Hi guys,
Glenn, you might find this funny. A few weeks back I glued the hull and deck of the new IX together and was quite content doing a little sanding. My 4 year old daughter literally jumped on top of me and insisted see had a go at sanding. Then, when my back was turned, she went on got her kiddies' paints and started painting the lower hull red. It had to be red, didn't it!
Texchap - I put a question mark in my article because, quite frankly, I don't know if the upper hull colour corresponded to a known Kriegsmarine paint. Here is a screenshot from colour video footage of U 505 during the capture -
There are so many reasons why the colour you see on your computer may not be the same colour as the boat on the day. It is heavily weathered too, rusty on the upper hull and badly chipped on the tower.
I think there might have been a late war scheme of Blaugrau 58/1 on the upper hull and Blauschwarz 58/2 on the tower (as with U 805 and U 858). U 505 may have had this scheme, Blaugrau 58/1 on the upper hull, though the heavily weathering may have made it less blue.
For the tower - the entire tower was replaced when converted to Turm IV. I think the plating they used on the tower was different to other areas of the boat. It may have been thicker plating, I don't know, but it seems clear that the paint did not adhere well to the plating they used on U 505, U 805 and U 858. It could even be that the Blauschwarz 58/2 paint they used did not adhere well either.
Oh, and the hull wasn't red!
Cheers,
Dougie
