Need some help guys. I'm about to start a 1/350 model of the Lady Lex (CV-2) as she appeared at The Battle of Coral Sea. The painting instructions call for the flight deck to be painted a dark gray. I don't know if I agree with that. Anyone out there know an answer to this? I'd be most appreciative.

The instructions were close. The color used at the time of the Battle of the Coral Sea was a dark blue-gray stain called 250N Blue Flight Deck stain. In appearance, it very closely matched the 20B Deck Blue stain that was used on all other decks.

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/5_4.htm

There's also info on the flight deck markings for Lexington in 1942.

What kind of cash award do I get? j/k

Seriously, though..post some pics of it when you get it done. I've seen some pics online of folks who have built the same scale kit of Lexington in both pre-war and wartime colors and they look incredible!

Bravo Zulu! Thanks a million guy. I saw this kit a year ago and really flipped. Its the only one I've seen that has her with the 8" turrets removed. I just ordered more TBDS and Wildcats to beef up the flight deck look.
I have almost all the aircraft the Navy was using at the start of WWII in my collection. Now I'm working on kits of the aircraft I worked on in my 20 year career. THAT will take awhile.
I SHOT AN ELEPHANT IN MY PAJAMAS. WHAT HE WAS DOING IN MY PAJAMAS, I"LL NEVER KNOW!-Groucho Marx

There are some really impressive kits out in 1/350 that I want to get my hands on but the prices are really outrageous (especially since I'm still trying to get back on my feet work- and health-wise). There's one of the Washington (BB-56) that I absolutely drool over but the cheapest price I've seen on it was like $90.00.

USNVET940, I'll let you in on a little secret.I did not pay full price for the kit. ($129.99) I won it on ebay for about half the store price.
With shipping it cost me 74.00. If I had bought it here in the store in Ohio, with 7% sales tax, we're looking at 139 bucks! I'm not promoting ebay or anything, but that was the way I got the Lex kit. I couldn't afford the 139 bucks either.
The people who put alot of the 1/350 scale kits on ebay is a seller on there called "Must Bid" out of San Francisco. Sometimes you can really make out on things and sometimes not.
That's where I've gotten the majority of my kits. (ebay) But, I want a 1/48th scale kit of an FW-200 Condor, but the bidding starts at around 69.99. Last one sold for 114.50. In the stores they also run 129.99. Right now that's abit much for this old mech! With shipping even the ebay price is not a bargain. Oh well, life goes on. Take care!

I've browsed ebay looking for some of the kits I built in high school and that are damn near impossible to find now in stores but the only thing I've ever purchased through it was the two-volume edition of Airwar by Edward Jablonski. I had a lot of great kits back then, from subs to carriers and all kinds of aircraft..WW2 fighters, bombers, and jets of all kinds. Essentially, I had enough ships and aircraft to form my own Navy and Air Force!

I never had an FW-200 kit but I did have some great 1/32 and 1/48 kits..Erich Hartmann's ME-109G, Ira Kepford's F4U-1A Corsair, David McCampbells F6F Hellcat, Don Gentile's P-51B "Shangri-La"..just to name a few. If I remember correctly, the Hellcat kit was one of the first 1/32 kits that Hasegawa put out..and I thought $12 for it was pricey back then! But it was worth it; a great kit to build.

Just to give you a idea of my age, I remember the Lindberg 1/72 airplane models that came in a small box that hung on a wire display in the G. C. Murphy and Ben Franklin stores that were, and get this, .29 cents!!!!
The AMT three-in-one car kits were a $1.50!
Of course Coke was .03 cents a small bottle and hostess cupcakes were a nickel!
Ah,... those were the days.
My mom wouldn't let me get the car kits because they were too much money.

I don't think I go quite as far back as you but I do remember candy bars being 5 cents, comic books were 12 cents, and the classic 1/32 Revell kits were something like $8.00 or less..and I indulged more than I should have in all three.

I was looking over some of my old "Nav" stuff the past few days to put on the NALF Monterey unpt page when I found a picture of me and my first division chief, Senior Chief Bukewitz, ADCS. He had been an Airdale aboard the old Saratoga. Said he volunteered to go up and work in the Air Department because he didn't like being a "Snipe." They had Boeing F4B biplane fighters aboard at the time. He got out in 1939 but came back in on December 8th, 1941 and decided to stay. He was a my division Chief from October 1970 to February 1972.
I got on his good side when my ex-father-in-law gave me a box of Cuban cigars that he had had in storage. The senior chief once said he give damn near anything to have a good Cuban cigar again to smoke. I gave him the box! Ah liberty and early secures came pretty easy after that!

That chief must have been in 100 years!

He did have ALOT of time in. He retired when the base at Monterey closed. I remember his retirement ceremony. He drove a sort of a champagne colored Lincoln Continental. He was a good senior Chief. If I remember right he had almost 36 or 37 total years service. Wow! That's been about thirty four years since I left Monterey1
We had a first class AK at Monterey who joined after Pearl Harbor and stayed in the Navy. He picked up first class and stayed a first class for over twenty years. Was he a sight in dungarees! White hair under that ball cap and white hat. I can't remember his name any more.
But he retired also when the base closed.
I helped shut Monterey down in 72 and originally it was a fighter training base. You would not believe some of the stuff we found in the warehouses. Headphones for F4F-3 Wildcats. Generators for F-4U Corsairs. We found other small parts still sealed and carrying packing dates of 1943 and 1944! I still miss that place!

I found the info on that old AK or SK1 that we had a Monterey. His last name was KERN, and he had been a First Class for 23 years!

Now that gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'stuck in rate'!

I once asked Petty Officer Kern why he didn't go for chief? He told me straight out, Why?"
"I'd be doing the same job that I'm doing now as a first class." He was happy as a PO1.
Monterey was a "Twilight Tour" base for about 80% of the senior personnel that were stationed there.
We had quite a few "old time Navy types" around the area. We had a Master Chief named James Fleming (AFCM)who was black and worked in Quality Assurance. He was quite a Navy man and I learned a very great deal from him. For the longest time I rated master chiefs against MC Fleming. What a guy!!