"Japanese Gun Shrouds" Topic

I'm putting the finishing touches on my GHQ Ise and Nagato BBs and can't find a good enough photo to see if those two ships had those white (canvas?) gun shrouds on the turrets (where the barrel meets the turret). Can someone clue me in?

I beleve all the principal IJN vessels had light gunshrouds (blast bags). The IJN and Brits used a light, unpainted canvas while the USN used black ( a grimy black at that).

Thanks McKinsty.

I have a number of Polish WW2 Naval books, under the collective title of "Profile Morskie". The IJN books all show colour drawings with white gunshrouds.

Cool. Thanks.

End of war photographs show the Japanese had gone to grey blast bags, but when is not clear and it does not seem to apply to all ships. Photographs with grey blast bags suggest they are probably medium to dark grey. However I have painted nearly all my Japanese ships with white blast bags and white searchlight covers as that seems the most common.

British ships started WW2 with white blast bags. Went to grey, and finally very dark grey or black, depending on the camouflage scheme carried. If a pale scheme, the blast bags are also pale. If a dark scheme, so are the blast bags.
The US use of black was very consistent, although it is possible that at some stage they may have been in very dark blue to match ships that had an over all navy blue scheme. None the less I have chose to do mine in black as it seems to be the most usual by far. Its hard to tell in a black and white photograph, or even a faded colour one, but I have read accounts of the late war US type being dark blue.
Its because they certainly look black to me, that I've painted mine that way. However I suppose it does make sense to provide blast bags in navy blue where regulations called for everything on a ship to be over-all navy blue!

Early British blast bags proved inefficient. At Narvik those on Warspite caused problems. It seems to be in the issue of new, much stronger ones where the change is made to grey, or black blue. Generally the white, grey and black, seem to serve on together, probably because they were in stores and the navy doesnt like to waste anything.

In order to fit in with camouflage it is quite possible that the 'exceptions' are merely the result of the bags being over painted in a colour more appropriate to the colour scheme.

I forget the source, as it's been some time ago that I saw it, but the IJN changed to light gray blast bags in early to mid-1941.

A few years ago, I read a source (now forgotten) that cited the IJN switching from white gun shrouds to light gray ones in early to mid 1941. I've never seen that anywhere else before or since. Thoughts?

I dont have a source. But careful examination of photographs will reveal that on some ships there is a change from white to grey. But there are some problems. The dates on photographs are not always correct, and just because one ship has changed does not mean they all have. So in the absence of any firm reference sources I would suggest caution about specifying any particular date.
There is also the chance some ships have not changed although others have.