Best Missouri Model

If you're most interested in the WWII configuration of the ship, I don't think there's a lot of room for argument.  The best 1/700 version is the one from Tamiya.  It's only a couple of years old, and pretty close to the state of the art for that scale.

In 1/350 Tamiya also is the clear winner.  This kit is much older (by close to thirty years), and doesn't quite represent today's state of the art.  But it's a basically sound, accurate model. 

It was noted in another thread recently that the world really could use a new 1/350 Iowa-class battleship kit.

If you want the maximum out-of-box detailing and accuracy, I would forgo Tamiya's 1/350 Missouri.   That kit is 25 years old and suffers heavily in accuracy and detail even in comparison to current 1/700 scale Missuori.    Revell is already re-doing 1/350 Bismark and Tirpitz, someone should redo the rest of Tamiya's ancient crop of 1/350 battleships that date from the Reagan era to bring their accuracy and detailing up to date.   They are getting quite long on the tooth.

Thank you so much for your advice. So Tamiya it will be. Probably the 1/700 version. It will be a gift for a friend. His late father served on thi Missouri and witnessed the surrender. He claims to have a number of photos taken aboard during his father's tour.

What color were the decks? Were they natural or painted deck blue?

I really enjoyed looking at the official navy blueprints at the Missouri web site. This should really help anyone interested in extreme detail.

Probably won't be able to get to this until after the holidays. Something too look forward to.

Regards, Jay