A site dedicated to information and discussion about the history of aviation and aeroplanes in Japan and the Far East. 日本と東洋の航空史と航空機に関する専門サイト。皆様からの情報やコメントをお待ちしてます。(日本語でも可)
Monday 24 June 2024
50th Sentai Hayabusa Duo in 1/48 by Stéphane Sagols Part 2
50th Sentai Hayabusa Duo in 1/48 by Stéphane Sagols Part 1
Saturday 22 June 2024
Kariki 117 Colour I3 and 8609 Colour 3-3 Tsuchi iro
The question of natural metal finish (nmf) under surfaces on some Pearl Harbor 'Kates' has run long and in its 1/48 scale kits Hasegawa has variously depicted grey green or 'silver'. The late Jim Lansdale was of the opinion that the finish varied as the result of production chronology and that he had examined KanKo artefacts where the dark green was painted over nmf and others where it was painted over the 'olive grey' finish. He estimated that the last 200-300 KanKo produced by Nakajima up to August 1941 were probably in a factory applied overall olive grey scheme, implying that older aircraft already in service may have been camouflaged dark green on upper surfaces but retained nmf under surfaces. His extant sample of metal from the so-called 'Hospital Kate' did not have any primer and he had seen no evidence of any primer on the olive grey painted aircraft. Does that imply that they were possibly IJN Depot rather than factory painted after the olive grey paint was adopted for the Zero? In any event the olive grey appears to have been the warmer. more yellowish Nakajima colour. It was possibly patches of that paint showing through the dark green camouflage paint that gave rise to the idea of PH KanKo sporting 'brown' blotches on the green camouflage.
Fuchida described the Kates as being camouflaged very roughly and hastily in green and brown (茶褐色 chakasshoku) with his own aircraft remaining 'bright' underneath, which is a little ambiguous but might suggest the aircraft was unpainted prior to camouflaging and that the under surface retained a natural metal finish. The problem with Japanese descriptions of 'brown' has been discussed before but chakasshoku appears to cover colours from dark reddish brown to yellowish brown or tawny. The box art on the Nichimo Kate was based on his description but depicts a very dark brown. FWIW the paint on the 'Hospital' Kate is a slightly variegated Munsell 7.5 Y 5-6/2 which puts it into that familiar slightly lighter than FS 34201/16350 territory. Therefore the difference between I3 and the Zero-type olive grey is probably unimportant. One detail that is easily overlooked is that the amber/olive-grey paint was glossy whilst the dark green camouflage was duller or flat.
A fabric sample from the 'Southeast Loch Kanko' had a layer of red oxide, a layer of aluminium and a top coating of olive grey. A piece of the rudder fabric had bright red over the olive grey layer. Jim Lansdale noted that according to Bob Mikesh the under surface fabric of a B5N amongst the approximate 50 manufactured by No. 11 Kokusho during 1939-40 was doped a blue-grey colour approximating Munsell 5 PB 6/1. That would be approximate to FS 36320, so possibly not the more neutral, dove grey of J3. The pigments in 36320 as might be expected for a low saturated 'purple blue' are rutile (non chalking) titanium dioxide (white), green shade phthalo blue, quinacridone red and blue shade carbon black. But in addition to the manufactured aircraft the No.11 Kokusho may have reconditioned or modified many B5N airframes from 1942 until March 1944 applying an unknown variety of paints. The B5N was also manufactured by Aichi from June 1942 to September 1943 with a run of approximately 200. Probably one of the most common pitfalls for modellers is to assume that extant paint examples from one aircraft represent all the others unvaryingly. Generally speaking Japanese modellers are much more relaxed and pragmatic about this.
The heading photo is from film footage of a Midway-era KanKo taking off and the lighter outer wings are intriguing. Is the lighter colour on this bird olive grey (or 'grey poupon'!) and was the darker green (?) camouflage applied on board the carrier with the wings folded?
Make of it what you will . . .
Image credit: B5N photo web; Colour schematic © 2024 Aviation of Japan
Friday 21 June 2024
A Bad Attitude of Mind
On another forum one chap had lifted information wholesale from this blog and then presented it as if it were the product of his own research and he was coming down from the mountain with tablets of stone. Ok, again he included a link to this blog but that was ignored and he got fawning praise and gratitude from his forumite audience for his 'research'.
I've come to the conclusion that most extant IJN interior paint represents the applied and variable paints of different manufacturers, plus photo-chemical and other colour shift distortions from thermal and other degradations, to the single colour standard of Kariki 117's M1, as was specified and required. Here care is necessary and the usual caveat that a colour standard and applied paints are not identical beasts. Different paints for different purposes can be manufactured to match a single colour standard, but with different formulae to suit those purposes. And indeed different manufacturers can make paint match a single colour standard using different pigments and constituents. All of which can create and does create variables, especially over time. Paint protected from light and exposure will often become darker and browner, think old decals. A cool green will often become a more olive green in appearance, a bright pale blue become more turquoise in appearance. Too often the consequences are presumed to represent the original. Extant samples of paint from aircraft manufactured over 80 years ago are seductive but should not be presumed to represent a colour standard or be representative of all the aircraft of that type manufactured. In the case of the IJN fitted components were often finished in a darker green than the integral cockpit grey green, so where, exactly did the sample come from? And was it original or re-fitted?
M1 (the standard) is similar to the RAF's Aircraft Grey Green, still contained in BS381c as # 283 under the same designation . In applied paints it can appear more olive now because the paint binder has become yellowed and darker. Tamiya offer an XF-71 Cockpit Green and assert that 'This shade of green captures the color used in the cockpit of IJN aircraft such as the Zero'. It is lighter and brighter than the olive green that many choose to paint model Zero cockpits - FS 34151 - Interior green, TT-P-1757 and ANA 611, which is not Japanese. XF-71 is similar to the extant interior paint in the H8K Emily. I once tried their enamel version in the small Pactra-like glass bottle but it proved a greasy thing that preferred to stay wet and re-join itself rather than cover the plastic with a smooth, thin, opaque film applied by brush. That ideal of brush painting was abandoned decades ago and now manufacturers can take advantage of the almost universal use of the airbrush to stint on (expensive) pigments. Golden era Humbrol or Pactra it is not and I got the impression (!) that it was slightly lighter and brighter than the acrylic version.
M1 was succeeded by 1-4 in the Feb 1945 8609 document but remained exactly similar. The Japanese Aeronautic Association Aviation Heritage Archive (JAA AHA) spectrophotometer measured L*a*b* values of the 1-4 swatch (shown below) in the 8609 Standard presents a slightly duller, deeper colour, almost certainly the result of age related degradation. It is a very slightly yellowed grey green and the original should be envisaged as just a little lighter and cooler. It can be the starting point for the cockpit colour of any IJN aircraft. JAA AHA describe it as the IJN anti-glare colour for cockpits and known as 'Pale Green'. Actually Kariki 117 has it designated as 'Hairyokushoku' (ash green colour, e.g, grey green). The late David Aiken always insisted that M1 was the exterior colour of early Zeros. It wasn't, because the Zero camouflage trials which were recorded in early 1942 in the Yoko 0266 report included one Zero (Yo-151) experimentally painted overall in M1. If all Zeros had already been M1 that would not have been necessary and the report would have described the contemporary colour of Zeros as M1 or Hairyokushoku rather than 'J3 Hai iro (ash colour) leaning slightly towards ameiro (candy or amber colour)'. David also liked to present Tamiya XF-76 as M1 based mainly on the appearance of Tamiya's online advertising imagery. It isn't and anyone who has actually applied XF-76 knows it doesn't look like that. If it did Tamiya would not need to sell XF-71. The difference between how Tamiya market the appearance of the paint colour and how it actually looks when applied is a puzzle.
The 8609 swatches sent by the Koku Fan editor Toda-san to US researchers in the 1970s resulted in the 1-4 swatch being compared then to Munsell 7.5 GY 4/2 and FS 34159, which are also shown in comparison to the other colours below. There is an extant D3A Val ammunition magazine which though variegated across its surfaces, shows the variations of the grey green, including a brighter, paler green. As with many such relics it is difficult to identify the original paint surface from the degraded paint surfaces. A similar grey green colour is associated with Aichi Jake interiors. And not to forget that paint inside a model cockpit, especially in the smaller scales, will look darker, even with the canopy modelled open.
Make of it what you will! ;-)
Image credit: All © 2024 Aviation of Japan