Painting?

[Lance Dean]

Are you Batfish guys preparing to raise funds to paint?

[Rick]

Yes.  We need aproxabately $180k.   Any help for support will be greatly appeciated.

Rick

[wh1skea]

When you finally get ready to paint, are you going with a Measure 32 scheme, or sticking with the Measure 10?

[Rick]

Forgive me as I am a Zoomie and am not familiar with the schems in numerical format.  We are going with the more traditional black on grey paint scheme though.

[wh1skea]

OK, the Measure 32.... quick breakdown on the numbers:

Measure 9 - All black

Measure 10 - All grey

Measure 32/3SS-B - Lighter version of the "grey to black" scheme

Measure 32/9SS-B - Darker version of the "grey to black" scheme

[Mark Sarsfield]

We'll be doing one of the Measure 32 schemes.  The new deck is already showing signs of weathering and we'd hate to see a lot of hard work go to waste.  Rick's new idea is to just clean the boat with power washers, stem to stern, and then paint over the existing paint, since we are stone-walled with stripping the old paint.  I'm not sure on the time line, though, but with some of the deck removed it will be a lot easier to maneuver and get equipment inside the superstructure to clean and paint.  At a minimum we should spray paint the new deck black to stop the weathering.

[Wesley Green]

yeah was starting to wonder about that, the new wood is getting bleached and already looks aged

[Mark Sarsfield]

Bleaching is one concern, but even more so, we are seeing it dry out and crack at the cut edges.

[Rick]

It is official.   The Batfish will get a new coat of paint.  Allthough it does not involve a sandblasting,  it does provide us with a productive coat that we did not have in the past.  I will provide photos and updates at the end of Aug..

PS,  Thank you to all for the information that I needed to get this done....

[W5HOY]

yahoooooo- Good work guys!

 

[Rick]

I am making this post here as well as on our Facebook page.  I want to clairify some items regarding the painting thsi weekend.  The ACTIVE DUTY Navy will be helping us out with our paint job this year.  COMSTRATCOMWING ONE out of Tinker AFB will be providing the bulk of the paint force this weekend.  The will be helped out by the Navy Recruiting District (NRD) Dallas, NOSC OKC, and NOSC Broken Bow.  These units will be puting a preservitive coat of paint onto the Batifsh.  We are going to to Mode 32 (black on grey) color scheme.   During the paint process admission to the park will be free (Aug 28 only).  The submarine will be closed for tours on Aug 28.  I will have a little more free time to take photos during the day.  I will do my best to get some photos of the event.

[Ctwilley]

I shot Rick a copy of the official orders from COMSUBPAC outlining the Mod 32/3ssB paint scheme. This is a reprint of the original that's on microfiche with the Navy. It's EXTREMELY detailed on every aspect.

He's going to use that as the guide for the Navy guys Saturday. As long as they can read and follow schematics, it'll be spot on with the way she looked in '45. I can't wait to see her in her new dress although I wish I could watch her change...or better yet, help her change.

[Mark Sarsfield]

It doesn't sound like it will happen in one weekend, but rather over a period of time, just like the deck (but hopefully not as long).  So, there will be plenty of opportunities to help.  My approach to the painting portion was to stay the hell out of the way.  It sounds like they will have a small army showing up and too many chefs spoil the soup.

[BrokenArrowtiger]

I wanted to volunteer for this one but ya with the navy comming il stay out of the way and stay in school this week

[Karen D.]

Hopefully it will go alot faster than my painting project this summer. After two monhts I've finally finished the first coat on just the exterior and I'm only painiting the sail!