The Ship Model Forum

As some of you know, I started this thread to clarify about the MS 32 3D paint scheme that I mentioned for USS Maryland and Colorado at the "CASF: Big 5 Pre-war BBs" thread. Hopefully it can also serve as another camo reference thread for future modellers.

My intention, as I said there, was that I wanted to recreate either Colorado or Maryland in their MS32 3D paint scheme and their stump cage masts.

The history.navy.mil site only has paint schemes for the New Mexico class and Tennessee classes, as well as USS West Virginia, but limited photos of the unmodernized Colorado and Maryland.

Please do not confuse this paint scheme with the MS32 7D paint scheme used by the West Virginia, even though they are technically in the same class.

While these are the closest pics I could get of the USS Maryland and Colorado's MS32 3D as they appeared in late 1943:

Maryland, Oct-Nov. 1943,


Colorado, Oct.-Nov 1943, shelling Tarawa


And here is a Navsource photo of the Maryland in April 1944 after her stump cage mast was removed:


Should I infer this port side photo of the Maryland was also how she looked in Nov. 1943 off Tarawa? As you can see, I only have a starboard photo of her from late 1943.

Does anyone have the actual paint schematic for either ship in MS32 3D? Neither history.navy.mil nor Navsource has it.

Or does anyone have closer photos of both ships where one can clearly see their side camo?

Any answers to my questions, which are underlined above, would be greatly appreciated.

MS

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"Haijun" means "navy" in Mandarin Chinese.

"You have enemies? Good. It means you stood up for something in your life."- Winston Churchill

Well, they weren't wearing the same pattern - history.navy.mil site admits as much in the paragraph under Maryland.

But also in that paragraph is something that's good for you - acknowledgement that she kept the scheme, more or less, well into 1944.

Incidentally, Merry Christmas - here's a photo of Maryland in late 1943, showing the port side: http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/ref/a ... b46_d2.jpg
Which, as far as I can tell, matches pretty well to the 1944 image you posted, further confirming the history.navy.mil statement. So at least you know for sure what her port side pattern was like.

As for the starboard photo, use both the one you posted and this one in 1944. Between them, you should be able to make the 1943 pattern quite easily.

Often times we just have to do without a pattern schematic, doing it by eye from photos. It's not as difficult as it may seem! (and certainly no one's going to judge you for being off by a few scale feet)

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Thank you Timmy for the "Xmas" photo of the Maryland's port side late 1943.

Thanks for clarifying that Maryland had a different variant of the MS32 paint scheme as identified by history.navy.mil

I shouldn't have missed that.
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Still, as for Colorado, I take it she essentially kept the same MS32 3D camo though until late 1944, even after the next major refit that saw her stump cage mast removed?

So these navsource late 1944 pics below would be useful for a late 1943 paint scheme well?

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"Haijun" means "navy" in Mandarin Chinese.

"You have enemies? Good. It means you stood up for something in your life."- Winston Churchill

Anyone seeing nothing but Photobucket error images instead of photos?

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Drawing Board:
1/700 Whiff USS Leyte and escorts 1984
1/700 Whiff USN Modernized CAs 1984
1/700 Whiff ASW Showdown - FFs vs SSGN 1984

Slipway:
1/700 Whiff USN ASW Hunter Killer Group Dio 1984

Me too, Cliffy.
Harold

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Harold

Can you see them now? I reposted the photobucket links in their respective posts.

Weird. This has never happened before and I didn't edit the photos in anyway after I posted them here earlier this morning.

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"Haijun" means "navy" in Mandarin Chinese.

"You have enemies? Good. It means you stood up for something in your life."- Winston Churchill

Yes, should be fine - compare these two, for example (both of which you've seen already - just confirming your observations):
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/014568.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/014564.jpg

It's definitely from the same design. Any differences between them would be due to painter error, not designed variations.

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Im not sure, at least it hasn't been discovered yet.

That said, it might be easy to do yourself (or at least get pretty close)

Id recommend printing this page out at home and using a pen/pencil, draw the patterns yourself. Navsource has enough to get a good idea of the Maryland and Colorado
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/014642.jpg

Worst case scenario, you can use the pattern drawn up for the Pennsylvania (though never painted). Its very similar to what the Colorado used, and should give you an idea of how the Colorado's scheme was modified slightly for her shape. I think theres also several DD's you can use as reference too.

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"Also we will never see a 1/350 late war Enterprise from Dragon due to a paralyzing fear of success...." - Heavy Melder

Lots of unfinished model ships + attention issues = A busy slipway where nothing gets done!