Well, its a 1949 model so post-war. I believe there was a severe shortage of plating materials after the war and chrome was in very short supply. So it would make sense to use painted rather than plated parts. I have a sneaking suspicion that BSA put left over and odd-ball parts on export models to clear surpluses.
The shortage of materials for plating came about during the Korean War (June 1950-1953). It related specifically to Nickel, which was used during the plating process but was also needed for explosives manufacture occurred....
This affected BSA (and I assume other companies)...Ian
