painting inside a Zero A6M5c

[miked]

Did this Zero have the blue protective paint on the inside of fuselage and wheel wells? Sorry if I using the wrong terminology to descibe what I am asking. Thanks Mike.

[spacewolf]

Did this Zero have the blue protective paint on the inside of fuselage and wheel wells? Sorry if I using the wrong terminology to descibe what I am asking. Thanks Mike.

 

Check out the pinned thread in the props forum of ARC for a very good description of the paint issue. If the machine was produced by Mitsubishi the wheel wells would be the color of the underside of the aircraft and the cockpit would be green. If it was made by Nakajima it would have the blue/green preservative in the wheel wells, not sure abut the cockpit.

 

Cheers

 

Vaughn

[LSP_Kevin]

Mike, Vaughn has pretty much nailed it. As for the cockpits, both manufacturers used variations of an interior green - the metallic blue/green coating (aotake) was never used in cockpits. I use Tamiya's XF-71 for the task in any case. The cockpit decking under the rear canopy was also a different colour depending on the manufacturer: black for Mitsubishi and exterior colour for Nakajima.

 

Oh, there's quite an easy way to tell the difference between the two manufacturers' machines too. Mitsubishi-built aircraft had a straight demarcation line between the upper and lower colours along the fuselage, whereas on Nakajima-built aircraft it curved up to the tailplanes.

 

Kev

[miked]

Thanks guys for the info.

[One-Oh-Four]

Hi Mike,

 

Have a look here:

 

http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/ryan/no...tamiya_a6m5.htm

 

It'll answer all your questions and then some!

 

Regards,

Erik.

[Juggernut]

Most zero's had a floatation bag from frame 7 (forward to aft fuselage join)aft to the tailwheel bulkhead area. I don't know if the A6M5 Model 52c was equipped with it or not but if so, you could paint the area pink because nothing aft of frame 7 will be visible with the floatation bag in place. The question to the guys at j-aircraft.com would be whether this thing was equipped with a fuselage floatation bag or not, then worry about the color. Oh, and as far as that's concerned, the fuselage frames would be disinctly aotake while the skin itself would be more aluminum with maybe a very pale (read as almost non-existant) coating of aotake. I'm one of the contributors to the ARC thread that's been pinned in case you were wondering. I love all things A6M related and regularly digest all the latest research I can discover. I'm not saying I am in any way an expert on the aircraft but I have studied it and have more than a passing knowledge of the subject matter.

 

HTH

 

TimC.