I want to build my new 1/144 Revell U-Boot VII C to reproduce the U-596 that was based in Italy in 1942. Tower must be modified because the wintergarten was enlarged: there are a photo and a colour profile of this ship on U-Boats in Action, the hull is painted red with black water line but I've always seen drawings of U-Boats type VII with their hull painted dark gray and no water line; I'd like to use red because the model would be more eye-catching... Any suggestions? Pietro
From my research the more correct color would be dark grey; nearly black. I plan to use Model Master Aircraft Interior Black for my 1/72 project.
I'm guessing, but I think the red hull may have been more prevalent during WWI when airpower wasn't as big a threat to submarines operating in the shallows, or only partially submerged. Most of what I've come across regarding WWII era boats regards the red hull depiction as "in error", but there's a lot of stuff out there to read - certainly I would think that they'd all have been darkened as a matter of concealment by '42, though.
In the Squadron-Signal book, the underwater section of the hull is indeed red lead primer. Above that is a dark gray or black line at the waterline, then the top of the hull is light gray, with a "frond-type" dappling of Italian blue-gray. The info states this was a Mediterranean scheme from the Summer of 1942. A black and white photo of the sub shows the the light gray upper hull with the blue-gray dappling. Here's a 49 page PDF on how Type VIIC U-boats were painted:
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with color chips.
The Mediterranean was particularly treacherous for U-boats because of the clarity of the water. I've read of submarines being sighted from the air while at as much as
Yes, and then I found this site during my research - very informative:
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To quote the site:
"A number of side profiles, drawings and illustrations show U-boats with red lower hulls and black bootlines, and these have sparked countless debates within the modelling community. Many commentators maintain that no U-boats, either before or during the war, ever had red anti-fouling paint beneath the waterline. Another opinion is that at the very start of WWII some U-boats had red lower hulls, but at the next dry-docking they were painted dark grey. Other opinions hold that while some pre-war boats may have been red, all wartime boats were dark grey."
Hence my conjecture that by the time frame of operation of the OP's boat, it most certainly would not have been red...and that the Squadron Signal depiction is most likely in error.
Unfortunately, good pictures of operational boats are sort of hard to find...and the only way to know for sure is to find a picture of the specific boat. Something that seems a bit more of a challenge for ship builders than for aircraft modeling.
It's anti-fouling paint, so it's sort of designed to sluff off (the red was probably red lead of some sort, if it was even used at all)...one more reason the boats were re-painted after each patrol.
This is a really good site on U-boat colors and painting practices - I lost the link and it took me a bit to find it again. Folks should surf around it a bit if they're interested in U-boats.
Yeah...that seems to lean towards the "never painted red" argument, too
- at least according to the Kriegsmarine regulations cited (and the text of pages 11-13).
I tend to lean towards their argument that pre-war (or to be even more liberal early war) boats may have had red hulls, and to add my own conjecture - that they most certainly would have all been dark grey or "black" by pretty early on in the war; after boats returned from patrol and were repainted - I can''t recall if I read that on this site or another one, but I do recall reading somewhere an eye witness testimony that the boats were completely repainted after each patrol during refit
Yes - as far as the anti-fouling paint goes, and there's a bit on that in the pdf...even an odd part about putting them in the water with the paint still wet because it aided the release of the poison in the paint and further helped to stop barnacle buildup.
But the engineering reason is that any buildup of corrosion would produce a stress path and thus reduce the operational depth the boat could safely dive to, or the amount of pounding the exterior casing could put up with - think about corrosion controlling an aircraft (if you've ever been around Naval aircraft) and it's pretty obvious that it's even more critical for a submarine operating at depth. So like not being painted red, it's more of a matter of survivability.
That why I (and a number of other U-boat modelers I've been corresponding with around the globe...) sort of laugh at the way a lot of models out there are over-weathered. If you do look at pictures of operational U-boats (even really beat up ones) they aren't really rusted
- just chipped through to the base coat, or bare metal. On top of that, if they spend most of their time submerged, there;s no oxygen to form rust...just look at pictures of a submerged shipwreck.
Also - the average patrol was 14 days, and there were a lot of boats, so none of them spent enough time at sea to get that beaten up...unless they were sunk. So I'm planning on going a bit "easier" on the overall weathering of my model - I'll be able to get back to it over Christmas...I hope.
1.) U-boats, like all WW II subs spent most of their time on the surface, not submerged, until the U-boats were equipped with snorkels late in the war.
2.) The Titanic is disintegrating due to rust:
Granted, but I'd also tend to wonder ho much of that is due to biologic chemistry and not direct exposure to the sea. There are lots of examples of submerged wrecks in remarkable condition.
And even if Titanic is rusting into the silt, look how long it took - way longer than 14 days. And now I'm curious about what's up with 14 days...that's also how often we have to wash our jets...
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