CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE 2021/2022 - 1/301 Revell U.S.S. The Sullivans

First off, great choice, I love the "Tin Can" destroyers from WWII.(I made the old Lindberg 1/125 "Blue DEvil" destroyer kit this past year.)  These older kits can be a challenge but in the hands of a master modeler they can be turned into a real gem.  Good luck with this build & I'll be watching your progress.

TJS

Any Fletcher is a good Fletcher.

Decals will be a challenge because of the scale.

GMorrison, I did receive a kindly offer from one of the modelers on here to perhaps make stencils for me. That will hopefully help the decal situation a lot! 

TJS & GMorrison, I'm glad you like the choice. I will say this is my first ship model build since a USS Missouri kit I built years ago--which was the very first model kit I ever built! I do hope I can do a good job with it; but no matter what, it'll probably be better than that Missouri! 

Ok, so here I am so far:

How do I color this thing? Tips welcome. Revell seems to think it is mostly dark grey all over with a black stripe of course before red bottom of the hull. Trumpeter thinks deck blue deck, navy blue side before the black stripe/cocoa brown bottom hull. And what about pre-shading? 

I think I'll go for the 1943 scheme. Any tips on preshading/priming? 

October 1943 in Measure 21.

August 1945 in Measure 22.

I think values lighter than the base colors are the way to go. Salt stains. Dust.

Both photos from Navsource.

Bill