What colour was a DUKW propeller painted?

[59Prototype]

Chatting to a friend who has virtually finished restoring a DUKW, and a brilliant job he has done on it I must say,  I asked him what colour the propellers were painted when they left the factory? Whilst he didn't know as such we surmise that they were simply sprayed OD. As there was a war on and they were churning them out as fast as they could we can't see that they sprayed them in anything other than with the paint that they were spraying the rest of the underside.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

Graham

 

[Noel7]

What are the propellers made of? Ship propellers are usually a copper alloy such as brass, bronze or gunmetal, which doesn't need painting.

[59Prototype]

Noel, it looks to be bronze and as you say doesn't need painting. In other words it doesn't need to be painted for protection. However we guess that it was still painted (OD??) as it was easier to spray the whole underside than to be worrying about not painting the propeller.

[wally dugan]

as any paint would wear off quickly  when used in the water  paint would not stick very well on bronze that said post war red was used check the ex RCT one in the NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM   collection

[59Prototype]

Wally, you are correct but I think the answer lies in the expressions 'when built' and 'post war' . When built the propellers were the same colour as the rest of the underside but post war with more concerns about safety and more time to spray them up they used bright colours such as red, which you mention, and yellow to warn people to keep clear. 

[Tony B]

Or it was easy to find when they went nose down. 😀