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Looking for help with Nakajima A6M2-N Rufe colours


rs2man

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I don't normally build in 1/48 , neither do I build Japanese aircraft , but I would up buying the Tamiya A6M2-N Rufe floatplane from Hannants the other week , since the look of it really appeals to me & at less than a tenner it would have been rude not to .  However , I know pretty much nothing about Japanese aircraft colours , so I'm looking for a little advice .  I intend to finish it in the overall light grey scheme which , if I understand correctly , is now thought to be a sort of pale caramel colour .  Any suggestions on suitable paint for that , preferably Humbrol ?  Also , does anyone have any advice on interior colours ?

 

Any assistance would be much appreciated .

 

John Green

Nantwich , Cheshire

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Hi John,

 

The whole "light grey" thing is a bit of a misnomer I think.

 

The colour data Nick Millman provided me to revise ACJ17 for typical Nakajima paint arrived at something like this:

ACJ17_18bd9334-e82b-4561-98ca-07c066d5c0

 

It does look quite intense rendered in RGB against a pure white backdrop, but it all comes together a bit better on a model, as seen on Stew Dapple's Nakajima B5N2 'Kate' here:

DSCN4447.jpg

 

DSCN4444.jpg

 

You should spend some time on Nick Millman's Aviation of Japan blog site though, where is extensive knowledge and, perhaps most importantly, his more scientific method and clearly structured thoughts based upon facts and any deductions on his part clearly identified as such (as opposed to some "experts" who just make stuff up and present it as gospel). Where he can, and in his PDFs on painting A6Ms in particular he also maps out the typical weathering process for the relevant paints so one can see how they change as they deteriorated.

 

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The colour you want is Colourcoats ACJ17  Nakajima Amber Grey (Ameiro).

Visible interiors Colourcoats ACJ04 Buff Green, but cockpit interiors varied.

 

Eyeballing these two, I'd suggest Hemp and Light Slate Grey as close-ish equivalents but that has no strict justification, and Hemp does vary in darkness from different model paint manufacturers - you want a lighter one.

 

The best source of information is Nick Millman's booklet Scale Aircraft Modelling Combat Colours 9: The Mitsubishi Zero.  Very strongly recommended, but it (wisely) does not advise you on which model paint to use.  Nick has however advised Jamie of Colourcoats and several of the range have been adjusted to match Nick's findings.

 

I see Jamie has just got in ahead of me, fortunately with the same advice.  I'd just add that light grey came into use to describe this (or more strictly these) colours because they do weather to a neutral or slightly bluish light grey in service, so this colour was commonly seen by Allied personnel advancing through the Pacific Islands, and captured on colour film.

 

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13 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

Eyeballing these two, I'd suggest Hemp and Light Slate Grey as close-ish equivalents but that has no strict justification, and Hemp does vary in darkness from different model paint manufacturers - you want a lighter one.

Somewhere in his writings Nick did mention Humbrol Hemp as an acceptable rpt acceptable out-of-the-tin paint for Ameiro.  Think that advice may predate the tweaks to the Colourcoats range, so the latter are now almost certainly more accurate.

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I have nothing to add to the excellent comments on exterior color, except to enthusiastically reinforce that venturing over to Mr. Millman’s “Aviation of Japan” blog is time well spent. The background color of the blog’s main page is the color you seek!

 

In addition to the new book mentioned above, there is a PDF publication offered through the blog called “Painting the Early Zero-Sen” that is wonderful. It has a thorough analysis of all paints used on the actual aircraft, and an entertaining history of how the elusive exterior gray has been interpreted and matched by model paint manufacturers over the years.

 

This is a little off-the-wall, but I’ve recently become a big fan of the fantastic detailed instrument panels made by Yahu. They don’t make a 1/48 one for the “Rufe” per se, but they do make two variations for the very similar A6M2—one in the color that Mitsubishi used, and the other for Nakajima-built machines. All A6M2-N’s were built by Nakajima, so you could do worse for your cockpit than to buy this panel and match that particular pale green for the rest of the cockpit.

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I'm using Colourcoats ACJ03 Nakajima Navy Green, but that's not relevant to an early Rufe - though you may of course change your mind which one you want.  

 

The one point I'd raise is the colour of the cowling.  Is it suitable to use ACJ08 Mitsubishi cowl Blue Black on a Nakajima-built aircraft?  Or should it be something else, perhaps a straight black?

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Hello John,

 

I recently completed a Rufe for the just finished GB here on BM.

I mainly used colourcoats for the build and the build log can be found here:

here are are a couple of end photos using the ACJ17:

 

2018-01-15_040.jpg

 

2018-01-15_044.jpg

 

2018-01-15_047.jpg

 

I can also highly recommend Nicks work on colours and the PDF is an invaluable tool. I checked the build log and I used MM Matt black for the cowling. Feel free to drop me a line if you wish to know more.

 

 

Regards,

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