Defending The Territory

Sometime ago I noted the interesting opinion of one of the denizens of a well-known cyberspace supersite that the more information I post here the more worthless it becomes. This is, apparently, because it is difficult to find what you are looking for. A curious proposition which I hope won't discourage the many fine people working through dusty archives and generously sharing their findings. Interestingly about the same time was a whine about having to search here "until the cows come home" and still not finding a definitive answer, as though I should be obligated to provide one.

The blogging format is really intended for regular consumption, e.g. you visit regularly to read the latest blog or blogs (if there are any!) and take what you need for inclusion in your own filing system. For those who might have just arrived the back catalogue can be formidable to contemplate but hopefully fun and rewarding to delve into. The format here is determined by the host "Blogger" and although there are optional parameters to tailor the site there are certain fixed conventions. One of these is that comments are linked to each specific blog rather than open to posting as on forum sites. Having spent some time looking for information at a number of well known forums I do not believe it is any more difficult here - to begin with a lot less is posted (I'll leave it at that and leave you to ponder the inherent value of the very many more posts at forum sites).

On the front page here, scrolling down on the right, will be found the Archives. These may be expanded by year, by month and by blog title. It doesn't take very long to scroll through these and each blog when opened has its own web page and associated comments (where made). It is possible therefore to open multiple blogs on your desktop from a particular series (by opening them in a new page each time). OK, so some of the blog titles are a tad ambiguous and may require a quick look to see whether they are of interest - and, yes, lurking amongst the "useful" information are some of my more misanthropic rants but, hey, it is my blog. In any case the rants can be ignored in preference for the good stuff. And individual pages can be bookmarked for re-visiting. There is no search engine (although this site does respond to open web search engines whose bots are permitted to crawl over it) but having used those at some of the other forums the listed archives here are arguably more straightforward. I'm pleased to see the blog format is catching on with other modellers as it permits individual expression unintimidated by forum gangs, allows specialist focus and discourages trolls who just want to express their angst because some people know more than they do.

I have set the site up so the Archives are preserved rather than deleted after a certain period (which is also an option). So everything posted is always available. The site is free and I operate it on a voluntary basis in my spare time (such as it is) with the kind and generous support of several others. Why? Because I am passionate about the subject and I know that others are too. People who are passionate about certain themes usually don't mind spending a bit of time digging up the buried gems.

On the other hand the bone idle who want everything on a plate, who see the hobby in terms of black and white divisions or who run with modelling cliques (such as the one shown below on their way to deliver a bashing to those with a serious interest in colour that extends beyond hobby paints), who prefer dogma to exploration, and competition to collaboration, probably won't like it here. Nobody forces them to visit. If it is all too much like hard work or they are subsumed by hostility at who they think I am then my earnest recommendation to them is not to bother and to continue to paint their Zero models stupid colours.

One of the other options for this format is to make the blog membership only for those invited to have access via a username and password. After reading what I read yesterday I am sorely tempted . . .

Know What You Know

How is not often knowing incredible. 111 times? A keen operator should know, but once bitten twice shy, eh?

No answer does not necessarily mean no answer is known or that an answer is unknown. But when someone says x should know who is y to dare reply?

Notice of Update ~ RLM 02 & RLM 63 Graus

Updated the analysis of RLM 02 colour with a comparison of the Kiroff sample to measured samples of three well known RLM 02 hobby paints and to measured samples of RLM 63.

Kiroff sample RLM 02: 7.3 Y 5.0/1.2
Testors RLM 02: 8.1 Y 5.3/0.9
GSI Creos RLM 02: 7.8 Y 5.3/0.8
LifeColor RLM 02: 7.8 Y 5.2/1.5

Kiroff RLM 63: 2.8 GY 5.0/1.1
Merrick RLM 63: 6.0 GY 4.7/0.9
Monogram RLM 02: 7.6 Y 5.0/1.2

There seems to be a misperception about the appearance of RLM 63 in some discussions whereby it is presumed to be a light, neutral grey. It is rather a cool grey-green and is similar to the cool grey-green of several hobby paints which purport to be RLM 02!

Image credits: rendered colour chips from photospectrometrically measured L*a*b* values to sRGB © 2011 "Straggler"

More about JAAF # 7 Ohryoku nana go shoku 黄緑七号色 - yellow green no.7 colour

A JAAF paint colour that can still be confusing for artists and modellers is the late war olive brown # 7. Previously described as "late war brown", "Home Defence khaki", "khaki black", "deep green brown" and several other approximate descriptions, it has been depicted as everything from a strong reddish-brown to a dark, chocolate brown hue. Factory painting with this colour was ordered for all Army aircraft in June 1944 but did not begin on most factory production lines until August/September that year and in some cases later, such as for Hayate, in approximately October 1944. An advisory marking for the finish, a "cartouche" giving coded warning about the inflammability of the cellulose-benzine paint, was at first usually applied to the port rear fuselage but is not always visible in photographs and in any case was not continued as part of the factory painting. On Kawasaki aircraft this marking usually consisted of four characters 迷彩塗料 (mei sai to ryou - literally "illusion colouring paint material" meaning "camouflage paint) stenciled within a rectangular box but varied from manufacturer to manufacturer.

The official name "yellow-green" provides the clue, because it is a yellow infused olive green or olive brown exactly similar to the British khaki drab battledress of WWII. "No.7" was probably included in the description to differentiate it from another yellow-green colour # 29 (黄緑色 - ki midori iro) - a "pea green" hue used to paint interior parts and drop tanks. The variable range of the olive brown # 7 paint colour typically runs from the strong olive of 7.5 Y 3/3 to the barely olive brown of 2.5 Y 3/2. The closest FS to both extremes of this range is 33070, but this value is not quite green enough for the "olive" end of the range and not quite brown enough for the "brown" end. The closest FS comparisons to this range of colours generally lack the warm (and strong) yellowish-green chroma and the same is true of many hobby paints.

Some Japanese researchers  suggest an FS equivalent of 30118 for this paint colour, especially for Mitsubishi-built aircraft, but that does not seem typical of the colour on the whole, except possibly for a very badly faded example at the extreme "brown" end of the range. The idea probably originates from the N. Shimoune colour matching of Munsell 2.5 Y 4/2.8 for the upper surface paint of the Ki-67 and Ki-46 III. FS 30118 is similar to this Munsell value but not the closest (that is FS 33105 @ 3.61). This warm, yellowish brown hue stands out rather starkly from the general character of the olive brown colour represented by the rendered chips shown here. The same researcher suggested 7.5 Y 3/1.5 for the upper surface colour of the Tachikawa-built Ki-43-III Ko, Ki-54, Ki-74 and Ki-94, which moves in the opposite direction, towards a rather dark variation of # 7.

At the olive end of the # 7 range the green chroma appears quite strong until it is compared directly to the pure olives typical for example of JAAF paint colour # 21 green (緑色 - midori iro) which appears in several hobby paint ranges as "IJA Green" at which point the difference can be appreciated. The colour is highly metamerismic as may be seen from the juxtaposition of the olive extreme to pure brown (in this case tea brown (茶褐色 - chakasshoku) and the brown extreme to pure olive green. It is the green/brown conflation of this colour range which causes the most difficulty in visualising it, with a tendency to perceive it either as a definite green or more usually as a definite brown.

The reason for this is/was two fold. Firstly, the metamerismic qualities meant that the same colour seen against, say, a bright green grass field or tree line might look more brown to an observer, whilst when seen against, say, a dusty, sun-baked earth field it might appear more olive green. Secondly, as with the RFC PC10 of WWI the proportion of constituent precipitated ferric oxide pigment to cellulose binder affected the degree of "brown" appearance. The pigment itself was precipitated from a yellow ochre to a reddish brown hue and the manufacturing methodology at the time probably introduced an inevitable inconsistency in the final product. 

Compared to US Olive Drab the colour, though similar, is somewhat richer and more intense but in service it faded rapidly to a lighter khaki drab, representative of the somewhat unsaturated colour values of FS 34088 or Thorpe's A2. Waxed and polished the paint took on a darker, greener hue. Very dark variants, such as that found on the Kizarazu sample from Sgt Maj Yasuo Takeshi's Ki-100 begin to approach a dark greyish brown, almost towards charcoal in appearance, and which are described in Japanese as 黒褐色 (kuro kasshoku) - meaning black(ish) brown colour. 

After February 1945 the # 7 colour was subsumed within the new 8609 consolidated paint colour standard for Army and Navy aircraft as colour 1-1, (significantly part of the "Greens" section). The 1-1 colour has been matched to be about mid way between Munsell 7.5 Y 3/1 (which is towards the black(ish) brown, and 7.5 Y 4/2, but I have not been able to confirm this by a measured value. The colour equates to approximately 7.5 Y 3.5/1.6 which is close to the Tachikawa factory paint colour and our old friend FS 33070.

An important colour for Japanese aircraft artists and modellers, # 7 and 1-1 was the late-war factory paint colour for the Ki-43-III Ko, Ki-45, Ki-54, Ki-61, Ki-74, Ki-84, Ki-94, Ki-100, Ki-102, Ki-109 and Ki-67. There is more to it than simply "IJA Green", but as with most Japanese colours to understand the "character" of the paint colour and to accept its variations are a better route than agonising over an exact and precise colour. 

Image credits: All rendered colour chips © Straggler 2011

Notice of Update

Updated and corrected Useful Colours ~ Army Interiors Part One and Useful Colours ~ Army Interiors Part Two to include the Japanese characters for the colour descriptions and new/revised information.

Part Three to follow.