Late War Boat Questions

[Cornelius]

I'm working on the Revell Gato, making a late-war USS Barb. I have two questions:

1) What was the below waterline color? On some photos I've seen (Floating Drydock E-book, etc) it shows some boats having a lighter color below the roundover of the hull--is this red?

2) What can be seen through the open doors on the sides of the fairwater? I'll be cutting away the sealed doors on the kit and want to make sure I have the visible interior detailed.

Thanks!

[Rokket]

My LOOSE and CRAPPY understanding about color is that some prewar boats MAY have had red BTW (below the waterline), but that certainly in wartime the whole boat was painted black (measure 9). This includes painting over the hull numbers (I will be similating this by puttin on transfer or painted numbers, and then painting over). I have seen a shot of a balao in the 50s, in drydock, and she is scum and barnacle covered with totally discolored paint, and deemed "pretty fine shape" - but this was all gray. (uboats were apparently never red - the one source of red comes from a model in a photo). We should all track this down for confirmation - any ideas out there?

fairwater - anyone have good plans or pix?

[rabapla]

fairwater?

for a first look just use nautilusmodels interior shot of their early sail conversion (with inductor valve inside the conning tower and such)

[Cornelius]

Rokket and Rabapla,

Thanks!

Tom