Pearl Harbor Battleship Row guru's a moment of your time...regarding USS Maryland paint scheme

[talbot]

Hi, shortly I'll be building the Trumpeter 1/700 USS Maryland kit in the paint scheme she was in at Pearl Harbor

I've been spending the past few days researching the paint scheme

 

Everything I've come across indicates she was in Measure 1 scheme with 5-D Dark Gray and 5-L Light Gray for the upper structures

I did run across one post on a different forum suggesting that she was blue during the attack and had pictures of her hull that actually were blue

(and co-incidentally a build posts of the kit on scalemates is blue)

Personally I believe the image referred to was colorized post attack, thus might be an interpretation of who performed the colorization in weight of all the other data indicating 5-D

 

So I guess my question is confirmation of the 5-D and secondly any suggestions for good cross reference match in AK/Vallejo/Tamia acrylic paint

most of the comments I've run across on the 5-D roughly equates to go with the one closest that your happy with

 

near as I can tell this discontinued colorcoats was the closest match to 5-D

https://www.scalemates.com/colors/colourcoats-discontinued-2014--656/us04-early-1941-5-d-dark-gray-enamel-matt--13573

 

and so far best options I've lined up against that are vallejo 71.055 black gray, tamiya's xf-63 german gray (appears slightly darker than clearcoats) or AK 11881 medium gunship grey (slighly lighter)

 

thanks for your time

 

 

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

Hey there,

Apologies for the late reply (probably too late), but I haven't spent much time in here over the past couple of years.

 

Yes, Maryland was still in Measure 1, meaning 5D dark gray up to the level of the stacks and then 5L light gray above. 

 

It is possible they were planning a transition to a blue-gray and had started it on the Arizona and Oklahoma following their collision in October, but not the rest of the fleet (incidentally, the Arizona being in blue or gray is one of the hottest argued topics among warship fans.  I was blessed to have served the Arizona's last survivors for nearly 20 years, and nearly all of them do remember repainting in November, but whether it was a complete paint job or was incomplete as of December 7th, they didn't quite agree).

 

As far as best matches, I'm not sure; I know in enamels that Colourcoats NARN04/Grey 507A is new being used as a good match for the slightly worn appearance. 

Best place to ask would be over at www.modelwarships.com  Those folks know warships the way some preachers know Scripture