Lead coloured ammunition boxes??

[AKC52]

Could anyone please tell me what the colour "lead" modern equivalent is? I have read through an civil war ordinance manual and found the ingredients and mixture ratios but noting the hazardous nature of some, decided not to try it myself!
Seeing that the primary ingredient is white lead, I figure that it Would be a light color but with the addition of the required litharge, which could be red or yellowish, completely confuses me.
Does anyone have an idea on this??

 

[JOHN42768]

Welcome, enjoy. Why not start with a light gray and if you are not happy put a darker shade and darker yet if you wish. Since color photography was not around you probably will never know for sure. This way you only have modern day paint and not have to worry about the lead.

 

[DixieRifles]

. . . the primary ingredient is white lead, I figure that it Would be a light color but . . . .

I didn't know what "white Lead" was. So I googled it and found this in Wikipedia.

White lead is the basic lead carbonate 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2. It is a complex salt, containing both carbonate and hydroxide ions. White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite, a hydrate of cerussite. It was formerly used as an ingredient for lead paint.
In any event, white lead has been mostly supplanted in artistic use by titanium white, which has much higher tinting strength than white lead. . .
In the eighteenth century, white lead paints were routinely used to repaint the hulls and floors of Royal Navy vessels, to waterproof the timbers and limit infestation by shipworm.
Among the synonyms(as an art pigment) for white lead are Berlin white, Cremnitz white, Dutch white lead, flake white, Flemish white, Krems white, London white, Pigment White 1, Roman white, silver white, slate white and Vienna white.

Since they threw in this chemical formula, I thought maybe the white lead would react to some other ingredients you listed and cause a color tint change to the mixture. Otherwise, white Lead is white as chalk.

 

[AKC52]

Thanks for the replies!
This "lead" colour is supposed to be for 69cal ammunition, however; I've found an image of a 69cal ammunition crate on Google that is a dark olive green!

 

[AKC52]

I guess that this colour can be attributed to standard nonstandardization!

 

[14NYSM]

I just came across this while looking at an article about the restoration of the USS Constitution - Based on this, it would indicate that the color "lead" was white, or very pale grey. Anyone who's seen a dug lead CW bullet knows that lead oxide is white.

"In 1842, the Board of Naval Commissioners decreed that U.S. Navy vessels were to have black hulls and white gun streaks/stripes. For the rest of her active career, until her last sail in 1881, Constitution's hull color changed only once, when, according to ship's carpenter Henry George Thomas in 1844,

"December 20…Since leaving Rio, the ship has been painted white or lead color with a red streak, in place of black with a white streak…the ship is cooler…both inside and out…" [Around the World in Old Ironsides, The Voyage of the USS Constitution, 1844-1846 by Henry George Thomas]