Japanese WW2 Aircraft paint colours

[Dave W]

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I've been inspired by Trey's recent builds of Jap fighters and especially the salt chipping he did on them.So I bought this Zero on a rare trip into town today.I havent built a Jap aircraft since my early teens,nearly 40 years ago.So i dont know anything about the paint colours used. The propeller is a brownish colour.Hasegawa rather unhelpfully say to paint it 'propeller colour!'.And i know the cockpit and wheel bays were a blue green colour.Can anyone advise me on what colours i should use please?.I prefer Humbrol or Revell enamels which i can get locally. But will use acrylics if i cant get them.I take it Tamiya acrylics can be thinned with Isopropyl alcohol? (got 2 litres of the stuff in my shed).

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[yak face]

Hi dave , i use tamiya acrylics for my jap aircraft, theyre a good match.The colours are XF 11-IJN (navy)green ,XF12 IJN grey, XF 13 IJA(army) green ,XF14 IJA grey, for the props i use Xf9 hull red ,a red brown colour ,and the cockpits were sometimes a similar colour to aircraft grey green or the Metallic blue green laquer 'Aotake'. For this i use a mixture of four parts X23 clear blue and one part X25 clear green. When applied over a silver base it gives the turquoise colour. You can use IPA to thin tamiya acrylics , the only difference to their own thinners is the IPA wont have any retarders in it so it does dry very quickly, sometimes too quick, clogging the A/B nozzle or drying before the spray hits the model ,giving a grainy finish.Hope this helps , cheers tony

[Guest]

Dave, the site in the link below is pretty useful for colours. It takes a bit of time to trawl through the pages but most questions have been asked by others and the answers are on there somewhere. I seem to have been blocked from joining the site myself, but sure you'll find it useful.

J-aircraft.com Main Page

[Dave W]

Thanks for your help Tony and Ajay.

[Guest]

Dave ca'nt wait to see your Zeke! I've been mixing testors part red with 3 parts 1133 flat brown for the props. The rest have been out of the bottle japanese colors from Model Master

[Dave W]

Thanks Trey.I used to buy and use Testors paints when i worked in Dhahran,Saudi Arabia In the 90's.I found them to be very good.Still got a few bottles left.Havent seen them in England,although i know somebody imports them.will mix the prop colour from humbrol enamels and probably go with Tonys suggestion for the other colours.

[Guest]

This is all useful info, I've got 3 IJN kits in my stash and I've never done a Japanese aircraft