USS Wisconsin, BB-64, was begun in 1941 and commissioned in 1944. She joined Adm. Halsey's 3rd Fleet in December, 1944, and promptly was caught in the typhoon that savaged the fleet later that month.
She participated in operations around the Philippines, providing escort for the fast carriers of Task Force 38.
Next assigned to Adm. Spruance's 5th Fleet, Wisky sailed with Task Force 58 and participated in actions off the Japanese coast, and the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Wisky survived yet another typhoon in June, 1945, and spent that summer cruising the Japanese coast, bombarding various installations and industries.
She sailed into Tokyo Bay as part of the allied occupation forces, three days after the Japanese surrendered on the deck of her big sister, USS Missouri (BB-63).
Wisky's later career involved service in the Korean War. She was brought out of mothballs in the late 1980's as part of President Reagan's plan to strengthen the Navy, and she served in the Gulf War of 1991. She was decommissioned in September of that year. She is currently a museum ship, and you can visit her in Norfolk, Virginia. I think it is Trumpeter that makes a late configuration USS Wisconsin, if one wants to build that.
My contribution to the group build shows Wisky in her WWII incarnation. Unlike the rest of her sisters in the Iowa class, Wisconsin only carried on type of camouflage scheme during WWII--Measure 22, which consisted of 5-N Navy Blue applied to the hull, up to the point of the lowest level of the main deck. The upper part of the ship was 5-H Haze Gray. All horizontal surfaces were painted in 20-B Deck Blue.
Wisky would be virtually indistinguishable from her older sisters without a hull number. Fujimi provided none, so I cobbled fore and aft hull numbers from leftovers in Trumpeter's "New Orlean" kit. The US ensign comes from the Fujimi kit, and the modest rigging is stretched sprue. The Kingfisher observation planes are decaled with those that came with the Trumpeter set.
I used White Ensign Colourcoat paint thoughout the build for these colors.
I will have to put further pictures in a separate posting, since photobucket has just become balky and uncooperative.
Thanks for looking.