Color Question on Hotel Class / K-19

[tracy white]

I've got my Zvezda 1/350th K-19 almost assembled (watch those upper deck pieces; mine needed some sanding to get them to fit.... seemed a bit long) and the mind wanders to paint. The instructions call out for Insignia red below the nominal waterline, gunship gray for the vertical surfaces, and medium gray (model master #1721) for the deck. Is this right? I can't find any pictures of a hotel in drydock that's not computer generated or not obscured and the two grays seem a bit light in tone to me.

[tom dougherty]

The only photo I have

The only photo I have of a Hotel in drydock is in black & white. It's certain that later Russian boats had color schemes similar to some US submarines; black 1/2 way up the hull and red halfway down, but earlier color schemes (60's-70's) are problematic in terms of finding solid information.

I have photos of models of the Hotel (done in Russia) that show the model as a black upper and a very, very, dark brownish red below the waterline. The Hotel was not exactly one of the greatest successes of the Soviet system, so photos and information can be hard to come by. I plan to do mine as light grey over dark grey.

[tracy white]

OK, thanks. I will probably

OK, thanks. I will probably just do black and brown/red as that's sort of the paradigm for a sub.

[gerwalk]

The Polar Bear Model of

The Polar Bear Model of a Hotel shows the paint scheme Tom described. Another interesting color alternative could be a green hull. Green was used as antifouling paint (containing chromates?) in several soviet subs. Nevertheless I don't have color references on the Hotel (aside from the PB model ones)

[gerwalk]

Another option could be the

[color=#000000]Another option could be the one suggested by Tom]

[tracy white]

While the fouling is true,

While the fouling is true, when I've seen it there's still a reddish/brownish tone to the area.

I did some more digging and it really looks to me like K-19 had both schemes during her time. Looking over http://www.submarine.id.ru/thumbs/658/index.shtml, I think this picture looks too dark in tone (especially compared to the silvery sonar fairings) to be gray, even allowing for how a wet surface darkens. But this photo shows a scheme that is clearly gray with a darker deck.