Cold War submarine colors???

Your basic US submarine was black on the upper half and anti-fouling red  (could be light green if it has been in the water for a while) on the lower half, with fibreglass bow areas (sonar domes- depends on which class you are building) being a little lighter shade of black as they faded. There was a thread about a year and a half ago that covered all this pretty well, just search on "SSBN" and you'll get the thread. Some things to remember for that period: no US submarine ever displays its hull number on the sail unless it is on a port call or having a ceremony (even then they are usually metal numbers held on with magnets), and the paint was applied with rollers typically. Unless you're depicting a boat fresh out of overhaul or new construction, the paint should not be that nice even coat we all strive for with our airbrushes. Plenty of fading and some rust should be evident as well, with some green slime along the waterline for sea growth. The white pattern that the decals usually give you for the escape trunks was generally only worn during sea trials coming out of the yards or when operating with a Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle. I can't tell you what the opposition (Soviets) looked like, as I never saw one in the flesh. Their "fishing trawlers" off of the east coast looked like they needed a paint job, though.

Thank you very much for the info. I currently have a Los Angeles class and Skipjack class kits for my US boats. Your guidance here will do the job for them. On the Soviet subs, I have quite a few photos in books, but due to the nature of the shots, they are not very good as reference to the paint scheme.