Calling all Italian submarine fans

[JamesAPrattIII]

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 torpedoes was given a camo 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 horizontal 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 regulatory 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:

[JamesAPrattIII]

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

Delphis white metal 1/700 Sirena and Squalo:
Both are in early war configurations. 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.

[JamesAPrattIII]

On the axishistoryforum.com Italy under Fascism 1922-1945 I made two posts and got replies to both.

Italian submarine camo 1941-43 It seems there was no real pattern for sub camo each boat had a different blotch or splinter scheme. The blotches could be green or brown and looking at the 2 color pics could be both. Also paint quality was inconsistent.

The Tembien was painted blue grey with dark earth blotches and a dark grey deck. This is how the sub was painted after it's Feb-Jun 1941 refit based on the Delphis Models 1/700kit instructions and the picture of the boat in wiki Italian submarines or WW II.

The other post Submarine Scire camouflage. It has drawings of the sub in Sep 1940 painted green-grey with a trawler painted on the side of the hull as during its aborted Gibraltar operation.

The other drawing has the sub in it's 1941 configuration and camo which is in the Delphis kit instructions which only has a drawing of the conning tower and part of the hull. Blue grey hull with small dark earth triangular blotches with dark grey decks. The Delphis instructions have the tops of the SLC canisters painted dark grey and the axishistoryforum reply doesn't. painting on the little triangles on a 1/700 model is going to be really difficult. In looking at this sub in wikis Italian submarines of WW II they have an article on the wreck which has the sub painted in a round blotch scheme when it was sunk. This is right the Italians did adopt this scheme later in 1941.

I hope this is of some use.

[JamesAPrattIII]

For more info on RM submarine and naval colors see the Camouflage and coating section on this site they have a post on Vallejo paint matches.