Alright... I'm trying to find some pretty straightforward hard and fast ways to add some details to a few models I'm building.
The aircraft on the table are J7W1, B7A1 and D4Y3. My plan is to do them all in Carrier Air Group colours and markings. I want to do the J7W in the older off-white Zero style, and the other two are probably going to be in the late war style, with dark green over either grey or metal (I forget which they used).
The basic story is they're representative models of aircraft in the CAG aboard a finished/operational Shinano. The J7W's hook will be mid-fuselage, the only place it would work without being ripped apart by the prop, and the nose gear would give it the ability to use a fuselage hook, where other planes would risk slamming their nose into the deck when the hook engages.
I'm having trouble finding good squadrons to use for the principle. I don't have a lot of reference books on the time period/situations. I'd love to figure out squadron numbers/markings for the tail codes, but right now my big question is this:
What was the coding/meaning of the various stripe bands? I'm assuming the quantity is rank-identification, but is there differences between White, Red, Blue, etc, what colours correspond to which purposes?