MP40 color question

[Sturmmann13]

O.K. I have looked over three r/s orignal WWII MP40s and over 50 somthing pictures and I am stumped! most of the MP40 that I have seen had a black lower reciever, while about 43% had the colored bakelite lower reciever. Which would be more approate for a SS imp.? I would go either way (sorry for the odd question) just wanted to clear my concious.

[jaeger]

I also was curious about this. I always remember seeing MP40's with the black bakelite.

[mikkel]

It's very rarely entirely black. The pictures might make it look like that, but in reality they would just be a very dark colour.
There are no SS specific bakelite colour. The deathshead didn't stop fighting if they were issued non-black items

The choice is mostly up to personal preference. ersonally i would love to get a brown shade of a dark purple for mine when i finally get around to paint it and remove the hideous fire selector.

[ck]

Basically just about any brown-based color would be accurate, since mp40's had a lot of different bakelite shades...

[kurtsteiner]

Yeah I've noticed the different colour shades on the furniture, do you suppose its cus the parts were manufactured in so many different factories and machine shops so it was hard to stay to one standard of manufacture

[Sturmmann13]

thank you all, I am going to get a black one and do the fake bake treatment on only one side. So it will be half and half (scarcasm)

[indy]

There were hundreds of factories, millions of firearms.....it was not uniform what so ever. Whatever finish you choose make sure you don't "age" it, as we're pretending these are brand new and we're the "soldiers" who are issued them.

[Sturmmann13]

really? I was planning to make it look like it has been used before, rough up some metal with a fine grain sandpaper, make it look like it has been used for two years.

[indy]

Making a few scratches here and there is not a problem...but some fail to realize these MP40s that are so aged so they have metal completely rubbed off and what not resemble real MP40s after 60 years, not after a year or two. Not really my call of course....you may make it look however you wish, but my advice would be keep the "aging" to a minimum, as when you actually go out and play it will "wear" the way the real ones did.

[Sturmmann13]

good point, thank you very much indy. you imput has helped me very much. but I will be attempt to do a VSR-10 Kar 98 conversion

[2nd Bat]

That's valid if you play continually for a few months in the field. It took very little actual field use for a weapon to look quite battle worn. I am a fan of deliberate well done aging. The noteworthy wear on veteran weapons typically took place while issued not while stored, displayed and seldom used since the war.

It's a personal taste item of course but for authenticity sake, careful aging provides character

Granted a disciplined soildier took as good a care of his weapon as he possibly could but exposure the the elements and the constant cleaning and banging around that comes from normal field use will show in fairly short order. (7 years in the Infantry has taught me that)

Figure out where normal abrasions would occure and lightly sand or apply silver paint. Even the natural oils of human sweat will change the coloration of a guns finish. Certainly cleaning solvents will. Slings definitely should be "aged" In my opinion it's fun and something of an art form.

[Doom]

Real steel. Real Bakelite. Real close up.

[click]

Oooo......pretty.....

[2nd Bat]

That's a great reference photo. Thanks