Calling All IJN Kongo-Class Fans

[Dan K]

What scale?

[edgardo gil]

Sorry, 1/350

[Dan K]

It's hard to say. They might differ on how far to drill into the blast bags.

Other barrels are available from Tetra, RB, Aber, Clipper, etc.

[Haijun watcher]

Dan and all,

Do you think Aoshima or Fujimi or any other manufacturer will ever release a 1/350 Hiei? Having just built the 1/700 Hasegawa version of Hiei, I feel like can't get enough of her unique superstructure!

[Dan K]

Your guess is as good as anybody's else's. Hiei as reconstructed is a one-off, with wider bulges and that unique superstructure. Any company has to feel the payback is there in order to do it.

Maybe you can convince Black Cat or Kraken Hobbies to create a replacement set for her.

[Vlad]

Apologies if this has been answered before, I looked through the thread but there's a lot of it so might have missed it.

I'm interested in what was on each level of a Kongo class pagoda bridge tower (not Hiei as she was different). Dan posted a great annotated drawing earlier in the thread but ufortunately I cannot read the Japanese on it. I'm attaching it again for reference.

Would someone be kind enough to translate or otherwise just write up in basic terms what the main function on each level was?

I understand the image below is Haruna and at this time she has an extra level at the top compared to her sisters, but I assume the rest is the same for Kongo and Kirishima.

[Dan K]

Give me a day or 2 to rough something up.

[Dan K]

Ok, the home scanner wasn't working, so I had to improvise.

Levels from top to bottom for Kirishima 1941:

Main Rangefinder Platform
Main Battery Command Station Deck
Upper Lookout Deck
Sokuteki Ban (Target course and speed computer platform)
Battle Bridge Deck
Lower Lookout Deck
Compass (Navigation) Bridge deck
Upper Bridge Deck
Lower Bridge Deck
Shelter Deck
Forecastle Deck

This layout applies to all the Kongos (Haruna had one extra platform on top until 1944) and the other Japanese BBs. Other classes may have an additional platform or so.

[MartinJQuinn]

So the ship would be conned from the compass bridge and "fought" from the battle bridge?

[Dan K]

So it would seem. Can't swear to it.

[Vlad]

Thank you Dan, your work is very much appreciated! The list was what I was after, the drawing is going above and beyond.

One small query, the uppermost platform gets extended and sticks out forward on Kongo and Haruna. Am I right in thinking this extension is an air defence lookout and command position?

I have been able to cross-reference this with information I have for Fuso. That gave me the final pieces of the puzzle, and I have been able to visually match up or logically deduce the levels on the Ise and Nagato classes too.


Martin,

It is my understanding as well that the ships were "fought" from the battle bridge. On Hiei (and by association Yamato) the battle bridge is even higher up, it's the top-most enclosed level. I suppose the IJN placed a higher value on a good view for the officers than armour protection, which follows logically from British practice. The lower, upper and compass bridge decks are all in the same places they would have been on the ships as built in 1914/15. The British design shows, but the compass bridge is one level lower than where it would typically be on a British capital ship of the era.

[Dan K]

Am I right in thinking this extension is an air defence lookout and command position?

I believe so. Kongo's position was identical to that of Kirishima in 1941. It was built out in a later refit.

[Guest]

Hello! Does anyone have a good reference for the Haruna's final paint scheme. Ive seen a few photos with the striping on the turrets and on shipbucket seems the entire hull was painted a IJN gray-green color. Any help is appreciated.

[Dan K]

I'm not sure what her colors were at her end. There's this:

1 January 1945:
At Kure. BatDiv 3 is deactivated. HARUNA is reassigned to the reactivated BatDiv 1, Second Fleet. During 1945, HARUNA's battle damage is mostly repaired and she is camouflaged gray with very pale gray stripes on her turrets.

Greens may have been added. I should check the Maru Special on her. There may be a color plate.

[Mr. Church]

Hello! Does anyone have a good reference for the Haruna's final paint scheme. Ive seen a few photos with the striping on the turrets and on shipbucket seems the entire hull was painted a IJN gray-green color. Any help is appreciated.

Some colour footage of Haruna's wreck filmed after the war:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6RAfIwsnR8

It's difficult nigh impossible to judge exact colours from old films like that but it gives you some idea at least.

[Dan K]

Nice link. I don't know that you can tell anything about her color from that clip, given the film color shifts.

[DougC]

Appears to be Anscochrome with no UV filter. Colors would be shifted towards blue.

[pascalemod]

Hello! Does anyone have a good reference for the Haruna's final paint scheme. Ive seen a few photos with the striping on the turrets and on shipbucket seems the entire hull was painted a IJN gray-green color. Any help is appreciated.

Some colour footage of Haruna's wreck filmed after the war:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6RAfIwsnR8

It's difficult nigh impossible to judge exact colours from old films like that but it gives you some idea at least.

Logic dictates it was green because all of their camouflages were green by end of war as they sat in port. I think I read somewhere that Amagi even was planned to be kept after armistice, as Japanese believed in summer the ware will hopefully end with some agreement - not unconditional surrender, and they then would (bizzarely) get to keep some of their ships. Of course it didn't quite work out this way as Kure bombing was pretty much Pearl Harbour revenge style disaster for what was left of the navy. Everything was sunk.

So now I convinced you she should be green (and myself).

Having said that, I see Japanese modellers - who I think are worth paying attention to - paint here grey. (at least some of them). I would focus on tracking down models built by japanese modellers for ideas. They have better access to primary sources.

Haruna was wrecked very much on starboard side, just not seen in these pics.

So - in summary - I would be 60-40 to paint her grey. They put a bunch of tree branches on her, why do that if she was already green? The painted turrets in bizarre pattern then.

[Dan K]

They put a bunch of tree branches on her, why do that if she was already green?

That's always been my suspicion.

[pascalemod]

They put a bunch of tree branches on her, why do that if she was already green?

That's always been my suspicion.

This pic from book Japanese Warship of War. So it appears same pics as we see in video, where things look way greener. May be this one is way bluer, i dunno. Ship Looks grey here of course in her final camouflage.