Thursday 20 March 2008

The Colours of the 97-Sen ~ Part 4


Another example of Ki-27 colour comes from an extant rudder in the collection of the Hiko Jinja (Flight Shrine) in Yahata City, Japan. Owaki-san has very kindly provided a photograph and the measured Munsell value of 7.5 Y 7.5/1.5

The closest FS595b value is 26559 @ 1.62 which is almost identical (2.0 or less = a close match) whilst the nearest RAL value is 7032 Kieselgrau (Pebble Grey) @ 3.20

Owaki-san notes that this example is doubtful because the kanji characters painted on the rudder refer to a Navy unit at Otsu air base on Lake Biwa north of Kyoto. This base was associated with Navy seaplane training - maybe the rudder was from an Army Type 97 fighter- trainer that crashed or force-landed there?

In 1970 Dr Izawa commented  "Some Type 97 fighter-trainers that had their spats removed were painted in a cream-gray".

Image credits: Photograph © Katsushi Owaki Collection
Rendered colour samples © Straggler 2008

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

解説:『東支那海でたまたまジャンクにて近藤氏が発見回収した物、第2次大戦時「特攻 寿部隊」自爆機の垂直尾翼』

あまりに程度が良すぎて、海中から回収されたものとは思えない。また、「寿」はおめでたい場合に使われることからも、特攻機とは信じられない。

大脇克司

Anonymous said...

解説:「九七戦方向舵。東支那海でたまたまジャンクにて近藤氏が発見回収した物、第二次大戦時『特攻寿部隊』自爆機の垂直尾翼」

海中から回収された割には程度が良すぎる。「寿」は通常おめでたいことに使われる言葉なので、特攻部隊に使用されたとは思えない。地色の灰緑色は塗り替えられている可能性がある。(大脇克司)

Anonymous said...

Hello Nick,

Is there any more information regarding Ki.27 trainers in the cream-gray color, as described by Dr. Izawa? I seem to remember reading somewhere of a report of Ki.27s finished in two shades of gray, and so observed on the same airfield.

If the reported cream-gray color were associated with training planes, perhaps other types used as trainers were also finished in this cream-gray color?

Ken Glass