Asiatic Fleet Colors

[Devin]

I'm working on the Niko USS Luzon. The kit instructions and photos show her in the 5L overall and dark deck gray scheme, which I'm sure is fine for 1941-ish. However, in the photo below, it looks to me like she's in overall white with buff stacks. In that scheme, what color would her decks have been? Still dark gray?

[Olaf Held]

Did she feature decks planked with wood or steel decks?

Interesting ship, please keep us updated!

Happy modelling ~ Olaf!

[Devin]

That's a good question. Per the model the decks are either steel or sheet plywood, as there is no planking. I can't find anything online that speaks of her construction, and my library has nothing on these types of ships.

[Tracy White]

Hull shape is generally similar to Panay, perhaps she could be some inspiration despite coming from a different yard?

[Devin]

I imagine that those ships were similarly inspired by their mission. Kind of like how most riverine ironclads of the Civil War were converted from different ships but generally ended up with the same casemate and mid-paddle wheel designs. I do know that Luzon was a bit larger than Panay.

I have a good shot of Panay in what looks to be the same color scheme; off-white hull, different tone stacks which I'll assume are buff, and a very dark deck. Unless anyone has any other ideas, I think I'll go with a dark gray deck and leave it at that.

[Russ2146]

PR-4 USS Tutuila, Chungking, China

USS Tutuila.jpg