Difference btween Mitsibushi and Nakajima built A6M2b

[Dave Fleming]

i.e. can you look at a picture and say 'That's a Mitsubishi aircraft, that's a Nakajima one". Have the Airfix kit, and want to do it in 'another' scheme. As I understand it, the wheel well interior colours differ depending on manufacturer

[Nick Millman]

Depends what the picture shows!

Mitsubishi - wheel wells and undercarriage covers painted in the amber-grey airframe colour. Retracting yoke on small inner doors painted gloss black.  Struts gloss black with painted aluminium torque links and wheel hub covers. Tail wheel assembly amber-grey but tail wheel well aotake, covered with black or dark green canvas cover. Tail hook - front mounting and hook gloss black, shaft aotake or amber-grey depending on contractor. 

Nakajima - wheel wells and small inner doors aotake. Retracting yoke on small inner doors painted gloss black. Main wheel doors inner sides amber-grey. Tail wheel and hook same as Mitsubishi.

Original Nakajima Zero paint colour was a slightly more tan looking variant of amber-grey (approx to FS 26160 - 20277 and often reported as tan) but in late 1942 or early 1943 the paint colour changed to become closer in appearance to the Mitsubishi colour (approx to FS 26350 per my e-guide - which is still available). 

It is reported that Nakajima applied 75mm white borders to fuselage Hinomaru very soon after the Army-Navy Central Agreement in August 1942.

When the aircraft were painted with dark green upper surfaces at the factory Mitsubishi had a level demarcation along the line of the lower fuselage with the green extending beneath the tailplanes whereas Nakajima adopted the demarcation which sloped up from behind the wing root to the tailplane leading edge.

Some allege different dark greens and slightly different cowling colours with Mitsubishi being more greyish and Nakajima "pure black" but personally I wouldn't push that. Interiors varied but typically Mitsubishi were a yellowish olive green somewhat similar to FS 34151 (which is not quite yellow enough) and Nakajima a greyish-green similar to 34097 (which is slightly too green and not grey enough).

Edited May 30, 2012 by Nick Millman

[Dave Fleming]

Thanks NIck - the one I plan on doing is this captured one:

So maybe not so easy to id the manufacturer!!

Edited May 30, 2012 by Dave Fleming

[Nick Millman]

It's Nakajima - per the sloping camo demarcation.

[Seahawk]

Thanks NIck - the one I plan on doing is this captured one:

So maybe not so easy to id the manufacturer!!

From Nick's very interesting and complete response, isn't the one in front Nakajima-built (see demarcation line)? The other one might be Mitsubishi-built but relevant area in too much shadow to do more than guess.

[Dave Fleming]

Brilliant! I had an inkling there was something like that, but google wasn't playing properly!

And I get to use the carefully preserved bottle of Aeromaster Aotake!!

Supplmentary question - would primer be visible on the weathering or would it be straight to bare metal?

From Nick's very interesting and complete response, isn't the one in front Nakajima-built (see demarcation line)? The other one might be Mitsubishi-built but relevant area in too much shadow to do more than guess.

Hadn't noticed that on first read while I went and looked for photos!

[Nick Millman]

One thing to bear in mind is that although these "rules" about the differences are much touted an old ex-IJN maintenance officer once told me that many moving parts subject to corrosion or replacement got re-painted in service and they had a number of standard protective primer paints available. Silver (aluminium) was in short supply for most of the war but they also used gloss black, a light grey primer, a blue-green primer similar to aotake but opaque and the red-oxide primer (which is quite similar to Humbrol 100). So older aircraft tended to get a lot of spot re-painting and therefore no need to sweat it!

Impact type wear tended to expose the natural metal with the red-oxide primer showing only at the edges of the scratches. I have a piece of Guadalcanal downed Betty that shows this perfectly and the darkness of the green and its lustre always takes people by surprise who are used to seeing matt verdant green models! The redness of the red-oxide surprises too. Long term weathering can break down the dark green gradually exposing the red-oxide but another factor is that exposed metal patches were often spot-painted with the red oxide and/or green and this doesn't always show up in monochrome photos. Contrary to much popular opinion the factory paint was good quality and expertly applied but there was a lot of hard wear in some environments, especially prop sandblasted coral dust!

Bottled aotake? Yuk! Aluminium followed by an approx 50/50 mix of thinned Humbrol 88 and 103 if you please! It's worth the extra effort.

[Dave Fleming]

The other one might be Mitsubishi-built but relevant area in too much shadow to do more than guess.

The other one is the one that is now a cockpit section in the IWM.

Even allowing for the Dark Earth overcoat, you can see how dark the green is underneath. The red showing round the cockpit and on the antennae mast - also appears under the green.

Edited May 30, 2012 by Dave Fleming