I found out about Ms-18 when I asked a question at Shipcamouflage website about the photo (actually a whole series of photos) of the Nicholas taken on 15 August 1942, which was only a little over a week before she departed the East Coast for the PAC. I was kindly told that it was Ms-18 and when I asked what that was, I was pointed to Alan Raven's article that he published years ago and that has been posted on the Shipcamouflage website ... the specific page where Ms-18 is talked about is ...
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/5_6.htm ... I never knew that this "paint job" was official. I went back through my photo collection, check of Web sources and did a quick survey of USNI Photo Library and found several Fletcher's with the Ms-18 scheme, mostly Bath Iron Works built ships. A very quick and dirty list of what I have found so far
DD-449 Nicholas 15 August 1942
DD-466 Waller approx. January 1943 in the PAC (this is interesting in that a 30 Nov 1942 photo on the East Coast shows her painted in Ms-22)
DD-467 Strong un-dated photo that appears to be at the builder's?
DD-468 Taylor 27 August 1942 (taken at Bath ... she comm on 28 Aug) and by 13 Sep 1942 she was in Ms-22
DD-469 DeHaven 28 June 1942 at time of Launching
DD-507 Conway undated but she still only had 6-20mm ... in a photo dated 24 Oct 1942 she was in Ms-22 and in a photo dated 13 August 1943 she is in Ms-18 and how has 7-20mm guns.
Please, this is not to be taken as THE complete list of Ms-18 camo Fletcher's and some of these dates are suspect to me. I'm still looking.
Most if not all of these ended up in Ms-21 ... all of the DESRON-21 for sure ... once they were in the South Pacific. The Conway (DESRON-22) photo dated in August 1943 is a real interesting case if the date is accurate.