It was a joke.
"Color"hadn’t been invented yet, judging from the preponderance of b/w photos.
“Color film” of course had.
I have always been curious. There were litterally thousands of people who were regulars around Honolulu and Pearl for years who didn’t perish in the Pearl Harbor attack. Arizona was a little large to be kept indoors out of public view. Big. Bold. Beautiful.
Why is there no one, at all, who can say with 100% certainty, that BB-39 was either blue or grey in the first week of December? (head scratch)
Should be added to the list of wrold’s greatest mysteries.[8-|]
It would take a written record and some photographs that were demonstrably color correct, to be 100% certain.
Peoples memories aren’t much of a help.
I think the conclusion is at about 90% right now.
FWIW, my thought is that she was being painted at the time.
Bill
Bill;
I am going to say your right. I too believe she was in process. Admiral King wasn’t really woried about it. Get her done and then we’ll leave for a patrol. I have heard that someone tried to get a computer to read the little dots that was print back then, in photos and still didn’t get a proper decision.
If you ask people in criminal justice, there are few things as reliably unreliable as “eyewitness testimony.” And, the further back in time a recollection is the less reliable it becomes. This is reduced with Subject Matter Experts, but not eliminated.
Around the Navy base the locals, such as they were (Hawai’i did not become an exotic tourist attraction until the late 50s) were used to seeing gray navy ships. And for many decades, too. In 1940, they started in with the darker camo schemes, even blue dark enough to be black. Remember, too, the locals were also used to merchant vessels in every color, too. Ships were colorful.
Consider how few remember the painting of the turret tops.
Then, in all the time passing, the ships became gray again.
Quick, try and remember what color Delta aircraft are painted.
Delta is boring… Southwest has purple fuselage and Orange stripes… that is memorable… TWA, White with Red trim, Pan Am White with Blue trim… American had NMF with Red, White, and Blue livery…
No offense to Delta personnel… I grew up in a TWA household and airlines were a big part of my youth.
White/ Dark Blue/ Red
I did too, UAL. My Dad was colorblind.
My F-in-Law spent 1943-1944 flying in a Beaufighter in the MTO.
USAAF reverse lend-lease.
I built him a model working from b/w photographs.
Two tone camo.
“What color was it?”.
“I don’t know. I was too busy climbing in and out of the damn thing”.
This doesnt help the coloring questions. But rather a neat bit of history surrounding the Arizona and the attack on Pearl Harbor. There was a couple with the last name of Oberg that had a bought a color film camera to capture their life together.
The husband was in the Army and got stationed to Pearl Harbor not long before the attack. When the attack took place he rushed to help. His wife grabbed the camera and started filming.
You can find the video on youtube by searching Oberg color film footage of Pearl Harbor. Although you never really directly see the ships in the harbor, they were close enough to capture the smoke and stuff from the ships being hit.
Quite an interesting story with a good history. To date, I believe this was the only colored filmed footage of the attack.
OP, love what you are doing with this kit, Keep it up!
that was good reading , thanks for the history lesson mate .
I have painted the hull , is this blue a close variant ? and does the hull red look a little high , I’m am no historian , that’s why I like listening to you guy’s .
too high. look at this link. http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/BB39/BOGP/RG19AlphaArizona162285-2_a.jpg
Hmmm;
I always liked American, Red, White and Blue over Natural metal
cheers for that ddp59 , will try to adjust .
TB - ?
The current AA uses a pale gray fuse and natural metal wings, the tail has alternating white and red stipes. It’s a blend of the US Air scheme and AA’s old scheme. That latter being natural metal fuse with a stripe of white and blue over the windows and painted wings and tail.
For OP, do not forget that Arizona had about a 6 foot black boot topping, which would run from LWL -2’ to LWL + 4’ with those lines parallel to the water line. So you can’t just use tape 0.205" wide.
I knew Massimo Vignelli, who designed the classic ligatured AA logo. Pilots Union made them include the eagle. He was an instructor at Harvard Design School.
Bloomingdales logo and many other classics.
had another go at the hull , this suit’s my eye better .
those 5" guns are not turrets as should look like this. http://www.3dmodelparts.com/1-350-5-inch-51-caliber-guns-8-pcs/
Yes, weren’t the ones installed in the deck house protected with detachable canvas sheets? And when those sheets, or covers, were in place, they’d look like solid bulkheads?
was metal plates because of the port holes.
Or wood on many ships. They had to be lifted out and stowed, big ones would get pretty heavy.
Nice photo.
thanks for your input ddp59 , unfortunately I can’t use them , I would have to get 2 set’s and I have spent enough on this kit as it is mate . the one’s on the ship are good enough for my purposes , love the photo too .