The Ship Model Forum

I managed to get the book Italian Naval Camouflage of World War II" by Marco Ghiglino and decided to share some info on Italian submarine camo on this site

June 1940 Italian submarines were painted a very dark grey almost black

Sept 40 the Scire converted to carry SLC human torpedos was given a cmo scheme of a greenish-grey base with a silhouette of a fishing vessel heading in the opposite direction to the boat painted on both sides in a dark color

3 Jan 41 Maricosom the submarine command ordered that submarines painted with a blue-grey base with dicing in neutral shades (brown). At La Spezia the dicing was seen as spots with straight edges. At Taranto it was applied as slanted and broken lines. In Mar 41 tests the Italians found the one at La Spezia was most effective using patches with more rounded contours.

For some classes of submarine (Bandiera, Bragadin and Squalo) the "big nose" was to use the light grey sported by the surface units in 1942 this was replaced with the dark grey of the horizontial decks and bulges

Dec 41 the use of a lighter blue/grey background on the deck was decided upon, with the tops of the bulges in dark grey

Atlantic submarines: the Bianchi before leaving Italy the conning tower and part of the raised deck were painted a dark grey colour much lighter than the regulartory dark grey. All atlantic submarines adopted this type of livery until early Jan 1941 when they went to dark gray and later light grey like the German u-boats.

will have more:

For side plans of submarines the book "Submarines of World War Two " by E Bagnasto is a good source.

Delphis white metal 1/700 Sirne and Squalo:
Both are in early war cofigurations I painted them XF-53 overall note the surviving boats had their conning towers rebuilt later on in the war

Delphis resin Morcello and Foca 1/700

Marcello had the early war conning tower and the 1942 Danolo and Mocenigo conning tower so you can pick the one you want. i did the early war one and painted it XF63 overall.

early war conning tower has the Morosini light grey overall. I think the decks would have been painted dark grey

It has the Mocenigo in 1943 in the Med scheme

Foca has the early war and 1941 conning tower for the Zoea and Atropo in 1942 the Atropo and possibly the Zoea had there conning towers further modified . I did the early war conning tower and painted it XF-63. They do have the Atropo in its 1942 scheme.