1st ship

Welcome to the asylum.

First of all, US Navy ship colors were not gray.  The Navy used a system which was based on a purple/blue scheme.  

The Indianapolis was wearing what was called Measure 22 when lost.    This called for Haze Gray over Navy Blue.   The decks were Deck Blue.    Haze Gray was a light lavender blue gray.   Navy Blue was not the deep dark color you may think of for Navy aircraft of the time.  It was a deep Blue/Gray.   Deck Blue was similar, with perhaps a touch of blue/green and not as gray.  

See the shipcamouflage website http://www.shipcamouflage.com/

It will give you a lot of good information on ship camouflage.  Be sure to read Alan Raven's excellent monograph on the development of camouflage.  There will be a test on it later http://www.shipcamouflage.com/development_of_naval_camouflage.htm

Ship models can be as simple or complicated as you wish.   Photoetched details; rails, radar, guns, etc. are available for you to trick out the model as you wish.

ronart wrote:

I mostly build aircraft, but really like all military modeling, and I decided to build a ship that I have a special intrest in, the uss Indianapolis, my question is how much detail painting other than the hull is there usually to do ? seems like most everything is just gray, and I really want to do this right, any sites where I might find some color reference? thanks for any suggestions.

Ok, let's start with the idea of the ship being all gray.....

not so. Go to http://www.shipcamouflage.com/ and you will find the appropriate camoflage scheme for what I assume that you are building is the USS Indianapolis from Tamiya. You will find that the ship at the time of her loss was in a three color scheme called Measure 22. Then go to
http://www.navsource.org/ or http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org11-2.htm where you can find Navy and other photographs of the Indianapolis at various points in her career. Check out the detail photos and you will see that, even in black and white, some detail will need to be picked out in different colors than "gray". I also suggest that you go to sites like SteelNavy.com and Modelwarships.com and check out the finished models displayed in the galleries of those sites of US cruisers of similar class and era. Pay particular attention to AA battery gun barrels, ships boats and other such detail. WS

  thanks guys , checking out the websites, looks good, I've been doing a lot of research on this ship, the more I read the more Iwant to know about her, thanks again.