I know, the lead ship was already drawn
, but my intention was to add Chikuma and depict the ships in different times of their career and Colosseum was so kind to permit me to update the orignal drawing.Tone 1938:
Designed to provide scout planes for carrier task forces the Tone class sported an all forward armament of eight 8-inch (2033m) guns, the quarterdeck was so left empty and can be entirely dedicated to aircraft handling, the cruisers where capable of carrying as much as 7 seplanes, altough 6 was the intended complement and only 5 was the maximum number the ships actually carried; anti-aircraft armament was composed of 4 twin 5-inch (127mm) guns and 6 twin 25mm machine guns platforms, two beign i front of the bridge, another two abaft the funnel and the last two near he mainmast, airwing as completed was composed of Kawanishi E7K and Nakajima E8N.
![[ img ]](http://www.shipbucket.com/Real%20Designs/Japan/CA%20Tone%201938.png)
Chikuma 1939:
Looking almost alike her sister Chikuma can be recgnized by minor differences in riggings and placement of navigation lights and antennaes on the foremast.
![[ img ]](http://www.shipbucket.com/Real%20Designs/Japan/CA%20Chikuma%201939.png)
Tone 1943:
By early 1943 Tone had recieved a more modern airwing composed by a total of five Aichi E13A and Mitsubishi F1M, two more twin 25mm machine guns where added near the aft director (and not placed simetrycal with the port one fitted more aft) and the upgrade of the mounts abreast the mainmast and forward of the bridge from twins to triple, another minor change was the fitting of a degaussing cable.
![[ img ]](http://www.shipbucket.com/Real%20Designs/Japan/CA%20Tone%201943.png)
Chikuma 1944:
With trained pilots becoming a luxury the airwing was reduced from 5 to 4 planes, then anti-aircraft suite was increased to 8 triple, 4 twin and 22 single 25mm machine guns, unlike tone the new mounts added near the aft director where not offset but simmetryical; finally a full radar set comprising of type 13 and 21 air search and type 22 surface search radars was fitted.
![[ img ]](http://www.shipbucket.com/Real%20Designs/Japan/CA%20Chikuma%201944.png)
Tone 1945:
Having survived the Philippine Campaign (while her sister Chikuma was sunk in the Battle of Samar) Tone returned to home waters where she was relegated to training and anti-aircraft duties; seaplanes where landed, and anti-aircraft suite increased to 12 triple, 4 twin and 18 single 25mm machin gun mounts.
Radar suite was already fitted betwen 1943 and 1944 like Chikuma, also most of the portholes where plated over.
![[ img ]](http://www.shipbucket.com/Real%20Designs/Japan/CA%20Tone%201945.png)
