Los Angeles Class colouring?

[SWESUB]

Hi,

I have googled the colour on Los Angeles class, but wonder what type of black? Some of them have red on the bottom of the hull etc...

Best regards

[eckloss]

Hi there...

I'm no LA expert, but I can tell you how they were painted years ago, or at least how my own research showed them to be. The hull above the centerline was a very dark gray. The anti-skid deck on top was flat black. Below the center line was anti-fouling red. The front nose of the boat, the sonar dome, was a slightly different shade of black. Some may also say it had brown in it. Depends on the boat and the picture. I don't know if any of the Flight III boats were ever entirely black yet, or if that is exclusive to the Seawolf and Virginia classes. They may have very well been painted in an all black scheme in recent years.

[JWLaRue]

I seem to recall being told that the red undersides was only when launched and before going into service.....at which point the same dark, dark grey (black) all around.

-Jeff

[eckloss]

Jeff, I refer you to the USS San Francisco (SSN-711) incident. The boat was in service at the time and you can see the red in this photo just afterwards.

[JWLaRue]

Erich,

Good find! I appreciate the correction.

-Jeff

[eckloss]

But, I too think I read or saw somewhere that at least the Flight III's were painted all black as they each completed refits after the era of the Seawolf boats.

[PaulC]

Here's a shot of an in-service Flt III boat -- the USS Greeneville (SSN-772) in drydock following the Ehime Maru incident in 2001.

[SWESUB]

Thank you very much :-)

[JWLaRue]

How about a photo of an all-black LA-class boat?

[eckloss]

USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN-705)

[PaulC]

Cool shots, guys! That view of Corpus Christi is interesting. Where the upper paint ends at the waterline is not the straight, precise line we strive to mask off when painting models. So good news -- if you're line is a little wavy on your model that is 1:1 accurate.

Also I'd be curious as to the date of the CC image. The hull treatment seems to use tiles that are quite a bit larger than those from the 80's-90's. There appear to be many more applied to the Greeneville (2001) for instance. Anyone know anything about that?

[JWLaRue]

Paul,

The Corpus Christi image was taken at Pearl Harbor on May 18, 2010. You can also just make out the USS Arizona memorial in the upper right corner.

-Jeff