Painting an Ohio class sub

I like painting a sub with modelmaster interior black as a base coat. I thin take my airbrush and add streaking of dk gull grey and feather it in. I then add a light misting of flat black, again in streaks. Tends to give it a natural streak look that subs in the water tend to have.

The actual topside paint is a semi gloss black. There is a non skid surface walkway that runs from the forward capstain area down the length of the missle deck to rear capstain area, I usually mask this out and paint it a very dark grey. ( NATO Black is close). Almost all operational Boats are overall black. Out of the yards some boats have the non fouling red lower hulls. The paint used to paint modern Submarines is like a liquid poly plastic..this paint rarely scuffs or chips but below the waterline on operational boats the paint does weather to a grey/green color depending on where it is operating.

Here are some pictures from the damaged USS San Francisco. The pictures were taken after she was put into dry dock following the collision with a sea mount at high speed. Notice the red anti-fouling paint...although a lot has worn away.

http://images.military.com/Shock/0,,SA_050127_SubCrash,00.html

You could actually get away with a flat black over the whole boat, but that can be sort of boring. Usually the anti-fouling red is painted to give some definition to the hull. It is put on at the shipyard during construction, but wears off pretty quickly. It should be a flat red and should be given a light wash in gray or white to mute it's tone.

I rode SSNs and SSBNs for 6 years, I Never saw a "Flat black" finish. Lower hull anti foul red was usually only new built or some shipyards after overhauls. E.B. Boats were almost always overall semi gloss black. I have seen SSBNs on West Pac with missle deck sides and sail painted in a Haze grey.. Usually only on SpecOp Boats who spend a good amount of tome on the surface. now DBF ( Diesel Boats) and WW2 Fleet Boats thats a whole other story..

Thank you gentlemen for all of your insights and references. They are much appreciated. I'll post pics upon completion.

D

Don't forget to show a few patches of peeling and missing anechoic tiles on the hull. They are quite prominent on a boat that's been out to sea for a few weeks.

Well...not to argue the point...here's a pic of the USS Alabama returning from deployment...the color has weathered to a flat black (almost grey). I have seen some other pics where the freshly painted hull is a lot closer to semi-gloss black.

http://navysite.de/ssbn/ssbn731_1.jpg

OK, you ask, I traipse off to the waterfront to get fresh info. Right now there are six fast attacks inport and in various states of repair, voyage wear and even one straight from overhaul. There are six different hull colors and/or wear conditions. The fresh paint is a satin black-uniformly applied and the hull tiles are all intact. They go steadily downhill from there. The next best paint job has patches of satin black (this is boot topping paint, the same stuff that the black waterline stripe on a surface ship or "skimmer" is used for) applied where needed for touch up. The paint just weathers and wears the longer it is on the boat until what is left is the near raw rubber of the anechoic tiles. When sun dried, the tiles will look "flat black".

Tankbuster to answer your original question the color Nuc Boats are painted is a Semi -gloss Black. This is to reduce the growth of alge and retard barnacles. This of course fades and wears to different shades but the Yard or re-fit applied color is A Semi gloss color..

To add some more details to the good information above, the T-hulls looked really nice when leaving the yards or drydock period. Anti-fouling red was painted up to the middle of the hull. The black paint (it was semi-gloss as described above) was taken down to meet the red. Here's the revelation in all this- after the ship was in service, all this painting was done using rollers (just like painting your house), so the finish was never really "pristine" on an in-service boat. It would get a fresh coat (looked glossy for a few days, actually) before dignitaries were hosted, and generally every availability. The anti-fouling red would look greenish gray until it was powerwashed when the ship was drydocked, then it would go back to a faded red. The fibreglass nose would take on a different shade of black depending on the exposure to sun and time since it was painted. The weathering would consist of streaking (use a dark gray for contrast) and occasionally rust streaks (which would prompt the Chief of the Boat to get some folks armed with rollers to paint again). The diesel exhaust ports (at the aft end of the sail) would acquire a really flat black soot covering if the diesel was run in port for any period of time. The non-skid on the topside surfaces is the only really obvious difference in finish that you'd be able to scale down to 1/350- I don't think the roller marks would be visible. Last time I saw a T-hull in 1995, they did not have the anechoic tiles that are on the fasties (SSN's). If you can find the book Silent Chase by Steve and Yogi Kaufman you will be treated to some truly excellent submarine pictures. Hope this helps you finish your Trident (and I hope you use 728 for the hull number) David Blackwell, MMC(SS), USN, Retired (SSBN 657 Gold, SSBN 728 Gold, AS-31, SSN-660, SSN 755)

Hey Chief Blackwell,
Were you Nuke or A Gang.. I was MM2 (SS) A Gang SSR 419 , SSBN 601 and 616. 1969 -76..
The new boats have tiles on them now that give them a rippled effect. I got a tour with USSVI Groton last year on the Toledo.. Quite an experience.. Much has changed since I was a snipe on the Boats. Do I remember rolling that thick paint down...The memorys are chilling..
I was an Engineman when I was in VN but when I Volled for the Boats they made me change my rate to MM . We had a few Boilerman on the 601.
They were Nukes.. They also made them change to MM . Hey on the new boats there are no longer TMs. They're weapons MMs.. Oh the changes.

No more QMs either, they're Nav-ETs.

By way of reply to Butchy- I was a nuke. I'll be polite about any adjectives. I know all the fasties got the tiles (even Sand Lance got them when we took her through the yards in '91), but I never saw any sign of the T-hulls getting covered (several visits to King's Bay right before I retired). The best part of that process was seeing the entire hull taken down to shiny bare metal prior to application of the tiles-quite a sight. Kind of ironic- my day job now is engineer for the emegency diesels (EMD 645's)at a nuke plant. You'll be pleased to know that a lot of nuke plants have Fairbanks-Morse 8&1/8's as their emergency diesels. A little off subject, but I thought an EN would like to know that sort of thing. Building some sub models is on my list of things to do, but I just checked out some of the prices for the 1/96 scale Sturgeon class- a bit steep! Revell Europe had a 1/400 688 class that was cheap and simple to build. BTW, Butchy- I went into the Navy in '77. Sorry I missed you, but I did work on the 616 over in lovely Holy Loch when I was on the Hunley. David Blackwell MMC(SS), USN, Retired

Holy Loch....... didn't you just love the horizontal rain blowing through the loch from that mountain pass?

Hey Tankbuster look what you started.. This forum is great.
What I missed the most about the "Loch" was the Testa Rossas at Captain Edd's and the Argyle. Both places drained many a Boomer Sailors wages. Great memorys. Much better than Rota and Guam. Scotland is a very lovely Country with many wonderful people.

I always liked the Tenant's Lager and the specially decorated cans that it came in.
(mid 80's).
Guam was a very good place for me but you are correct about Scotland being the better even with that vicious winter weather around Holy Loch. The Scots are good people. I never really cared for Rota that much.

Yeah, the two years I spent on the Hunley (or was it the Funley?) over in Holy Loch were nice from a living standpoint, but horrible from a work standpoint. Duty days were usually a 22 hour endurance test (trying to keep those old boomers fixed in the mid-80's was a lot of work), and we did lots of emergent fixes on transient fast boats. The best part for me was being a member of the model railroad club there- talk about a great experience!! All the members were the nicest folks- had the same interests as we all do. They helped me out quite a bit in enjoying my other hobby (model railroading), but they all had built the Airfix classics and really were great folks. We still exchange Christmas Cards with several of our friends from there. And yes, I do remember the horizontal rain (120 knot winds one day, as I recall) and the midgies. It really was an experience. Looks like we may have crossed paths, Subfixer- I was in R-5 '85-'87. Good to relive the memories- I was more of a Tenant's 70 shilling guy, though. Pity they closed it all down in '92.

David,

It would be a priviledge to number my finished sub 728. It would make
and nice story for why and a fitting tribute to someone who has served
for our country...May I ask the name of the SSBN 728?

Thanks,
Tankbuster

QUOTE: Originally posted by dwblackwell To add some more details to the good information above, the T-hulls looked really nice when leaving the yards or drydock period. Anti-fouling red was painted up to the middle of the hull. The black paint (it was semi-gloss as described above) was taken down to meet the red. Here's the revelation in all this- after the ship was in service, all this painting was done using rollers (just like painting your house), so the finish was never really "pristine" on an in-service boat. It would get a fresh coat (looked glossy for a few days, actually) before dignitaries were hosted, and generally every availability. The anti-fouling red would look greenish gray until it was powerwashed when the ship was drydocked, then it would go back to a faded red. The fibreglass nose would take on a different shade of black depending on the exposure to sun and time since it was painted. The weathering would consist of streaking (use a dark gray for contrast) and occasionally rust streaks (which would prompt the Chief of the Boat to get some folks armed with rollers to paint again). The diesel exhaust ports (at the aft end of the sail) would acquire a really flat black soot covering if the diesel was run in port for any period of time. The non-skid on the topside surfaces is the only really obvious difference in finish that you'd be able to scale down to 1/350- I don't think the roller marks would be visible. Last time I saw a T-hull in 1995, they did not have the anechoic tiles that are on the fasties (SSN's). If you can find the book Silent Chase by Steve and Yogi Kaufman you will be treated to some truly excellent submarine pictures. Hope this helps you finish your Trident (and I hope you use 728 for the hull number) David Blackwell, MMC(SS), USN, Retired (SSBN 657 Gold, SSBN 728 Gold, AS-31, SSN-660, SSN 755)

Butchy,

I'm glad you had the chance to chat about something you like and appreciate
your input.

Tankbusterquote]Originally posted by butchy

Hey Tankbuster look what you started.. This forum is great.
What I missed the most about the "Loch" was the Testa Rossas at Captain Edd's and the Argyle. Both places drained many a Boomer Sailors wages. Great memorys. Much better than Rota and Guam. Scotland is a very lovely Country with many wonderful people.