HMS Belfast deck colours

[patemm]

Hi Everyone,
I'm a bit new here, so forgive me if this has been asked before. I'm about to start building my 1/350 HMS Belfast model, and am planning on updating the model to her Korean War
appearance, but I'm a bit confused over deck colouring. I have all the info for the conversion, but I have found conflicting evidence regarding the actual colours.
I found a photo of an excellent model on the IWM website, which shows the upper decks in dark ( Admiralty ? ) grey, whereas all the other model pics show only the steel decks in this colour. I do have a lot of HMS Belfast photos, but unfortunately these do not show the decks in sufficient detail, so I'm hoping someone might be able to offer any advice regarding this subject. Any help would be much appreciated.

[John Snyder]

So far as I know, her steel decks were in AP 507A Admiralty Dark Grey, and her wood decks were holystoned teak.

[patemm]

Hi John,
Thanks for the reply to my query. The thing I'm trying to find out is whether the upper decks were replaced by steel plating, or were they painted that way, which is what the model which I spoke about seems to show? I have a photo showing Belfast's 'B' turret firing, and part of the deck is visible, and appears to be a dark colour, with no planking visible ?
I know interpreting old photos can be a bit of a minefield, but I would have thought the chap who built the model must have got the information regarding colours from somewhere, but maybe HE misinterpreted the photos ?
As I'm building this model as a tribute to my late Father I'm trying to get it as accurate as possible, so any info would most welcome,

Cheers,

Patemm.

[Dan Banks]

The Dido class AA cruisers started out fully planked, but as new sister ships came into service, the wood planking was left off, starting with the bow. I beleive this was also true with the colony class cruisers. Maybe your photo's show this feature on Belfast during that period, but planked or not was time sensitive?

[patemm]

The Dido class AA cruisers started out fully planked, but as new sister ships came into service, the wood planking was left off, starting with the bow. I beleive this was also true with the colony class cruisers. Maybe your photo's show this feature on Belfast during that period, but planked or not was time sensitive?

Hi Dan,
Thanks for the deck info. I didn't know that the Dido class and Colony class ships were "De- planked " as it were, so I suspect that that may be what happened to Belfast ? From what I can tell with my photos it looks like the forward deck with 'B' turret was treated this way, and maybe the other decks were painted to match. All the photos I have of Belfast are from the Korean War period ( 1950 - 53 ) so I might go with that scheme, unless anyone knows different ?