USS Missouri

[Massimo Tessitori]

I'm not an expert of ships, but I'm building a quick model with the kit of Meng of the battleship USS Missouri, 1/700.

The instructions sheet says that the decks should be painted all in 'deck blue 20 B' (this is the color of the sticks and of the plastic of the deck); I've looked for photos of the real thing, but I see that only the rear half of the main deck looks painted in a sort of dark grey, while the front part looks in a dark wood brown.

Besides the sides of the hull are described as 'sea blue 5 S', with a tiny part in 'haze grey 5 H', the same medium grey of the upper structure sides. Now I've seen drawings showing the sides of the hull with an undulated camouflage during the WW2, while the modern version looks to have the hull sides in uniform grey.

Who can help me to decide what to do with the deck and the hull sides, please?

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Massimo,

 

All US Navy ships had their decks painted dark blue-grey for the duration of American involvement in WW2. 20-B was the name of that paint colour.

 

The two tone hull scheme is one of the schemes worn.

 

The Missouri of course remained in service until Gulf War 1, and in the early 1980s had lots of modifications including a helipad on the quarter deck - this was when the planking was replaced with steel plating.

 

If the kit is for WW2 fit, you're best to just follow the instructions there. Meng has at least called out the correct colours and gone to the effort of finding out the correct names for those colours.