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Early WWII Japanese Navy gray question


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Hi all!

I am wondering what is the shade of the early war light gray on Japanese Zeros. From what I have gathered, it seems to vary between a light olive and a light caramel color.

 

Does anyone have an informed opinion on this? 

 

And if possible, a recipe with Tamiya acrylics to represent this colour.

 

Thank you in advance!

 

Alain

 

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Sigh.....  There are two schools of thought on this...as Jennings mentions above, is a greenish-grey and the other is an olive-grey.  According to researchers on the subject, a close match is FS 16350.  Below is a link to the best article on the subject of A6M Zero coloration (all zero's not just the early ones so you won't need to read the entire document if you don't feel like it). 

 

A6M Zero Camouflage - Jim Lansdale

 

Another good research treatise is from Nick Millman.  He has a PDF document available for sale (not expensive) that thoroughly examines the colors of these early zeroes.  If you're interested, you see it here:  Painting the Early Zero-Sen - Nick Millman

 

If you want to purchase a copy, you'll have to email him: Nick Millman - Email

 

The main page, Aviation of Japan, where you can find all the above links, is here: Aviation of Japan

 

There is a lot of information on these early zero's but as with almost everything modeling related, nothing's for certain.  I am in the "olive-grey" camp when it comes to these early zekes and to add insult to injury, the fabric control surfaces were not the same color as the airframe.  Now to compound matters even more, Nakajima built A6M2's were painted a different shade of grey than were Mitsubishi aircraft and their control surface colors were different greys as well. 

 

Here's a series of paint mixes by noted Zero researcher, Greg Springer for Model Master and Tamiya paints: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/26077-zero-colors/&do=findComment&comment=220740

 

 

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I came across the AK Real colour range whilst looking for something else and came across these

 

https://ak-interactive.com/product/ijn-j3-hai-iro-grey-10ml/ for the Fabric flying surfaces which were a slightly different colour

 

and 

 

https://ak-interactive.com/product/ijn-j3-sp-amber-grey-10ml/ for overall colour

 

https://ak-interactive.com/product/ijn-m3-n-nakajima-interior-green-10ml/ if Nakajima built your Zero

https://ak-interactive.com/product/ijn-m3-m-mitsubishi-interior-green-10ml/ If its a Mitsubishi built Zero

https://ak-interactive.com/product/s-c-c-14-blue-black/ if its a Mitsubishi built Zero for use on the cowling and deck behind pilot seat and instrument panel shroud.

Cowls on Nakajima built ones were just a regular black.

 

The info was confirmed by Nick Millman when I asked him. He's and authority on such things and helped develop the paints with AK. Also published an ebook on painting the early Zeros mentioned above which I bought a few years back and is a good read.

 

Edited by ade rowlands
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1 hour ago, ringleheim said:

Formula for Tamiya paints: 

 

XF-19 (Sky Grey) 105 drops
XF-49 (Khaki) 20 drops
XF-25 (Lt. Sea Grey) 15 drops

 

Good match for the cloth from the Nihau A6M2 but not for the metal airframe....

 

From Greg Springer's paint mixes from relics in his own collection or generously loaned to him (link above):

 

"Mix matched to a cloth artifact from Zero BII-120, landed on Niihau Island, Dec. 7, 1942. Likely also to match cloth on control surfaces of AI-154 shot down at Ft. Kamehameha and BI-151 crashed at Kaneohe NAS the same day.

Mix 2T
105 drops Sky Grey XF-19
15 drops Lt. Sea Grey XF-25
20 drops Khaki XF-49"

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19 minutes ago, Juggernut said:

 

Good match for the cloth from the Nihau A6M2 but not for the metal airframe....

 

From Greg Springer's paint mixes from relics in his own collection or generously loaned to him (link above):

 

"Mix matched to a cloth artifact from Zero BII-120, landed on Niihau Island, Dec. 7, 1942. Likely also to match cloth on control surfaces of AI-154 shot down at Ft. Kamehameha and BI-151 crashed at Kaneohe NAS the same day.

Mix 2T
105 drops Sky Grey XF-19
15 drops Lt. Sea Grey XF-25
20 drops Khaki XF-49"

Yes, I misread my own notes on that.  The information came from the same place yours did the last time one of these threads was floating around.

 

Thanks for catching it.

 

 

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