cold war submarine paint scheme

Like I said, I've seen some exceptions to the basic black, but they are few.The photos clearly show an unusual color scheme, one I've never seen professionally. It would make for an interesting display!  I wonder if there are former crew members out there who could comment.

There is a commemorative set of two paintings done of the Thresher and the Scorpion that resides in the Naval Undersea Medical Institute at Groton, CT.  I was stationed there in 1979-1980, 1983-1986, and 1991-1993.  The paintings depicted both boats in the common black scheme.  One of the instructors had served on Scorpion, leaving her just before her final deployment; he never said a word about the appearance in the painting being incorrect.  But, the photos clearly show a different scheme.

I do remember one Special Ops boat being painted in a very unusual black and white camouflage scheme at one point; I wish I had a photo!

Bill

warshipguy

I'm wondering whether or not the photo of the Scorpion shows an unusual paint scheme or simply a coat of primer prior to repainting the sail black.  If you look at the base of the sail, the black of the hull runs up onto the base.

Check the rest of the series of photos at USNH&HC .   

The black appears to be over-painted onto the gray  per the earlier painting instructions which Tracy linked.   They did a poor job.  It is supposed to be spray feathered in,  but looks like brush strokes.   The black on the sail top also is appearing to blend/feather with the grey on the sides.    This photo shows better the touchups to the access plates.    

If the whole sail had been primed, then the wouldn't whole sail would appear to be much lighter in tone then shown in my prior photo which was demonstrating the sail sides were tonally similar to the Haze Gray on the Tallahatchie County.

Even her builder's sea-trials photo from 1960, with hull number and name in white,  shows a lighter sail with the black feathered-in edge of the raised turtle-back.   Thats Rickover out on the fairwater plane.

If that's primer; she went down that way, because the same pattern is visible on her wreck (second and third photos).

SSNs are currently painted with a black anti-fouling.... no more red. At least on the Seawolf and Virginia class - Subfixer may have better information.

I'm wondering whether or not the photo of the Scorpion shows an unusual paint scheme or simply a coat of primer prior to repainting the sail black.  If you look at the base of the sail, the black of the hull runs up onto the base.

American SSBN's and SSN's are usually painted black with anti-fouling red painted on the lower half of the hull. They also have fore and aft draft marks on the hull, and many have draft marks on the forward edge of the rudder.   When on builder's trials, they have white rescue markings around the hatches on the upper hull, but these are painted out prior to commissioning. Granted, there are exceptions to these rules such as the "Bulls" emblem painted on the bow of the Chicago for her commissioning ceremony, but these are few and far between.  Masts and antennae were painted gray with black mottling until recently, when they seem to be a slate-gray.

I use NATO Black for the basic black of the hull and the sail, and have started using British Crimson for the anti-fouling red. I then mask off the portion of the upper hull where the crew works and stands watches in port and paint it a darker flat black to replicate non-skid paint.  This scheme matches the six submarines on which I served.

Bill

mfsob

The only "blue" I can recall on submarines is fairly recently, and the Brits were experimenting with a blue topsides scheme for some of their boats deployed to the Persian Gulf?

That would be HMS Torbay, but the Italians have one too.

Trenchant's dazzle scheme was an experiment and not permanent. Still fun to model!

mfsob

The only "blue" I can recall on submarines is fairly recently, and the Brits were experimenting with a blue topsides scheme for some of their boats deployed to the Persian Gulf?

That's what I thought of, HMS Trenchant:

The only "blue" I can recall on submarines is fairly recently, and the Brits were experimenting with a blue topsides scheme for some of their boats deployed to the Persian Gulf?

To follow up on Tracy's comments,  this is one of the last photos of the Scorpion.   Taken in April, 1968 alongside the USS Tallahatchie County.   The Scorpion soon departed the Med and never arrived home.   Photos of a last 'float around' of the Scorpion are at the Naval History & Heritage Command's photo site

Note the tone on the Scorpion's sail and compare it with the Haze Gray on the Tallahatchie County.  Similar lighting conditions and distances would seem to indicate that the sides of the sail were painted Haze Gray.  Note too the lighter touchup patches on access panels.  The top of the sail was painted the dark topside color.   The lighter tone on the top of the Scorpion's hull is reflection of the sky. 

Most likely not blue, but I don't have any hard documentation. I've done a lot of WWII camouflage research, which has this 1948 color call-out for submarines based on colors that the Navy started issuing in 1945. These colors match a 1953 camouflage manual that is over 2/3 focused on submarines. Granted, this is over a decade before Scorpion was lost, but the paints presented in 1953 were all neutral and one of the main conclusions of the US camoufleurs near the end of the war was that color didn't matter as much as tone, hence they went away from the blues of the early war and to neutral gray colors. I have a hard time believing that they would have reversed this action and then reversed it again soon enough that no photos of post-war subs in blue paints exist, but the possibility exists.