RAL Uboat Paint Colors

[brendieellen]

Some time ago, I did a bit of research, finding that the interior of the WW2 uboats were a bit cream-colored in the upper, and blueish on the lower.

Noting that that links work, but not once Steam touches them, so they have to be copied as text and pasted in a browser. Couldn't we just upload a .jpeg?!

This is RAL Color Chart for Uboats
http://www.u-boot-archiv.de/dieboote/farben_juli_1944.html?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

This a color-swatch sheet with two of the RAL colors involved.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/j65813d9xkv8l48of6scz/RAL-Colors.jpg?rlkey=3zufwrs7awjj09ynolmphx9ve&dl=0

And this is just a quickie mock-up with a brush-marked slightly-underrusted touched-up bulkhead might look like.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9phdkzus4pba51negcji4/Latest.jpg?rlkey=93aoia2pfvexfoltbglz6un0q&dl=0

Noting that the incandescent light would tend to make the interior a bit warm in color value

[IIIIlllIIIII]

That is interesting. I just wonder why they say elfenbein in the one row and in the other RAL 9003. RAL 9003 is not elfenbein, that is Signal weiss (signal white)

[brendieellen]

So, you think there is a conflict?
I would tend to think that the RAL system would be the stronger figure of merit, as the system was designed to overcome descriptions like "Insignia Red" or "Royal blue."

Although the lighting is likely warm in U995, it appears to agree with the RAL colors. The warm incandescent lighting may warm the colors a bit.

Overall, the graphic work in Wolfpack is astounding. There is even a valve/gauge in the far-aft of the sub that can only be seen with the handlight, seen between the rear-torpedo tube, and what might be the torpedo-compensation ballast tank.

A few textures seem a bit old for a boat that had a 25% chance of returning, so, toward the end of the war, with advances in ASDIC, RADAR, and the Hedgehog, likely most boats that hadn't sunk--were likely newish. : )

[IIIIlllIIIII]

Originally posted by brendieellen:

So, you think there is a conflict?
I would tend to think that the RAL system would be the stronger figure of merit, as the system was designed to overcome descriptions like "Insignia Red" or "Royal blue."

That is true however, the RAL Color code has a unique description, like RAL 9003 "Signal Weiss" or RAL 6005 "moss green".

Honestly, it's a complex topic with the colors.
For a WW2 Air Combat sim i did some colorschemes for Airplanes (historical ones, of course) and did intense research in WW2 color schemes and camoflage. Even me as German that can read sources it's difficult to find proper ones and then their description of RAL and how the color in the end actually turned out because of lack of resources (at the end of the war, they lacked resources and could not paint everything the way they wanted) some different colors were used. Then, there are individual commands of the RLM "Tagesbefehl" to use a different color than the official RLM colors etc. etc..

I do not know about the Uboat colors et cetera, but i also never found a specific RAL color for their Grey paint on the Hull. Or is there one ? I mean it is grey obviously, but what is the *exact* color ?

The boats were newish most likely 1943 onwards, using different schemes of colors most likely, depending on what was in stock and what was not.

[Nacked Schnacke]

Well according to the site ubaotarchiv.de the exact colors were to be requested from B. d. U. as they are chosen according to the area of operations:
http://www.ubootarchiv.de/dieboote/farben_maerz_1940.html

"Zusätze in der Vorschrift 1940:
Zu Überwasseranstrichen dürfen nur matte, nichtglänzende Farben verwendet werden. Der genaue graue Farbton des Deckanstriches ist für jedes Boot vom B.d.U. zu erfragen, da er von dem zukünftigen Operationsgebiet abhängt."

But as of 1944 that seems to have changed:
http://www.ubootarchiv.de/dieboote/farben_juli_1944.html

According to that they at least intended the color of the outside below the water line to be RAL 7016.

[beewhoyouare1234]

I'm confused only got to read the first few because it says error 400 on drop-box on the last two; steam://openurl_external/https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dropbox.com%2Fscl%2Ffi%2Fj65813d9xkv8l48of6scz%2FRAL-Colors.jpg%3Frlkey%3D3zufwrs7awjj09ynolmphx9ve%26amp%3Bdl%3D0. and steam://openurl_external/https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dropbox.com%2Fscl%2Ffi%2F9phdkzus4pba51negcji4%2FLatest.jpg%3Frlkey%3D93aoia2pfvexfoltbglz6un0q%26amp%3Bdl%3D0

[beewhoyouare1234]

It might've worked on you guys's PC/computer/laptop but not on my PC.

[IIIIlllIIIII]

I only read this:

This is RAL Color Chart for Uboats
http://www.u-boot-archiv.de/dieboote/farben_juli_1944.html?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp