Any recipes for Aotake blue?

[David M]

I am working on a "what if" monocoque café racer based around a Honda engine and would like to do the "interior" bits - the electrics and battery bays that are exposed when the seat is raised - in Aotake blue as used on Japanese a/c during WWII.

I believe it was a semi-transparent finish over bare metal and am thinking SMS Clear Blue over foil...but does anyone have a better recipe?

TIA

David M

[Vanroon]

I have had success with acrylic art inks over flat aluminium base. 

No pics at the minute, but it turns out well. 

Grant

[Don McIntyre]

In the past I've used aluminum as an undercoat, then applied a layer of Tamiya Transparent Blue. May not be the exact shade, but it has the effect of Aotake, I think.

[David M]

Thanks Don, thanks Grant.

I will try both and the SMS lacquer just for fun and see what happens.

David

[72modeler]

David,

 

I have had pretty good results using Testors Gloss Enamels, the ones in the small 1/4 ounce bottles; using sapphire #1539 for the bluish aotake and jade green #2530 for the greenish aotake- these are metallic paints that are used by car modelers. Add a few drops of either color into the clear flat of your choice to make a translucent mixture. Spray a flat aluminum basecoat onto whatever parts and/or surfaces that will receive the primer, and then begin spraying over that with either the blue or  green mixture. The advantage of using this method is that every pass with the airbrush makes the aotake a little darker, so you can duplicate the shade or coverage you desire, as there was a lot of variation in how the aotake was applied, with some panels being very dark and others very light. The use of clear also makes washes or weathering much easier. I have had pretty realistic results with this method- it might take a little adjusting of how much of the metallic paint to add to the clear to get good coverage over the flat aluminum, but it is pretty easy, and the real primers were not uniform in either their formula or application, so  this technique gives very good results. I hope this helps- a lot cheaper than buying pre-mixed aotake paints that are pretty expensive and really don't look very good, at least in my limited experience.

Mike

[Mike]

There are a few pots of Aotake, one by WEM, which having seen some on a real Zero seems to be a good match. It's one of the few enamels I still have left for when I get round to any Zeroes 

[dalea]

Tamiya varnish + transparent blue over aluminium certainly works. However, at the moment I'm experimenting with Mr. Hobby H63 Metallic Blue-Green.

[neilh]

another vote for Tamiya or Gunze clear blue over aluminium ( in my case Alclad). Allows you to vary the depth of the blue.  I have also added a tiny touch of transparent green in the past which deepens the colour.

[David M]

Thanks Mike, thanks Mike, thanks Dale, thanks Neil,

All good advice. I like the idea of a touch of green in the mix as all the clear blues in my (limited) stock are a bit pure for the look I have in mind. Won't need much, just enough to very slightly muddy the waters.

Painting is definitely not my forte so I also like the idea of thinning it with untinted clear and then building it up like painters do with watercolours...gives me some wriggle room and will (hopefully) stop me from stuffing it up in my usual manner.

It actually terrifies me so, for once, I will do some test pieces before attacking the model proper.

Again, many thanks.

David

[Guest]

I have seen a few Japanese warbirds, basically a Jack, Judy, and Zero, the Aotake used on all much more green than blue. Is this a misinterpretation or could it be that the Aotake blue the correct color. Any ideas or info on this? I got quite a few Japanese aircraft kits and would like to get this sorted before painting.

Cheers

[Garry c]

Nick Milman's article on Aotake is an excellent resource.

 

http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2010/02/aotake-part-one.html

 

Blue? Green? both are correct.

 

Garry c

[Guest]

Thanks Garry, the Japanese color thing is quite the conundrum, even tougher than the Luftwaffe color conundrum. Maybe I will just spray all my Japanese IJN green with IJN grey undersides!

Cheers

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

On ‎18‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 10:34 PM, Mike said:

There are a few pots of Aotake, one by WEM, which having seen some on a real Zero seems to be a good match. It's one of the few enamels I still have left for when I get round to any Zeroes 

 

Actually we discontinued that one Mike  It was one of the Japanese range that got the Nick Millman "thumbs down" a year or two back. It seems to have been based on museum pieces, but those themselves had been subject to post-war repaints to preserve them, albeit in mint-green metallic paint.

 

I did get colour values more representative of Aotake, which we're using to make a clear lacquer type coating to go over an aluminium base rather than a coloured metallic.

 

I think the best way to make a good Aotake right now is by using Tamiya clear blue with a dash of clear green in it. The Tamiya green is very much stronger staining than the blue (i.e. if you mix them 50/50, you just get green) so just a touch of the green is needed.

[azureglo]

http://www.euro-maquette.eu/gunze-sangyo-vert-bleu-aotake-h63-pot-10ml.html

 

or 

 

http://www.hsc-modell.ospan.de/product_info.php?products_id=2378

 

As used by Japanese modellers for building Japanese planes...

 

Available from emodels in the UK among others.

 

or the Limey take on from the Big H

 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X355

 

Enamel, acrylic or lacquer and no voodoo paint mix required, mind you they're probably all wrong because someone who once saw a Japanese cockpit remembers that it looked exactly like his mothers dead cat's eyes catching sunlight and has cross referenced with multiple color charts, talked to many dead Japanese pilots via a medium and looked at two thousand black and white photos which prove his point...

 

 

 

[dogsbody]

Many years ago, I read somewhere about a mix of Tamiya Clear Blue and Clear Green, about a 50-50 mix, painted over whatever shiny metallic colour you have. I tried the mix over an old Testor's silver and it looked quite nice, at least to me. Sorry, no pics. The model didn't survive a basement renovation in the mid 90's.

 

 

Chris