Thank you very much for your quick reply. Yes I am going for the 1940 look, which used the card, so green allover:grinning: The factory photo of C 4347637 looks like it's green, mine's 4343112.
Cheers,
Dave
This is the closest that I can get with an early-war photo. C4343426 with clearly a rim the same shade as the bowl, and with a good area of gas-detection paint on top.
Those are two great photos, showing lots of details, including the rim. I saw something on the glass of the second photo, looks like, BDS could that be Bomb Disposal Squad?
Silly me, got my own Cenus number wrong, C4343114.
Dave
Jan, why was this different with the 1939/1940 6" DU42 headlamps/rims then? we all made the rims black on the WD/C models. I can see it in some period pictures that they are black, but not all of them.
Good question Lex! Just had another look at all my C/5107 WD/C pictures, and although the rim looks a tiny bit darker than the shell in some pictures (due to the light and the angle no doubt), it is clear in most pictures that the rim was indeed khaki green. So I had it wrong when I painted my rim black. Errare humanum est, I must have been inspired by the Rolling Stones I guess...
While we're talking about headlamps and colours, what does the forum think about the paper blackout mask? I've always heard it was made from "black manilla paper", but when looking at war time pictures I'm not so sure. It looks lighter, could be buff in my opinion...
I made a black paper mask some years ago and bought "black manilla paper", it was black right through so where you cut it there wasn't a white edge showing, plus it has a textured surface on one side.
There is certainly no doubt in my mind that the misformed rim on my damaged 8" lamp was original factory finish KG3. This would probably have been November 1939 production.
The mask inside my MT110 was of thin black card. I beleive that there are surviving examples of pre-cut headlamp masks in black card too.
It's difficult to be sure of the card colour in all headlamps, but it is the case that even with black card, reflection on the exterior of a 'Difusa' glass often gives a light colour in a black & white photo.
Thankfully, none of this is relevant to BEF as they painted the glass.:grinning: