Missouri colors - non camo

Whiskers

Just started my research on the Missouri and trying to figure out best colors for painting.  Of course the instructions and most posts are for the WW2 camo schemes.   Well, I looked at those and decided that is going to make one ugly boat.  Truth is, I'm more interested in having something that looks good on a shelf than historical accuracy, but before I just haul off and do my thing, I thought maybe someone could point me to some key googleable words or something for a historical scheme that fits my needs.  For instance, I do want to paint the decks in a natural wood, not that fugly blue.  Looks like the missouri had natural wood colored decks at least when she ran aground in the 50s, but that picture has too much glare and is bow on, so i can't really make out the color scheme.

You want to check the photo archives the Naval History & Heritage Command

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/bb63.htm

While the Missouri's decks were blue through the War and at the time of the surrender,  they had been stripped by the time she transitted the Panama Canal enroute to NYC for the October 1945 Navy Day celebration.    She was still in Ms22 for that.    Photos of her taken during the 1946 Med cruise shows that she was still in Ms22,  but perhaps in the neutral gray toned paint version.

Between 1947 and 1950 she was repainted out of "war" colors into what could be termed modern neutral gray.   You could safely do her as she appeared in 1950 when she ran aground in neutral gray, with bright wood decks and darker gray steel decks. 

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Here are a couple of links for you

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=4683

and

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

Black and Gold

Beat Nebraska!!!

Thanks for all the useful replies, I had already found Ed's links for the navy historical archives, unfortunately most of the photos there are in black and white, which isn't particularly helpful.  I am almost positive that is where I found the photo i referred to of her when she was grounded in the 50s.  Got that one saved off in my archives.  As to Sumter's link, that first one has some fantastic shots of models painted more like what I want. That is a fantastic link and I thank you Sumter. As for the camo link, yep, that where I saw how she was supposed to look in WW2 and decided, That going to make one ugly boat. At least I know I can find something that will make me happy and still not diverge from history too much.  A real navy buff might catch me on the paint scheme not matching some particular rigging as I'm sure the kit is for WW2, and painting the stock kit in a later scheme without upgrading fittings, guns, missiles or who knows what else is going to lend a air of inaccuracy, but I can live with it.

I'm building for fun and want something good to look at when I'm done, but I don't really care if all my models are totally historically accurate.

If you are painting a ship in gray, what does it matter if the photos are in color or not?  :)