Hi all. I recently acquired the Trumps 1:144 scale SSN-21 Seawolf Attack Sub & would like to ask anybody here who knows the actual color scheme of the sub. I'm a bit confused with the instruction sheet of the kit as to the color scheme & to the pictures that I have seen. TIA.

Normally subs are a black top and dark red bottom. The exact colors I am not sure about.

Questionable at times, but here's a couple drydock photos that seems to fall in line with most...

Alex,
First you have to decide what time frame you want your build to represent. By that I mean, as built and delivered or sea trials stage, the early stage of her career or current. As built and delivered or the sea trials stage.
The sea trials stage is is, from the waterline up a glossy black, from the waterline down to the center of the boat is a flat black and from the center of the boat down to the keel is a rust red. The bow area that represents the sonar dome is black all the way around. You will want to use the white stripped decals around the hatches as these are to help a rescue vehicle line up to the hatch in case of an emergency. Early in her career you would do the same as sea trials but leave off the white line decals as these are painted over by the Navy because they can be seen very easily from above and would give away the boat. The current paint scheme is from the waterline up gloss black and from the waterline to the keel flat black
Gunny those are some real old drydock pics you've got there of a boomer, nice!
Here is a picture of a build I did for a Chief friend of mine when he retired from the Navy, it's of the SSN 022 USS Connecticut. His favorite of the boats he has served on.

O.K. the photo thing didn't work for me, mental note to self figure this out.
You can see the images in my album, sorry.
I hope this helps.
Don

Thanks for the input guys.
BTW Don, what color did you use with the USS Connecticut? Is it semi-gloss black for the the upper hull & the sonar dome & rust red for the bottom hull? I wanted to paint the Seawolf the way when she was delivered. Or can I paint her just like the USS Connecticut? TIA.

Alex,
If you look at the upper part of the model you will notice a scribe line that goes all the way around the top forward to aft, thats the waterline. From there up I used gloss black, including the sail. While I had everything taped up for paint I used a light coat of dull coat to slightly tone down the gloss to give it a more scale effect. Semi- gloss just didn't quite look right to me, that not to say it's wrong and you shouldn't use it but to me it just didn't work. From that point down to the middle is flat black. For the rust red the best I've seen is Krylon red primer. I'm not sure if they make it any more. You could try using the pictures Gunny put up and matching up some red paint. That boat was just repainted and looking at how clean the drydock is, it's about to go back into the water.
The Seawolf and Connecticut were painted the same for delivery so yes. From the Jimmy Carter on all boats were delivered all black and ALL the older boats that get repainted while in drydock. There are some things that Trumpeter got wrong on the model that are easy to fix and others that are not so easy but are close enough I guess to live with. I can point those out if you'd like but to be totally honest unless you really know what your looking at you'd never know.
I hope I didn't confuse you too bad.
Don

Here you go, mate...that's a beautiful display that you've built there, Don!

Thanks Gunny,
Like I said earlier it was a retirement gift. The plates going across the front of the model are all the mile stones of his career from the time he signed up till he retired. My friend had said he wanted something different from a traditional shadow box and boy was he surprised. I had a lot of fun with this one.
Don

operrationally they are black - at least they parts you can see -heavy weathered black - the red looks like hot plastic anti fouling paint