"IJN white stripes on smokestacks - rhyme or reason?" Topic
5 Posts
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| HesseCassel | 29 Jul 2011 3:20 p.m. PST |
Anyone managed to decipher these things? I've done class comparisons but there's no system I can see. Possibilities are squadron markings or ship class markings at least, perhaps fleet markings. I'm thinking about just using them to mark my models according to my own system, if there's no historical evidence of something else – help me tell the little guys apart! |
| Sundance | 29 Jul 2011 3:40 p.m. PST |
IIRC, they identify the individual ship in the class. So, for example, in a class of 4 heavy cruisers, one would have on stripe on one funnel, one would have one stripe on both funnels, one would have two strips on one funnel and one would have two stripes on both funnels. Been a long time since I've done WWII naval, but it seems to me that was the system. |
| Ryan T | 29 Jul 2011 8:48 p.m. PST |
The funnel bands were used to number off the four ships in a destroyer or cruiser division. The first ship would have one narrow band, the second ship had two narrow bands, the third had three narrow bands and the fourth ship had a wide band above a narrow band. The bands could be applied to either the first or second funnel. Whether there was a pattern to this I don't know. The funnel bands were supposed to be peacetime markings, but they seem to have persisted at least into the early part of the war. There were also variations in these markings. There is a photo of the Makigumo in dry-dock in early 1943 and she has a wide band above a solid triangle on the forward funnel. I think your idea to use these bands to identify your model ships is a good way to go. |
| BuckeyeBob | 31 Jul 2011 6:28 p.m. PST |
According to Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War (Lacroix and Wells):
The funnel bands identified each ship of the Sentai (division).
The flagship had 1, 2ed two, 3rd 3 narrow bands and the 4th had a wide band and narrow band under it.
For the 3 and 4 stack CL's, one Sentai had their bands on the first funnel and the other on the 2ed funnel. Most of the bands (for the cruisers at least) were removed around late 1940 thru 1941. It was probably the same system of identification for the DD divisions. |
| Mal Wright | 01 Aug 2011 2:44 a.m. PST |
Its really hard doing them in 1:6000 and even more disappointing when people dont use them for id, or claim they cant see them!  |
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