Wood Decks: What Color Testors?

I don't have a particular Testor's number to recommend. I do have some casual thoughts on the subject.

You're quite right in thinking that different ships used different woods. I suspect that, if the Yamato and H.M.S. Hood were anchored side-by-side, the difference in deck colors would be obvious. But plenty of other things influence the color of deck planking: age, maintenance, and even weather. (A wet deck looks a lot darker than a dry one.)

To my notion what's most important is that the color be dull - so dull that the observer doesn't think of it as yellowish, reddish, or brownish, but greyish. To my eye, the typical wood deck is about the color of unpainted pressure-treated lumber, but a little lighter. Color photos obviously are a big help. Black-and-white ones also can be useful. If you know what color the ship's hull was painted, and you can see in a black-and-white photo that the deck was lighter than the hull, that's at least a start. (Beware of the effects of lighting, though. If the sun's shining on the deck and the hull is in shadow, your impression will be distorted.) In most black-and-white pictures of WWII warships that I've seen, the deck planking shows up as having about the same value (i.e., lightness or darkness) as the rest of the ship. With the obvious exception of dazzle camouflage schemes, WWII warships generally look pretty dull in black-and-white pictures.

My favorite deck paint is a PolyScale color, "weathered concrete." I'm sure Testor's makes something similar.

Also remember that during wartime decks were typically stained, painted or otherwise darkened in appearance. Depends on the ship (pretty much all us ships had stained wood).

Is PolyScale what used to be called PolyS paints back in the seventies?

This is a pretty good pic of the USS Wisconsin. It shows the difference between the metal foredeck and the wood deck around the turrets. This is her modern day appearance, although I don't think they actually changed the wood decks during the modernization (other than damaged sections).

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/images/bb-64-h97207k.jpg

I'd suggest strongly that you research each ship or navy individually, if you want accuracy. As an example, I'm pretty sure Japanese ships covered their decks with a tan or redish brown linoleum. U.S. decks were painted during WWII depending on the "measure" could be different.
All part of modeling fun!
Good luck.

I used dark tan on my tirpitz and it worked out pretty nicely, and it was reallistic too

no joke

but I was unsure what my kit (Academy) recommended because they use Korean to sound like English ( like me saying an nyoung ha se yo which is Korean but I just typed in English to sound Korean) so it might have been deck tan or dark tan

Know where you're coming from! Am still working on my BismarckUsing a Tamiya Deck Tan as a base can't seem to get the right combination

AFVg2 - PolyScale is made by the same people who used to make PolyS. (Actually, if I'm not mistaken, PolyScale and Floquil are now owned by Testor's.) PolyScale is based on a different formula than PolyS. To my personal taste the old stuff was a little nicer to work with, but there's not much difference.

PolyScale does differ from Testor's Acryl. To my notion the latter is a bit on the syrupy side. But if a color I want is available in that line and no other, I don't hesitate to use it.