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Ki-43 colours


rossm

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Having just picked up a Hasegawa Ki-43-II from our local discount emporium for under a fiver I'm looking for out of the ordinary schemes and am attracted to the PrintScale sheet 72171, specifically the Communist training school example. I haven't found any reference photos online but the instructions show a Ki-43-II of unspecified sub-variant so it's a possible match for the kit.

 

Not having done anything Japanese for years I was stuck on the Aotake everywhere theory for the interior but I found http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/41437-japanese-intreior-colours/#comment-438508 and specifically this quote from Nick Millman " Some attached components inside the cockpit are a stronger olive green, like FS 34151, which is another interior colour also cited by Mikesh and approximating Army colour # 29 ki-midori iro (yellow -green colour) known to have been used in Ki-43 cockpits and more typical of mid-war Army cockpits generally. "

 

Now in my venerable David H Klaus IPMS Colour Cross reference FS34151 is US Interior green. Would this be a reasonable stab for my subject choice? What about the wheel wells?

Edited by rossm
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I'm on dangerous ground, but my impression is that greens used on IJA aircraft cockpits would be more olive than the USAAF Interior Green is. Maybe splitting hairs, but I would not use a very dark color, nor a grey-green like on RAF or Luftwaffe aircraft. 

 

For the few Japanese aircraft I've done in the last 2 years I've used Tamiya's Cockpit Green (XF-71) for cockpit areas, and either exterior or Aotake colors for the other areas, depending on the subject. 

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I don't think JAAF color details get much better than those provided by Mr Millman. I think you'd be quite safe with US Interior Green.

Edited by Don McIntyre
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6 hours ago, rossm said:

Would this be a reasonable stab for my subject choice? What about the wheel wells?

 

For Ki-43-II interiors # 29 is approximately similar to the US yellow-green colour that preceded USA Interior Green/ zinc chromate green. FS 34259 is closer. FS 34151 is darker and greener.

 

The colour is offered in hobby paint ranges as ‘Nakajima Interior Green’. Those paints are not bad, emulating Thorpe’s N6 Buff Green. The colour is somewhat between Colourcoats ACJ04 ‘Nakajima Interior Grey-Green’ and ACJ18 ‘Mitsubishi Interior Green’ and a 2-to-1 mix of those respective colours approximately matches it. Mr Color 126 ‘Cockpit Colour (Mitsubishi) and 127 ‘Cockpit Color (Nakajima)” are similar to the Colourcoats paints and can be mixed in the same way. Revell 362 ‘Greyish Green’ needs the addition of some yellow. Humbrol 120 ‘Matt Light Green’ also needs the addition of a little yellow plus white to approximate it. Vallejo 978 ‘Dark Yellow’ needs the addition of green.


The best paint colour I found to match it out of the tin is the obsolete Gloy railway colour R220 ‘S.R. Light Olive Green’ which is near perfect and has the characteristic "bilious" hue. But be warned that the Gloy paint is apparently not typical of S.R. Light Olive Green in other railway paint ranges!

 

Tamiya XF-71 is more suitable for IJN cockpits such as Betty and Emily. 

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

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Thank you all for your help. In terms of what I can get easily in this neck of the woods Tamiya XF04 is quoted online as matching 34259 so seems the easiest compromise, I don't have anything similar to hand even to try the mixes Nick quotes so compromise is the order of the day.

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XF4 is a wee bit on the yellow side as it is often used for zinc chromate yellow but in a 1/72 Hayabusa cockpit with washes would probably be ok. I wouldn't be inclined to use it on the wheel wells though. There are references to those on the II being natural metal finish or aotake but eyewitnesses have also recorded "yellowish green" and "light yellowish green" on Oscar II which appears to be the same colour as the cockpit interior and from first hand experience I'd agree with that.  

 

The Oscars mainly came from 26 Kyoiku Hikotai, an air training unit in Manchuria, which surrendered to the Chinese communists at the end of the war and then stayed on to train them and provide ground support. Many of the unit personnel did not return to Japan until 1956. They also operated the single and two seat Ki-79 trainers.

 

Nick

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On 24/3/2017 at 7:06 PM, rossm said:

Having just picked up a Hasegawa Ki-43-II from our local discount emporium for under a fiver I'm looking for out of the ordinary schemes and am attracted to the PrintScale sheet 72171, specifically the Communist training school example. I haven't found any reference photos online but the instructions show a Ki-43-II of unspecified sub-variant so it's a possible match for the kit.

 

 

Helo

 

I am using the same decal sheet to make a French aircraft in Indochina. I have painted my cockpit in Xtracolor US Interior Green.

 

Patrick

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