Red Zerk Fittings

[Jimster]

That’s what I call them but Tigers and other tanks of course had the grease fittings painted red. I’m not worried about my road wheels so much but the drive sprockets are very dusty and weathered on mine. My question is would this fitting be wiped off on any regular basis to the point that it should be red on a weathered model? Did the red wear off quickly or was it maintained?
Maybe an irrelevant question with no solid answer but stuff like this interests me.



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[SEAN66]

Not sure in WW2 but modern British Army practice is the grease points are maintained.
I'm sure when the drivers had to do their Driver Maintenance the grease points would of at least been wiped clean and cracked to check levels.
this could mean that the red would be cleaner than surrounding area and the red would be more flaked due to the practice of it being hit with the spanner.
but with everything its personal preference. but looks good to me.
regards
Sean

[SEAN66]

a quick google turns up this.
https://history.army.mil/html/books/104 ... _104-7.pdf
might be worth a read.
regards
Sean

[Jimster]

Thanks for the link! I’ve bookmarked it and will give it a thorough read tonight. Looks as if there is a lot of good information in there.

[ronnie42]

Is this going to be an excuse to have a fully equipped maintenance crew

[Jimster]

Good question. I have an Opel Blitz project waiting in the wings so maybe a re-supply/maintenance diorama is in my future. Hmmmmm. Maybe use sound effects and my spare Tarr smoker for some smoke effect. Now my creative juices are flowing.

[43rdRecceReg]

a quick google turns up this.
https://history.army.mil/html/books/104 ... _104-7.pdf
might be worth a read.
regards
Sean

A good find I downloaded it, and found it very informative. I can only imagine the pressures on maintenance crews later in the War- especially at Kursk, or when the front became scarily fluid. Maintenance units had to be near the action, and sometimes became surrounded by it

[Jimster]

Funny, I just finished downloading it all at work. They had a bunch of extra paper and too much toner in the printer so I helped them out a bit.

[SEAN66]

a Bit off topic
but this link(if it works) states that the battle of Kursk wasn't such a big Soviet Victory as they claimed.

https://doi.org/10.1080/16161262.2019.1606545

regards
Sean

[Jimster]

Thanks for the link. I just printed that article on my work computer and man it sure is a long article but appears very very informative.