Hammer's Slammers and Iridium

A while back, I recall someone asking what color iridium was so that he
could paint up some Slammer's hovertanks.

I've been re-reading the series and found a picture of some iridium
laboratory vessels at:

<http://www.matthey.com/noble/product/prfire.htm>

This site also has some interesting info on the properties of iridium
which
explain why it would be useful as armor against powerguns (highly
refractive and "the only pure metal which can be used unprotected in air
at
temperatures up to 2300 degrees C (4172 degrees F) without catastrophic
failure")

Jeff