The Ship Model Forum

Very cool guys, thanks for the info. Ill be buying me a WeeVee or even California as I want the "more guns" look. Thanks for narrowing down the ships, as they always confuse me to the point I had to memorize where each goes, class by class.

USS WEST VIRGINIA was repainted in Ms 21 by October 1945. I don't know when she painted over her dazzle camo. It appears from post-surrender photos, that USS WEST VIRGINIA was still wearing a "very worn" dazzle scheme. So she may have been repainted at PHNY.

Navsource is your friend...
Tennessee wore Ms21 in 1943 and then again in 1945: http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/43a.htm
California was in Ms21 by 1945: http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/44a.htm
Maryland was painted into Ms21 in 1945: http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/46a.htm
Looks like WeeVee stayed in dazzle the whole war.

As title says, Im trying to understand which of the Big 5 wore the all navy blue paint scheme?

I believe California did in 1945 and Trumpeter model is available in 1/700 for that year also, which is my first choice. I would still prefer to build West Virginia (because it is the chunkiest of them all) though I think it had the dazzle camouflage which I dont wanna paint. Question is, did Wee Vee end up in MS21 later in the war, or any other ships like Tennessee, Maryland or Colorado?

Goal is - MS21, Big 5, least amount of modifications to a kit.

My original goal was to build Idaho but she is not available and Im not going to search for Arizona / Pennsylvania kit to butcher that....


Appreciate your help guys!