The newest USS Independence is in Norfolk

Nice pic!  Looks like she's running a little light.  Riding pretty high isn't she?

That's a shot from Wikipedia, cameras aren"t allowed where I work. She was still being fitted out in that photo.

Your lucky.

Does it look bigger in person then it does in pictures?

Jules Verne would love these boats.

I have to admit, they look mean as hell, but I don't know if I'd want to be on one in the middle of the North Atlantic in winter ...

subfixer

USS Independence LCS-2, is tied up here at Norfolk Naval Station. It's the first time I've seen her and she is very different than any other of her namesakes. 

 

Up close and personal, what does her finish look like?  In the FSM review of the Dragon kit it was called 'lamp post aluminum'.

I've seen photos of a completed model with aluminum panel outlines on overall gray.

The painting instructions for the 1:350 Bronco call for 36270 Haze Gray.

Some photos of her during fitting out seem to show a good deal of bright aluminum glint.

What does the actual finish look like? 

I second Ed's question; to me it looked like an oxidized or treated bare aluminum skin, but I have been unable to find anything useful and my 1/700th kit sits completed but unpainted....

Saw her achored about a mile off of Virginia Beach 2 weeks ago. Spookey.

She seems to have the standard Haze Gray overall paint scheme. No unusual finishes that I can see. The hull number is done in that subdued, low contrast gray. You can't read the name on the transom from a distance, either.

She does look bigger in person, a  little smaller than an Arleigh Burke, by about a hundred feet, but has a draft one third the depth of the DDG.

Here is another shot from Wikipedia; it looks like a maintenance or fitting out scenario:

Thank you for the information.

Defense Imagery dot mil has some additional photos from pre-commissioning to fairly current

http://www.defenseimagery.mil/imagery.html#a=search&s=littoral&chk=6cff0&sel=1000

(Used littoral as the search keword.  LCS-2 didn't come up with much.   Littoral gave 42 pages with both LCS-1 and LCS-2 pictures)

There are some good high-angle shots from a helo,  and a couple of direct stern-view shots.   One has the hangar doors reflecting the sun and lit up like searchlights

Subfixer: note that the gun is a different color than the hull; while this might be due to the fact that it is a separate assembly installed as more of a modular unit, I don't see why current photos (such as this one, nearly a year after trials) still show the same difference.. you would think that there would be some sort of fading or repainting of the hull in that time that would even them out. There are other assemblies (antennas, roller doors) that are that same different color).

Ultimately it's a detail of small consequence to the ship's mission, etc., but I find it interesting....

The sun finally came out and Noah pulled out of port so I could get a good look at LCS-2 in sunlight.  It would seem that the gunmount, hangar doors and the rest are pretty much a uniform haze gray. If you look closer at the gun mount, (in your picture)  you will notice that forward part matches the hull and that the area in shadow matches that of the transom. I think it has to do with all of those crazy "stealth" angles and the way the sunlight catches them. I noticed that the finish does seem to be "flatter" than on  the other ships nearby and suppose that it might have something to do with radar absorbing (??) paint. She is also riding a lot lower in the water than in the pictures (the Wikipedia ones) above. The boot topping is barely visible now that she has fuel loaded.