Empire of the Rising Sun Group Build

[LyleW]

Thanks, John.

Okay everyone, it is quiz time. sharpen your pencils.

The destructions call for clear blue-green for the interior. I've also seen information that only the landing gear bays were that color and the cockpit, etc were the IJN cockpit green. WHAT SAY YE?

[LyleW]

I found this with a Google search. Not mine.

taken from another website:

In Japan, the interiors of aircraft outside of the cockpit were painted with a translucent phenolic resin lacquer called aotake, meaning 'blue' or 'young' bamboo. At that time 'ao' could also mean 'green'. Today the word for green is 'midori'. The reason for this coating was to protect against moisture. Phenolic resin is very good for this if it can be protected from sunlight. Aotake was dyed with either a blue or green pigment so the painters could see that they achieved coverage of the metal. Before the airframe was assembled, structural parts like ribs, stringers, and formers were painted or dipped in aotake. Sometimes the coating was so thick that it appeared to be a deep, dark, opaque blue color. The sheet metal for the aircraft skin was also sprayed on the inside surfaces before being rivetted. This lead to interiors with darker or lighter shades of aotake on the skin and structure.

Japanese Naval authorities were primarily interested in corrosion protection so aotake is found in all of their aircraft up until the last years of the war. Then, production priorities led them to cut corners and aotake is not found on all interior parts, especially the skin metal. This is seen on photos of the inside of the fuselage of the Zero at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. For external protection they applied a red primer, probalbly containing zinc chromate and iron oxide. Again this began to disappear at the end of the war. The Zero at the Imperial War Museum in London shows this. You can duplicate aotake by painting the structure of the aircraft with a silver coat. I like to use Alclad II 'White Aluminum'. Then you can apply aotake made by mixing either Tamiya or Alclad II translucent green, blue and smoke to get the shade you desire. The smoke is necessary to tone down the blue and especially the green as they are very bright.

Japanese cockpits are primarily a medium green color called bamboo green. I have matched the cockpit colors of early Zeros to FS 34095 Medium Field Green. Some Betty bombers and Nakajima-built Zeros from the mid-war years had cockpits in a gray-green color very similar to RAF Interior Grey-green. Tamiya makes this color as XF 71.

Army aircraft were not nearly so well protected against corrosion, so aotake and red primer aren't seen on them often. The Oscar that was refurbished in New Zealand did have an aotake cockpit so it is not unheard of, but the later model Oscar at the EAA Museum in Wisconsin has a bamboo green cockpit. So bamboo green as noted above is a safe choice for most Army planes aside from the Sally bomber (dark blue gray) and some Tony fighters with cockpits in a gray-yellow color like the Panzer yellow found on German armored vehicles. Another place to find info on Japanese paints is www.j-aircraft.com.

Here's another interpretation from a different website:

Japanese cockpit and wheelwell colorsAccumulated via various modeling forums and www.j-aircraft.com

There seems to be no set-in-stone rules for what was used when, so check references for specific aircraft if at all possible.

Wheelwells were usually painted Aotaki (metalic greenish-blue) early in the war, but aircraft built later in the war often sported natural metal wheelwells. One notable exception to this is the Ki-61; its wheelwells & inside of doors were the painted with the same Tan as its cockpit color.

Seatbelt color was often Olive Drab similar to FS 34087. Seats were often left natural metal.

Approximate cockpit colors by manufacturer:

Aichi - Green similar to US Interior Green.

Kawasaki - single-engined planes: Tan similar to Italian Sand.
Kawasaki - twin-engined planes: Blueish-Gray similar to USN Intermediate Blue.

Kawanishi - Green similar to US Interior Green, but slightly darker shade.

Kugisho - Green similar to US Interior Green.

Kyushu - Green similar to RAF Interior Green.

Mitsubishi - Green similar to RAF Dark Slate Gray.

Nakajima - Green similar to RAF Interior Green, but slightly yellower shade.

Tachikawa - ?

Yokosuka - ?

and yet another cockpit painting guide for Mitsubishi aircraft from somewhere else - convert the colours to whatever paints you use with your colour chart:

Basecoated in 50:50 XF-2 Flat White and XF-71 Cockpit Green; postshaded with 50:50 XF-2 and XF-14 IJA Grey, then straight XF-71, and finally some 50:50 XF-57 Buff and Gunze Sangyo H66 RLM79 Sandy Brown. All "filtered" with Sin Industries P244 Green for Light Green. Details picked out with Vallejo acrylics. Overall colour may not be a good representation of the Mitsubishi interior green. Most likely should have plumbed for something darker. FS24098 has been kindly suggested.
I

[Stikpusher]

Yup, from what I’ve read over the years, the cockpit colors were somewhat manufacturer specific. Each company seems to have had their own preferred color for cockpits, as Lyle posted above. Then for the rest of the airframe interior it would be the translucent green or blue finish over the metal. Much like on US aircraft the cockpit would be one color, while the other interior areas were usually tinted zinc chromate, or in the case of Vought aircraft, salmon.
Have fun with this!

[BlackSheep214]

Great choice, Lyle! I picked up a bottle of Vallejo Liquid Mask at HobbyTown couple weeks back and used it on my Zeke. Goes on sea green but clear when dried. It does leave a bit of tackiness once it was clear. I’ll see how it looks after the final clearcoat is on before removing the masks.

Now for the interior color… I used AK Interactive Mitsubishi Interior Green on the Zeke/Zero; Model Master Metallic Interior Blue I used on landing strut doors and wheel wells. You are correct… another name for the metallic interior color is Aotaki Blue Green. AK Interactive Real Color has that color. I have enough for a few more WW2 Japanese aircraft subjects since this is my first ever Zero kit I’ve done in all my years building model kits.

[LyleW]

I’m going to try the home brew of clear blue, clear green and the smoke. We shall see!

[BlackSheep214]

Blue and green makes yellow.... just saying.

[BlackSheep214]

Try clear blue over aluminum basecoat. It "might" be close enough.

Or mix clear green with aluminum then a mist coat of clear blue on top. Of the other way around. Experiment with it.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/ind ... take-blue/

[tempestjohnny]

Years ago I found a Tamiya conversion chart for Japanese colors

Mitsubishi interior green xf-67 is very close
Aotake x25 8 parts, x24 8 parts, xf16 3 parts, x26 1 part

[keavdog]

Blue and green makes yellow.... just saying.

[Stikpusher]

Blue and green makes yellow.... just saying.

No, it makes Blue Green. Yellow is a primary color and cannot be made from a mix. Blue with Yellow makes Green. Adding more of one or the other alters the shade of green.