Japanese Ships – Colors & Camouflage

[Dili]

In my Med forum where i have many light colored hulls i have found that darkening the sky improves visualization.

Here is Pericles. What kind of overlay technique did you made?

[Kull]

Yep, the background does make a difference, especially with an image that is only 200x60 pixels. Lighter is usually better, but the main thing is more contrast between the ship outline and the background color, so I tend to prefer those with fewer clouds.

As for the technique, I make a copy of the shil image and change the "pink" background to white. That is your new "master". Make a copy of that and then cut out everything except the hull. Overwrite every hull color with a single color (or two in the case of my Japanese camo example), save it as another file, and then add it as a layer to the "master". All the white background of the hull pic should be transparent, and then adjust the opacity until the overlay gives you the overall shade you are looking for. From there you can max the image size and make pixel edits, as needed.

[Halsey]

ORIGINAL: Kull

Merchant Shipping Camouflage

Implementing even the relatively simple late war Japanese Merchant ship camouflage proved to be trickier than expected, but after a fair amount of trial and error, I have something that should (hopefully) meet the requirement of graphics at least on a par with JWE's CHS efforts.

The attachment shows three versions of the Japanese Std-C cargo vessel, along with the two colors that need to be applied to its sides. The "test" ship (3rd from the top) used the camo colors as per the drawing in the U.S. Naval Technical Mission report (see post #5 above), but it lost the 3D-ish dimensions of the original image (especially at "game size"). Eventually I figured out how to create an overlay that fit on top of the existing art, and the result is the ship second from the top.

Using a foldered system, the game would display the top-most ship (the existing art) until late 1944, after which the camo ship would appear. The other benefit from the foldered system is that you could have one ship class implement the camo ship side in 8/44, 2 more in 9/44, another 2 in 10/44, etc. Which leads to the next issue...

There are 23 different classes of xAK/AK (43 if you add in the xAPs) so developing camo for all of them would take a while. On the other hand, even though the Naval Mission report says the camo scheme was applied to "all" merchant ships, it seems doubtful that the Japanese would have been able to actually carry that out. Probably it was applied to newly built vessels, and perhaps some number of others. Anyway, it seems reasonable to have a mix of ship classes, some with the camo and others without.

These are very cool, and remind me of playing CHS by Andrew Brown.

It took me almost 2 1/2 years to compile and compose all the unit art work that's available on my site.
Just tackle it a class at a time, and it'll eventually come together.[:D]

Good to see others still willing to update WITP.
Keep up the excellent work!

[Dili]

ORIGINAL: Kull

Yep, the background does make a difference, especially with an image that is only 200x60 pixels. Lighter is usually better, but the main thing is more contrast between the ship outline and the background color, so I tend to prefer those with fewer clouds.

As for the technique, I make a copy of the shil image and change the "pink" background to white. That is your new "master". Make a copy of that and then cut out everything except the hull. Overwrite every hull color with a single color (or two in the case of my Japanese camo example), save it as another file, and then add it as a layer to the "master". All the white background of the hull pic should be transparent, and then adjust the opacity until the overlay gives you the overall shade you are looking for. From there you can max the image size and make pixel edits, as needed.

I use the multiply mode with the color i want to use, most of the times and change the HUE too. But i have found if i camouflage i always loose detail even if overall might look better.

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: Halsey

These are very cool, and remind me of playing CHS by Andrew Brown.

It took me almost 2 1/2 years to compile and compose all the unit art work that's available on my site.
Just tackle it a class at a time, and it'll eventually come together.[:D]

Good to see others still willing to update WITP.
Keep up the excellent work!

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm very grateful for the excellent work done by you and all the other fine artists who've supported this game over the years. My "art" is entirely based on the work of others, and that sets a very high floor for what constitutes an acceptable modification. And yes, this won't happen overnight!

ORIGINAL: Dili

I use the multiply mode with the color i want to use, most of the times and change the HUE too. But i have found if i camouflage i always loose detail even if overall might look better.

As part of this exercise I reviewed a lot of graphics threads, and in one of those JWE recommended that Camo (especially Dazzle) be restricted to the hulls, and if extended to guns and superstructure, at least be toned down so that details don't wash out. He posted some examples, and it was a nice look. So you might want to try that on your camo'd ships to see the effect. Of course that's more time consuming to implement, which is the trade-off.

[Kull]

Mutsuki-class DDs

I talked about the camo scheme for DD Mutsuki in post #9, and at the time felt it wasn't worth pursuing. However two things happened since then. First was the discovery of a Halsey CHS camo shipside download at Spooky's Site (see image #3 in the attachment below), although unfortunately it didn't meet the JWE size spec (it's 116 pixels long vs. 101 for the current AE model - see image #1 below). It looked cool though, so I did a little editing and was able to downsize it to 101 pixels without losing any of the important details (see image #2).

Even so, it seemed questionable to include a one-off ship as the representative for an entire class, but that's when I found a US Navy color photo from 1944 showing the wrecked DD Kikuzuki (also Mutsuki class), and she clearly has Dazzle Camo (see image #4 below, although the linked pic has far more detail). Kikuzuki was sunk in May 1942, so this is now 2 of 12 Mutsuki-class ships that have photographic proof of early-war camo schemes, which makes you wonder how many others might have had something similar.

Anyway, even though both ships had different camo styles, it seems a lot more reasonable to add the camo version into the game. And in fact, it works even without the "foldered ship system" because the Mutsuki-class DD has three different bmps:
059 - 12/41
359 - 2/42 (also used by the 1/43 upgrade)
377 - 4/44

Replacing the existing 059 image with the camo version would keep it visible until each DD receives the 2/42 upgrade. Even though we know Kikuzuki's camo was present until 5/42, the Mutsuki-type (which is what the art represents) probably was painted over very early in the war (and possibly earlier).

Edit: Revised the recommendation from 359 to 059.

[Halsey]

Right...
Forgot about all this stuff.

These were done by Fremen, who lives in Spain.
He did a lot of replacement sides that are larger than the format.

He was also responsible for adding the bottom hulls to all of the submarines, because the original WITP only showed the top portions of the submarine.

Because of him, that submarine art now appears in AE.[;)]

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: Halsey

Right...
Forgot about all this stuff.

These were done by Fremen, who lives in Spain.
He did a lot of replacement sides that are larger than the format.

He was also responsible for adding the bottom hulls to all of the submarines, because the original WITP only showed the top portions of the submarine.

Because of him, that submarine art now appears in AE.[;)]

Thanks for clarifying! I always try to credit the original artist, but it's not always clear who that is, especially with the compilation downloads.

[Kull]

Next up, one of the the coolest-looking Japanese camouflaged ships - AV Akitsushima:

[Kull]

AV Akitsushima

In-game, AV Akitsushima is the only ship in its class and has a single bmp file (056) and two IDs (starting configuration and upgrade), so we would need a foldered system to have more than one bmp. However, the colorized photo is described as being taken "during sea trials" and the US Naval Mission includes mention of this specialized camo (along with a hand drawing), so AV Akitsushima should use this camo scheme from the start and I haven't been able to find anything official to indicate that the colors ever changed, other than a ship modeler's comment that "she was completed with the camouflage, and was then repainted with grey" and "I believe the camouflage paint was discontinued after 1942-3."

With a foldered system we'd probably change to a grey shipside near the end of 1943, but retaining the camo throughout is certainly an option.

So how will this look in AE? The attachment shows the existing ship on top, followed by Dixie and Fremen's offerings for CHS. For an AE camo version, I edited the height & length of Dixie's ship, added an edited version of Fremen's crane (plus some of his "dot camo"), and replaced the central mast with one copied in from the existing AE shipside. In addition, I added a boat (beneath the crane) and a few other small features as per the photo.

Probably the biggest change was deleting the Emily birds featured by both Dixie and Fremen. Reason being that in AE you can't load those as "working floatplanes" on an AV, so it would have been "game misleading", even if the picture itself was historically correct. The shipside camo colors are more grey than green & white, but my efforts at "fixing" that made the shipside look worse, so at least for now I'll keep the Dixie camo colors.

If any of you would like to add this shipside to an ongoing game (altered ship bmps are immediately visible, even if added during a turn), let me know and I'll post a zip with the side & shil.

Edit: Wasn't happy with the colors, so I gave it more of the "pixel-by-pixel" treatment. Result is the "v2" pic at the bottom of the attachment. The "wave camo" (at bow and stern) is now much whiter, and the stripes are light green. This better matches the colors as described in the US Naval Mission report: "The forward third of the ship was painted with dazzle stripes in light green and black".

[Dili]

What are the rules for the sizes, i just get AE examples and made a crude scale

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: Dili

What are the rules for the sizes, i just get AE examples and made a crude scale

I use the AE shipsides as a guideline, knowing that all of them were created in accordance with this scaling system outlined by JWE:

"We have two conflicting imperatives for the ship graphics; these follow from the box rule of a 200 ‘dot’ graphic picture width. One is to have the pictures ‘generally’ in proportion with one another, the other is to have sufficient detail for the dinkies (80 foot PTs etc). If we follow a strictly linear rule, this may, on the one hand, leave the PTs as a small gray blur on the background. On the other hand, if the scale were to give detail to the PTs, it would put a Porter in the same size (pixel) class as a New Orleans CA.

I have noticed that the great majority of interesting vessels fall in the 350’ to 780’ range. Thus, I propose a dynamic scale. 4 feet per pixel seems to work down to the destroyer classes, but begins to unravel for Clemsons, Wickes, Otoris, DEs, and especially PGs, PCs, MLs, and the like. I have also noticed that the odd ducks seem to cluster at about 80 to 90 pixels, relative. This is also (80 to 90) a reasonable scale for detail.

What I propose is a sliding scale; one scale for vessels between 80’ to 300’; a second scale for 300’ to 400’; a standard scale (4’ per pixel) for 400’ to about 760-780’, and a final by-guess-and-by-golly scale for the monsters. This method tends to compress the PC, PG, DE, and smaller DDs into the 86 to 90 pixel range.

The math goes like this, where “y” is the length of the ship in pixels (bit map blocks):

Y = (ship LOA)/8 + 44, for all ships up to about 350’
Y = (ship LOA)/6 + 32, for ships between 350’ and 400’
Y = (ship LOA)/4, for ships between 400’ and 760’ (std 4’ per pixel)
Y = (ship LOA)/6 + 64, for ships over 760’ (to a max of 820’)

This will give an 80’ PT at 54 pixels (not too bad) and a Yorktown with ‘some’ space fore and aft. I haven’t paid much attention to the top end, since my concern has been models of those ships in the 300’ to 500’ range, but I can refine the graph very easily. I can’t upload the graph (wrong format), but I can modify with the appropriate math input. I would appreciate comments. We should finalize this and cast it in stone for our project. Fewmets and rotten vegetables accepted."

[Dili]

Check my scaled up screen , values are in meters, each color is linked to a certain length and a pair of dots in each side Since not enough colors to distinguish i had to repeat them but they are far enough of each other as to not make confusion. I made in this screen 2 connections to be seen how to do use it. Red is a 50m length ship and blue violet is 227 m length.



i also made one for submarines since they have other scale.

[Kull]

Escort (E) Type color schemes:

A completely unexpected discovery was that all Ukuru class and Type C class Escort ships have a two toned paint scheme (see examples below). For both classes, the upper half of the bow-end of the ship is a very dark grey (appears to be Sasebo-type, although probably it varies by shipyard) while the rest of the hull is a much lighter grey. In the pix for several of the C-Class Escorts, this band appears almost white.

In-game, both types have a single bmp but they share it with other Escort classes, specifically:

175.bmp is shared between Ukuru-class and Mikura-class
116.bmp is shared between Type C-class and Type D-class

Fortunately the Mikura class has two bmps, and the first one (115.bmp) is not shared with any other class. So even though it begins to arrive in mid-1943, it doesn't share the Ukuru class bmp until October 1944. I could not find any instances of Mikuras using the Ukuru paint job, however there are only 8 Mikuras and 33 Ukurus, so it's "less wrong" to give all of them the two-tone ship-side starting in late 1944.

We don't have the same problem with the bmp shared between Types C&D, because both of these Escorts feature two-tone paint, although the lower hull of the Type Ds is a bit darker.

All the pictures in the attachment (and many more) are available on a Polish web site called Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy

Edit: Worth noting that new 175.bmp and 116.bmp art does NOT require the "foldered ship" system.

[Kull]

CL Kuma-class Aleutians Camouflage

In AE, the CL Kuma-class comprises three ships (Kuma, Kiso, & Tama) and has 2 bmps for 4 database entries:
020 - 12/41
020 - 10/42 (minelaying removed, Type 96 AA added L & R)
220 - 8/43 (Type 21 Radar added, more AA)
220 - 9/44 (Type 13 Radar added, more AA)

As discussed in post #9 above, two of these (Kiso & Tama) received "Aleutians camouflage" in 1941 and wore it until they were repainted in standard bluish-grey warship colors in May 1942. Although each ship used a different variation of the "dark grey + white" camo scheme, in-game there can only be one pattern per class, so I used the Kiso variant. Largely because that was the only ship which had a full side view picture to work from (see photo at bottom of the attachment).

There were three existing ship-sides to use as the base model and I chose the new BigB version (3rd from the top) because it already has a bluish-grey tint similar to the correct Sasebo-Yokosuka color scheme. I darkened that further and then added white "stripes" to the hull, and white splashes to the funnels, mast tops, and the rear gun (4th ship-side from the top).

In a foldered system, this would be the starting ship-side in 1941 (020.bmp) and would be replaced by the BigB version in June 1942. Without ship folders, it would carry on until replaced by the 220.bmp file in mid-1943 (which is less than ideal, albeit visually attractive).

I highly recommend that players who seek greater authenticity in their Japanese ship colors should download Big B's revised Carriers, Cruisers, and Destroyers (the latter are the work of Sulu Sea) as they feature a more accurate bluish-grey tint (along with other improvements). These are direct replacement sides and shils, so you only need to unzip them into the correct folders. Like all new ship and plane art, they will appear immediately in ongoing games.

[Kull]

Escort (E) Type color schemes:

As discussed in Post #34 above, see the attachment for a look at the two-toned paint scheme applied to the Ukuru class, Type C class, and Type D class Escort ships. Unlike most of the shipside images I present, these are zoomed in by 400% - not to see the pixel-by-pixel difference between the current models (top) and the new (bottom) - but the hues.

In the center of the image are 5 color swatches. The two at the top are Sasebo A and Maizuru A, which are early-to-mid war "bluish grey" shipyard colors. The three at the bottom are the late war shipyard colors (more on that in the next post), specifically Sasebo B, Kure B, and Maizuru B.

Look closely and you'll see that the bottom 3 swatches are a good match with the existing AE Japanese shipsides. In other words, much of the existing AE ship art can be used in a foldered system as accurate representations of the late war Japanese shipyard colors. In combination with the bluish grey Big B and Sulu Sea warships, it's going to allow for a much easier implementation of an "early vs. late war" color system for warships.

[Kull]

Color Variation by Shipyard

As discussed in Post #2 above, I recently obtained the Snyder & Short color swatches for the various Japanese shipyards, both early-to-mid war bluish-grey and the late war formulations that did not include blue pigment. Plus the different shades of green used by carriers and merchant ships. Setting the swatches under natural light and using an i-phone app to get relatively consistent RGB values took some doing, but here they are:

Palette #1 (Early-Mid War):
Sasebo A: 70,77,92
Kure A: 92,111,124
Maizuru A: 100,122,130
Yokosuka A: 79,95,102


Palette #2 (Late War):
Sasebo B: 81,87,94
Sasebo C: 79,85,87
Sasebo D: 84,90,90
Kure B: 103,112,119
Kure C: 105,115,118
Maizuru B: 120,126,127


Late War Carriers & Merchant ships:
Type 2 : 93,125,100
Type 21: 139,166,147
Type 22: 180,198,182
Type 21B: 100,128,85


I've searched for information detailing the time frame in which the shipyards made the switch from bluish to greyish hues, but so far without success. Interestingly however, it seems that the US Navy had a similar problem:

In January 1945 BuShips revised its paint formulations due to a shortage of blue pigment, and the realization that tone was far more important than hue in camouflage effect, eliminating the blue-purple shades which had characterized nearly all Navy ship colors whether called "blue" or "gray." The new paints were neutral grays, Navy Gray replacing Navy Blue (but confusingly receiving the designation "5-N" while Navy Blue became "5-NB"), and Deck Gray replacing Deck Blue. Ocean Gray and Haze Gray retained their names but lost their bluish cast. However, the new paints (which were shipped pre-mixed, not as tinting paste) were generally only available in stateside yards, while ships repainted at forward bases continued to use the older bluish colors.

Although as yet we don't have a date for the change in Japanese color formulas, if the US Navy was experiencing blue pigment shortages in late 1944, it's wouldn't be surprising if Japan faced the issue even earlier. Accordingly, a shift in Japanese ship hues from bluish to grayish should probably happen in early 1944, possibly earlier. For example, if some ship classes begin to arrive in very late 1943, it would be easier to start them off with the grayish colors instead of using the bluish pigments only for a few months. Likewise, any late-1943 upgrades which include a new shipside bmp, could be implemented as grey (and without folders).

[Kull]

BB Haruna Turret Stripes

Back in Post #8 I was reviewing the "extreme late war camouflage" and noted that most of it had no application to AE, "with the possible exception of BB Haruna's Turret stripes".

Just for grins I played around with that, and although it's impossible to get a 200x60 shipside to display narrow strips like those in the attachment, the insert shows "before and after" shipsides in which the lower one has a sort of "tiger stripe" effect on the forward and rear turrets. Worth noting that while there are lots of images showing stripes on the forward turrets, only this photo had enough detail to conclusively verify that the same system was applied to the rear turrets as well.

Anyway, this would require the foldered ship system and would only take effect in January 1945, but hey, why not? [:)]

[Kull]

Early War Dazzle Camouflage

Of the various color and camouflage schemes, the most "visually interesting" is the early war Dazzle Camouflage which was applied primarily to Auxiliaries and merchant ships. Unfortunately there isn't a complete list identifying all the ships which had it. The US Navy Technical Team Report devoted a few pages to the theory behind Japanese Dazzle and provided some examples, but it was far from comprehensive.

The best single repository - one that is frequently cited by modelers - is a web site featuring ship models created by the "merchant marine expert", Motoyuki Iwashige (he's published at least one book on the subject). There are sub-pages containing almost 200 detailed models (most with photos), and it is a tremendous resource for anybody interested in the pictorial details of Japanese merchant shipping of this period.

In a few cases I was able to find evidence for additional ships with early war camo, and put the whole thing together in a spreadsheet that lists the names, ship types, AE classes, and links to evidence. As an example, the list below is just for AK-types:

Name Camo Type Camo Evidence AE Class AE Type # Ships Comment

Akagane Maru Dazzle Model Ansyu-C Cargo xAK 54 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/akaganemaru.htm
Ayatosan Maru Bow Wave Photo/Model Yusen A Cargo xAK 7 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/ayatosanmaru.htm
Brisbane Maru Dazzle Painting Kyushu Cargo xAK 32 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/brisbanemaru.htm
Gyoku Maru Dazzle Photo/Model British xAK 0 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/gyokumaru.htm
Gyoten Maru Dazzle Photo/Model British xAK 0 https://8320.teacup.com/delight/bbs
Hirokawa Maru Dazzle Photo/Model Yusen S Cargo AK 10 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/hirokawamaru.htm
Kansai Maru Dazzle Photo/Model Kyushu Cargo xAK 32 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/kansaimaru.htm
Kazuura Maru Dazzle Photo Yusen N Cargo xAK 57 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/kazuuramaru.htm
Keiyo Maru Dazzle Model Yusen N Cargo xAK 57 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/keiyomaru.htm
Kinka Maru German Radar Model Yusen S Cargo AK 10 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/kinkamaru.htm
Kinugawa Maru Dazzle Photo/Model Yusen N Cargo xAK 57 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/kinugawamaru.htm
Kirishima Maru Bow Wave Photo/Model Kyushu Cargo xAK 32 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/kirishimamaru.htm
Kiyozumi Maru Dazzle Photo/Model Ehime Cargo xAK 58 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/kiyozumimaru.htm
Kyushu Maru Dazzle Photo/Model Yusen S Cargo AK 10 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/kyushumaru.htm
Myoko Maru Dazzle Photo Kyushu Cargo xAK 32 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Myoko_Maru_(1939)
Nagara Maru Dazzle Photo/Model Yusen N Cargo xAK 57 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/nagaramaru.htm
Nako Maru Dazzle Model Yusen N Cargo xAK 57 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/nakomaru.htm
Oigawa Maru Dazzle Model Gozan Cargo xAK 61 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/oigawamaru.htm
Sado Maru Dazzle Model Yusen S Cargo AK 10 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/sadomaru.htm
Sagami Maru Dazzle Photo/Model Yusen S Cargo AK 10 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/sagamimaru.htm
Sasako Maru Dazzle Painting Yusen S Cargo AK 10 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/sasakomaru.htm
Shinai Maru ("Seikyo" in AE) Bow Wave Photo Ansyu-C Cargo xAK 54 https://www.flickr.com/photos/acstudio/6834602562
Suez Maru Dazzle Photo Daigen Cargo xAKL 68 http://www.powresearch.jp/en/archive/ship/suez.html
Taimei Maru ("Teimei" in AE) Bow Wave Photo/Model Ansyu-C Cargo xAK 54 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/taimeimaru.htm
Yamabiko Maru Dazzle Photo Yusen N Cargo xAK 57 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/yamabikomaru.htm
Yamabiko Maru Dazzle Photo Yamabiko AR AR 1 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/yamabikomaru.htm
Yamagiri Maru Dazzle Photo/Model Yusen N Cargo xAK 57 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/yamagirimaru.htm
Yamaura Maru Dazzle Photo/Model Yusen N Cargo xAK 57 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/yamauramaru.htm
Yamazuki Maru Dazzle Photo/Model Yusen N Cargo xAK 57 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/yamazukimaru.htm
Yasukawa Maru Dazzle Model Lima Cargo xAK 46 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/yasukawamaru.htm
Zenyo Maru Dazzle Model Yusen N Cargo xAK 57 http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/zenyomaru.htm

The important thing to remember (and yes, I'm repeating myself), is that in most cases AE merchant ships and auxiliaries are grouped into multi-ship categories. So even when there is evidence that a particular ship had Dazzle (or other) Camouflage, we need to consider how the in-game implementation will affect all ships of that class.

Edit: Apologies for the data mish-mash. Apparently the BBS software ignores tabs.

[Kull]

LSD Types

There are 2 classes of LSD in WitP-AE:

1) Shinshu Maru LSD (internal boat storage & cranes): A single ship in this class. A single bmp file (0316.bmp), not shared. Photo evidence of a 2-tone color scheme (not camo).

Although pre-war photos (up to 1940) clearly show a dark hull and a much lighter "upper level", the AE shipsides are uniformly light grey (as are most ship models and paintings). However, that "all-grey" look may have come later, as Shinshu Maru was torpedoed and sunk in February 1942, and was probably repainted after being raised and repaired in Singapore (between 12/42 and 5/43). The foldered system can show this with a two-tone hull until 5/43, reverting to the current all-grey AE shipside after that.

Edit: The shipside was significantly improved, as you can see here in Post #62 and tweaked a bit more in Post #125.