1:350 U.S.NAVY and IJN Ship Marking Decals

The tradition of marking ships had long been established before there were navies. Sometimes more subtle than others. The Greek hero Achilles arrived in Troy onboard a myrmidon ship with a pitch black sail.
Rome employed sophisticated marking systems. Each ship displays color of its legion at the bow or stern. Towers were painted for identifications.  Unit emblem or figure of commander depicted on the hull...

Today,  warships carry hull markings for visual identification. Here we introduce 2 decal sets for marking ship models in 1:350 scale. One set for U.S. NAVY, including options for both modern and WWII era. The other set is for WWII Imperial Japanese Navy.

The U.S NAVY used 48 inch number on its destroyers before WWII. A sets of numbers on each side of the bow, and 2 sets for stern. All painted white with black shadow, stood out against the light gray or ivory background colors. Bigger ships used larger numbers, In the case of carriers, numbers painted on islands can be very tall. The decal set provides numbers up to 8 feet in height (15", 24", 48", 60", 72", 96"). Also includes letters and numbers in black and white without shadows, for auxiliary vessels such as sub chasers and mine sweepers.

During the war, numbers were reduced to 24 and 15 inches, and shadow color switched to gray to make them less visible.  Then after the war, they were revamped to the pre-war standards.

The Imperial Japanese Navy ships carried markings for their names and units. Numbers on each side of the bow indicates unit of the ship, and ship names were spelled out on sides of the hull in Katakana (Destroyers) and Hiragana at stern.

Before the war, Hiragana ship names at sterns were brass, replaced by painted version during the war, that were white with narrow black shadows. The decal sheet includes choices for all of the specifications.

More on hull numbers and ship names
USN
IJN

NW35039 1:350 USN Hull Marking decal set
NW35040 1:350 IJN Hull Marking decal set