I wasn’t sure if this should go here or in destroyers so I just put it here.

I don’t have a clue about measures used in the early 50s especially on the Butler class DEs.
As many of you probably know I’ll soon be starting a dio with the USS Maurice J. Manuel along side a second Butler class Ship in the Atlantic and need to know what colors they should be.

If its of any help you can find a black and white picture of the ship here http://www.navsource.org/archives/06/images/0635101.jpg

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

PS. If any one knows of other butler class DEs that would have operated in the Atlantic at that time it would be a great help for the 2nd ship.

Hey Jacob,

Here's a color photo of the New Jersey from 1953. Nav ship colors were haze gray.



btw...The DD 351 was built about 30 minutes from where I live.

Gator

Destroyer Escort photo

Here's a photo of a DE in Hazy gray

Gator

I am under the impression that pretty much after the war the cammo schemes disappeared. They went to natural wood color decks and the like as well.

Thanks guys.
So I’m guessing both the USS Maurice J. Manuel and the 2nd butler class along side it should be painted overall haze gray.
I believe the deck was a grayish color as well but not sure. It appears to be a very similar shade as the rest of the ship in the few black and white pictures I have. I just don’t know for sure what it should be.

I’m building this for my grandfather who was on the USS Maurice J. Manuel during that time so I want to get the colors right. I’.m planing on surprising him with the dio so I don’t want to have to ask him to much about it.

USN colors in the '50s were the same as today:

Haze Gray and Deck Gray.

We have both accurately matched and available in our Colourcoats enamels:

M 03, Modern USN Haze Gray;
M 04, Modern USN Deck Gray.

We have no minimum order on paint, and we ship worldwide.

Thanks John.

I was planing on ordering the paint from greatmodels where I’ll be getting the rest of the stuff but considering I still need to order that book on the Japanese ship colors from you I’ll look into it.

Before I make an order I figure I better ask.
Can I use any enamel paint thinner (in my case Testors) with the colorcoats?

I'll back John up (not that he needs it) as I have documents dated August of 1946 that state all vessels of the active and reserve fleets are to be painted Measure 13.... Haze Gray 5-H on all vertical surfaces and No 20 Deck gray to all decks and horizontal surfaces. Wood flight decks for carriers were still to be stained in Formula 21 at this point though, and sub decks were to be stained/painted black.. Otherwise wood decks were not to be painted for camouflage purposes. Preservative coats still applied.