Try 1/700 etch for ships if you want to see tiny but aside from that looking great

Painting the USS Arizona


So what color was the USS Arizona? Seems like a simple question right? Well actually it seems like its a pretty good way to start a fight amongst naval historians!!

Common sense would say they were painted "battleship grey" and there are many models on the internet with a red hull, black bootstriping and a grey superstructure.However, recent evidence from naval sources and interviews with sailors of the period suggest the superstructure was a dark blue color and the top of the masts and fire control towers were white/light grey.There are no color pictures of the Arizona that I can find, but I did find a color photo of her sister ship the USS Pennsylvania and she clearly has a dark blue superstructure.

Another detail that is often overlooked is the color on top of the 14 inch guns.On the Arizona 3 of the 4 main guns had a red color painted on the top of the gun housing.This was to aid the spotter planes that the ship carried to recognize their ship from the air.The main gun that carried the catapult was not painted red.

The kit

Trumpeter has correctly (in my opinion) called out a dark blue color for the superstructure and has instructions for painting the main gun turret tops red so I will be following their instructions.

I will be using Tamiya hull red and flat black and Vallejo dark sea blue and red for the superstructure.

The hull is too big to fit in my spraybooth so I set it up on a table in my basement and donned my respirator to spray over the red hull color.The bottom of the hull is molded in red, but it is too light a color and to me plastic always looks like plastic even when it is colored so I always prime and paint over it.I figured I would also do the motorboats and the same time since they will be painted in hull red too. So here are some pics of the parts being primed.

Yes Mike Asheys was one of the documents I found when researching the color of the Arizona.he did have some color photos of the vents from the partially submerged Arizona which still had some of the dark blue paint on them.He also interviewed quite a few sailors and they confirmed the color.The other thing they discussed was the weathering of the battleships.Many models have fairly extensive weathering and according to the sailors that served on the Arizona that isnt accurate.The Arizona never saw any military action after its 1929 refit and it was meticulously maintained so there really shouldnt be a lot of weathering on models depicting USS Arizona.I may do some very light weathering, but otherwise I plan to make her pristine.

Carl

The upper hull is now painted. I mated it to the lower hull and decided the lower hull color wasnt right.It looked too brown to me.I had a bottle of Floquil anti fouling red in my stash so I am respraying the lower hull with this color.

The ships boats are now also finished.I have to spray their cradles.

Thanks

Each 40 foot motorboat had 9 separate photoetch pieces to apply and they were really tiny.

Carl

She is looking absolutely fab

Enjoying your build immensely

Jase

Outstanding job Carl

I particularly like how you have left the Photoetch rails on the motor launches in there natural brass colour.

Thanks everyone.The hull is finally finished.I didnt like the original color so I resprayed it with some Floquil anti fouling red.This paint was quite old and didnt cure properly so I had to strip it off.No one seems to make ant foulgin red anymore so I ended up using blood red from Vallejos figure painting range.It looks pretty close to me.


Next step is to apply the wooden decks.