bothered to remove pioneer tools and painted them too, but machine gun is a whole different matter - they carefully protected it from anything that could cause it to malfunction.

For .30cal and .50cal I tend to go with a medium-dark grey (like "panzer grey" and then wash it with black to set in the nooks & crannies. (I use Games Workshop Nuln Oil for my wash) If you really want to go to town, finish off by rubbing a pencil on the raised edges to get just a hint of metallic shine!

I’m a dark grey adherent as well. Sometimes I’ll even alter tones on the same gun by giving a dark green wash to the receiver.

The pencil graphite addition with a small make up applicator is a nice touch at the end.