>>95964708
>>95966210
japs painted their armor just as often as euros, which wasn't so often, it was a higher lord ordeal, the gruntier lower ranks would have blacked and blued steel, the same as the majority of euros

>>95964685
Polished pieces were never a fucking thing, a field piece won't survive a month of campaign when polished without visibly rusting.
Polishing armor is a georgian-victorian aesthetic choice, which destroyed the original black or russet finish of the vast majority of pieces.
That black finish is iron oxide, /the spanish treatment/ was more expensive than the form of finish that turned them russet.

You can try the doi 10.1080/10426910902988059 for a quick read, use the 14ft ladder