Hi all. This is my first ship. It is the Hasegawa 1/700 USS Alabama (kind courtesy of Mike Durr). Unfortunately the instructions are in Japanese, and while the build seems straightforward, I have a few questions on paint that you salty dogs might be able to answer.

1. Two paint schemes are shown, one is a uniform colour (I assume grey-blue) that the Alabama is in now, and the other is the Measure 12 Modified camouflage pattern. Is the latter what the Alabama wore throughout WW2, or did she have different patterns at different times?

2. Paint instructions and box art show the Measure 12 Modified as a two-colour pattern, but www.shipcamouflage.com has two pix of this pattern, one of the Alabama in two-colour cam, but the other (the Buchanan) looks like it has two darker colours of splotches over a lighter field. Were both patterns used indiscriminately?

3. Box art shows the decking to be in blonde wood, but www.shipcamouflage.com says that in the Measure 12 Modified pattern, that decking is to be stained to the colour of 'deck blue' using paint used for all horizontal surfaces. Which is correct?

4. Do 'all horizontal surfaces' include the flat tops of the main gun turrets? If yes, would I be correct in painting these in deck blue?

Hope those questions are clear enough, mateys. Can anyone out there help me?

David, the scheme would depend on when you're depicting the ship. According to the table in the ship camouflage data base, Alabama would have only been in the Modified Ms 12 during 1942, and in Ms 22 after that. Of course if the intent (and the contents of the kit) reflect the way she looked at that period, them Modified Ms 12 would appear to be correct.

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/usn_bb.htm

As far as I can tell when the ship was actually in either of these measures, yes the wood deck was supposed to be painted (or stained) in the "Deck Blue 20-B" which actually looks like a dark grey. I'm doing the Missouri in Ms 22 and while that's what I'm doing, I know that from every photograph I've ever seen, the decks (and in fact ALL the horizontal surfaces) do NOT seem to have anywhere nearly the contrast in the photos that the paint on the kit does. But I've painted it that way anyway.

As far as the Main Turrets, the answer is yes, the upper surfaces were supposed to be painted, and I've done that on my kit. However, despite the fact that the 5" turrets ought to also be included, and that I've seen other kits done that way, the photos I've seen seem to have a definite difference in shade on the top of the main turrets (indicating a darker paint) that is totally missing from the 5" turrets, so I've left the tops of mine in Haze Grey 5-H.

What I'd recommend is what everyone else has recommended to me (mostly from the Modelwarship.com site) and that is to check out as many references and photos as you can possibly get and then go from there.

Hope that helps!

Tom

Hi David

Sorry for the late reply!
Here is a link with some rare colour pictures that answer all your questions

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-a/bb60.htm

I can say that the most difficult choice for you to make is the Time Period

Skipper

EDIT: Tom you beat me by the second!!!!

The Hasegawa kit of the Alabama depicts the ship in her 1944 fit. As a result, you can't use Ms12Revised.

'Bama wore Measure 22, which is as follows:

From the lowest point of the main deck (the stern), strike a line parallel to the waterline forward. Everything below that line, paint in 5-N navy blue. Everything above that line, paint in 5-H haze gray.

Decks and horizontal surfaces are 20-B deck blue, including turret tops. Her 5" turret tops were also 20-B deck blue.

Here's a 1943 photo of her:



Jeff

Thanks, everybody for the advice.

I have no idea which period the ship is from, but if Jeff says it's '44, I guess I'll have to go with Measure 22. Though the kit gives both schemes. The cam pattern looks more interesting, though. Damn.

Rui, that site seems to be down or unavailable.

The primary differences between the '42 fit and '44 are the radar SK-1 versus SK-2, and the number of light AA weapons on the ship...here's how you can pinpoint the configuration of the kit...by counting 40mm and 20mm barrels.

Here's Alabama's AA config:

In Sept. '42, she carried 20x1.1" guns, 36x20mm, and 16x40mm
In Feb. '43, she carried 35x20mm, 68x40mm
In Dec. '44, she carried 72x20mm, 68x40mm
In Mar. '45, she carried 77x20mm, 68x40mm

Jeff

One other thing which just occurred to me. If you think about the timeline and look at the picture, you realize that all the changes in her configuration of Sep 1942 (as well as the paint scheme) and in the photo in Norfolk in February of 1943, were all done between the time she was launched the completion of her shakedown cruise at the end of January 1943. So she never would have seen any action in her Sep 42 AA configuration or in the Ms 12 scheme.

Jeff's right, if the kit gives you all those 20mm mounts, then you're talking about 1944.

One of the things the Navy discovered that there was nowhere nearly enough AA guns relative to the Japanese air threat. So they just kept adding more.

And rather than "capital" ships fighting each other, our battleships wound up being MOSTLY used as floating AA protection for the fast carriers as well as shore bombardment for amphibious landings.

Tom

Other than the NC and Wash. I don't think any other of our fast battleships ever fired a round at an enemy BB. I think Suriago Strait was handled strickly by the old Pearl vets.We never got into it with the Germans. I don't consider that bombardment of the docked French warships really fair, but which of our BB's participated in that debacle.

Thanks again, Jeff & Tom. Very useful info, as this is a totally new are of modelling for me

I think it was the Massachsetts (Big Mamie) if this is the incident your thinking of Steve.

I found this while bumping around the net a while back has some info that may or may not make you scratch your head.

http://polyticks.com/bbma/jeanbart.htm