Just putting the finishing touches on my Tamiya 1/48 scale Zero and i noticed the instructions call for blue on the starboard wingtip light. Is this correct? I have always used green on the right and red on the left so not sure if it’s a misprint or if the Japanese used this combo instead of the standard set up. This is the first IJN aircraft i’ve built and haven’t been able to locate anything to confirm this. Appreciate any input!
Howdy Mike,
With looking through reference material especially Japanese a/c, I would say it would be safe to say use green or a shade of green…
Don’t qoute me on this but I remember reading somewheres that through out the world, it was a standard practice that the wingtip navigation lights were red and green or a shade of those two colours.
Not sure if that went along the same lines during WWII but from what I can see, green is the way… I just thought of something, if the navigation lights were off, maybe the green would look a bit more of a blue colour when not on…
Just saying…
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way
Welll, shoot. Checked my photos of the CAF Zero and have photos of just about everything but the wingtips! The upper outerwing identification lights are white, for what that’s worth.
Looking through the generally-reliable Aircraft Anatomy of World War II, it shows the standard red and green for the wingtip lights as used by the rest of the world, so you should be OK.
The CAF Zero’s light is definately green.
http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/Midland2007/Highlights/ZeroMidland07.jpg
IIRC, the few actual Japanese starboard lenses I’ve seen had a kind of bluish-green tint to them when the light was off… Frankly, I’d just paint it steel and then hit it with a green Sharpie…
The wingtip lenses on the Zero are actually a deep green that appears blue. When a yellow-cast incandescent bulb shines through it, you get a green light, which is the standard for a position light on the right side of the airplane. The modern nav-light lenses you get also appear blue until you turn on the light behind them.
Looks green to me in the link…
I would have to concure with Hans, it looks green to me. With all the a/c that I have been around especially military, the lense on the starboard side appears green to darkish green shade.
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way
Back when I lived in the SF BA I used to watch Japanese TV on Sundays.
In one of the shows that said that in Japan there is no word for Green and they call it Blue so a street light would be called red, yellow and blue.
Probably why it’s called out as such.
Now that rings a bell…
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way