There have been two "phases" of research. Former Navy employee Don Montgomery, Tom Freeman, Steve Wiper, and Don Preul did some of the initial work. Steve and some others (I wasn't a part of this group although I know three of the four above) located some color footage that purports to show blue ships, but haven't had the funding to have it copied from the archives yet.
When Don started the model, Ron Smith and I were asked to help on the research; Ron was researching at NARA II in the DC area, and I research regularly at the regional archives in Seattle, which holds Puget Sound Naval Shipyard's files, which was Arizona's home yard in addition to a yard that received paint, painted ships., etc., so it should have received copies of directives. I'm still trying to resolve the issue, Ron's got a full-time job now and threw his hands up in disgust at some of the responses we got for the initial results and walked away (this was research we did completely voluntarily).
I think Burl confused things a little bit as he wrote that after an unveiling. The Kimmel document I'm aware of was for the colored turret tops only and did not reference color otherwise; I've posted that document here for anyone to read; the color turret tops dated back into the 1930s as a fleet-wide system and into the 1920s a little less systemically, everything I have on that has been posted here.
In my mind, there is no proof that Arizona was Sea Blue, nor is there absolute proof she was not. It is a muddy issue. The basic gist is that at the end of July, Dark Gray was ordered discontinued and replaced with Sea Blue. Seems fairly straightforward, but the Navy had an inefficient and confusing system for sending out those orders and updates; ships and yards didn't know this and the "formula" for Sea Blue for some time (It used a two part white base and tinting materials that ships and yards could mix in specific ratios for different colors). Pearl Harbor's order to re-request stocks of paint from Mare Island Navy Yard (responsible for paint manufacturing for the entire west coast) in August was lost in the system until October, for example.
There are also different commands that play into this as well. Kimmel wouldn't have written orders to individual ships; typically he'd write to the commanders of larger groups such as the commander of battleships, etc., who would then flow the orders down. For example, this order from the Commander of Cruisers, Battle Force ordered Helena to paint in Sea Blue with paint picked up directly from Mare Island, bypassing Pearl Harbor.
At this point I've gone through records for Mare Island, Pearl Harbor, and Puget Sound Naval Shipyards as well as records for various commands such as the commanders of the 13th and 14th Naval Districts (Pacific Northwest and Hawaii, respectively). The force commanders and Kimmel's records are back in DC, which is next on the list, but not a trip I have planned any time soon, unfortunately.
Also, there is PLENTY I don't know about Arizona! Feel free to take anything I say with a grain of salt and question it, as I believe re-evaluation is always a good thing. 