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A6M2-N Rufe


leyreynolds

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This was in the old Profile: it was copied around for a while but has never been seen since as a genuine colour scheme, and is believed to have been based on wrecks in the Aleutians that have worn down to their reddish primer.

Edited by Graham Boak
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It's a lovely story but I venture to suggest a hopefully more helpful plotting of this suspected myth in my blog article of 5 January 2015, which is perhaps what should have been linked had people been paying proper attention to the subject! ;-)

 

Humbrol's authentic N9 Japanese Mauve (which incidentally is almost a perfect match for the wartime RAF's PRU Mauve colour) had its origin in the 1964 IPMS USA Colour Guide for Japanese Aircraft 1941-45 which was described in another article at the blog on 30 June 2010. This colour, also designated N9, was reportedly based on written descriptions in Koku-Fan magazine and other Japanese sources referring to it as 'Wisteria'. Was it real? Probably not and more likely just the fleeting visual effect of a very heavily oxidised and worn amber-grey topcoat over the red oxide primer colour. The factory painted amber grey of Rufe was almost towards a light tan or yellowish khaki but the paint surface chalked and degraded to a light blueish-grey appearance. The A6M2 BII-124 s/n 5349 exhibited the same slightly purple/mauve appearance as it sat derelict on Melville Island in the 1970's. 

 

I'm not sure of the date of the P Endsleigh Castle ARAes 5-view painting in Profile 129 but it was broadly similar to the IPMS N9 colour which I suspect had preceded it. However Rufe had already been illustrated in a fetching blueish-grey, slightly mauve looking colour in John Stroud's book 'Japanese Aircraft' published by Harborough in 1945. That colour was more towards a lilac appearance than N9, indeed more towards 'Wisteria' and that might have been the origin of the Koku Fan description as it is surprising how often in matters of aircraft colour Western coals have been carried to a Japanese Newcastle. An Aichi 'Jake' was illustrated in the same colour in the Stroud book. The colour is suspiciously similar to a French navy colour for floatplanes, which I believe was called Gris Hydravion, the French operating both Japanese types briefly in Indo-China post war . . .  The idea of Japanese aircraft in purple and mauve colours had also come up in various wartime secondary intelligence reports, e.g. describing what someone else reported that they had seen. 

 

The "myth" has longevity. The 2006 'Aleutian Islands' release of the Hasegawa 1/48th scale A6M2-N suggested a colour scheme of 90% IJN Grey and 10% Purple for Rufe '01-105' of the Toko Ku as featured on the box art. The 2011 'Combo' release of their 1/72nd scale kit in the same markings repeated this suggestion and the box art depicted a definite light mauve colour (rather than purple) somewhat similar to the Stroud depiction.

 

Methuen describes Mauve as the colour of an organic dye produced by Perkin in 1868, of a pale purple hue and considerably more blueish than Mallow (Purple), as named after the Mallow plant (Lavatera arborea) a herbaceous plant of the Hibiscus family. Methuen put Mauve at 15 B 5 and Purple at 15 A 8 but acknowledge that the latter name covers a range of strong colours between purplish red and reddish violet. Violet is considered to be in a range of strong colours in transition between red and blue, pinned at 17 A 8 but covering 17 A-C 6-8. Wisteria is typically a pale shade of Lavender Blue which Methuen place at 18 B 3. Anyone viewing those colours in reference to a Purple Rufe or searching under the generic colour names online is likely to be misled by their brightness and strong saturation. Humbrol's Mauve is a subtle, duller and more greyish colour than its closest FS595 comparison of 27160 for example, and a little paler than RAL 4011 Perlviolett which is inconveniently pearlescent. Unfortunately it is no longer in the Humbrol range but can be mixed from the ratio 7 x 94 Matt Brown Yellow, 7 x 34 Matt White, 6 x 25 Matt Blue and 3 x 60 Matt Scarlet. I haven't tried it . . . 

 

There is no such precise colour in the Japanese Navy's wartime paint colour standards although E3, ao iro (blue), and G1 sumire iro (violet colour) might be considered as tenuous contenders, E3 being somewhat similar to the Stroud depictions. 

 

To replicate the weathering effect on a model would be challenging but might make an interesting  change from all those "peeling paint Zero" enthusiasts who disregard the fact that the aircraft had an efficient red-oxide primer coat under their grey or green topcoats. Also, to replicate the depictions in Stroud or the Profile is IMHO a perfectly legitimate creative modelling exercise to observe a cultural theme, the model then becoming a three-dimensional representation of those historic depictions rather than of an actual aircraft, art representing art. 

 

Nick 

 

PS I feel pretty confident in suggesting that Don McIntyre has probably never seen every Rufe in real life during the period 1941-1945 . . . 

 

 

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I find it odd to suggest making a model and painting it incorrectly, not through ignorance or just because you like the colour, but specifically because people have painted models (and profiles) incorrectly in the same manner in the past.  This opens the door to perpetuation of every error ever made.  I'm aware that we have been described as living in a post-factual world, but to that extent?

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Only if you think that all modellers have a God-given duty to produce strictly historically accurate replicas. At the expense, presumably, of personal inclination, free will, or indeed fun.

 

Merry Christmas,

J.

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1 hour ago, Nick Millman said:

 

 

Humbrol's authentic N9 Japanese Mauve (which incidentally is almost a perfect match for the wartime RAF's PRU Mauve colour)

 

 

 

Nick, is there anything else available today a decent match for RAF PRU Mauve ?

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I have a tin of mauve that it was available in the Xtracolor range a while back. It has only been an enamel and I am not sure it is still around It is numbered X35. Judging by the state of the tin it was awhile ago I bought it.

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4 hours ago, PLC1966 said:

 

Nick, is there anything else available today a decent match for RAF PRU Mauve ?

 

From My blog:

Quote

I used a digital color swatch from Nick Millman that was with other colors to eyeball the PRU Mauve, starting with a homemade recipe for PRU Pink (pot of Hu34 with 2 drops Hu60 and 4 drops Hu40); and adding PRU Blue (Hu230) in a ratio of 6 ml Pink to 2 ml blue to 0.5 ml Red (Hu60). All very easy if using standard pots; I just took half of the PRU Pink I'd mixed and transferred it to a mixing jar, then added 2 ml of PRU Blue and 0.5 ml of Hu60 Red.

 

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11 hours ago, leyreynolds said:

Thanks for all the info'. I gather from the above that the Aleutian Rufes would all have been the standard grey?

 

Depends what you mean by "the standard grey". The Nakajima factory paint on Rufe was almost towards a light tan or yellowish khaki - like Colourcoats ACJ17 Nakajima Amber Grey-Green (Ameiro). With exposure and in service the paint chalked towards a more greyish and matt appearance.

 

Whether there were non-standard finishes on Rufe or the "mauve" appearance was simply the result of weathering has not been confirmed. People seem to be less taxed by depictions of "new" weathered Rufes than by the "purple" Rufe myth which makes notions of what is "incorrect" highly selective.  

 

Nick

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