Mike,
To answer your question, the Germans used the same "candy stripe" pattern on their aiming stakes for artillery in WW2. I'm not 100% sure that Bronco got it right (or wrong) because the Germans had the aiming stakes do double duty as cleaning rods on other vehicles such as the Wespe...after all, it's just a matter of painting the rods you already have so you don't have to carry a 2nd set and is efficient when you come right down to it. I thought Tony was saying though that the kit included a 2nd set of rods that are the cleaning rods unless I misunderstood?
The real irony here of course is that they are in fact Russian
cleaning rods/aiming stakes pressed into service right along with the gun. That's why I asked my original question...the same rods are seen on the Marder III but not candy-striped as the Marder III was a direct-fire only weapon. Given that the Diana plopped the whole gun onto the modified halftrack chassis, it stands to reason that the indirect fire capability remained along with it (even if never used) so the rods it would be equipped with would also be striped to perform the aiming stake duty.