I know this question comes up at least once every two weeks, and I never thought I’d be asking it, but can someone give me a likely cockpit color for this a/c, very early war. It’ll be painted in the gray with black cowling scheme because it is to be used to show off a whole bunch of dry transfer stenciling. The Japanese had more stuff written on their airplanes than the stalls in the Grand Central men’s room. I mean, absolutely covered with data plates, and every manner of indecipherable coding and symbols and Japanese writing imagineable. And I have to put it all on there. But first, I have to build it accurately. I have a cockpit photo from a museum and it shows the stick and floor to be a bright green, with the rest in a sort of gray-green. No sign of the metallic blue that I keep hearing was reserved for the wheel wells. Speaking of which, what color would they be? The instructions for this ancient Tamiya kit we are all familiar with tell me to paint the cockpit and wells in that accursed, elusive blue protective coating. Can you make it by spraying Tamiya clear blue over, say, non buffing Metalizer aluminum?
I’m on a deadline and I need help!
Tom
If I remember correctly the gunze color I used for the 1/32 Tamiya Zero Wheel Wells was:
H63 Metallic Blue Green
Which I think the Tamiya Instructions are asking you do mix up, tried the Tamiya mix and if look baaad, covered worse than spoke to a japanese friend that recommend the Gunze colour.
I think the colour from japanese translates as “Blue Bamboo/Aotake” or so.
Rick: A million thanks. I knew that site existed, but had no idea how to find it.
And MM, I used that Tamiya interior blue-green color on a Hasegawa 1/48 Ki-27 years ago and the results were absolutely disastrous. The paint pooled at the edges and was drew away from the center. There’s a name for that phenomenon, but I can’t remember it right now. There are also several causes, and I’m equally blank on those. Anyone know the answer to those questions?
Aotake was a tinted protective layer applied to metallic surfaces that may corrode. It was used in wheel wells, flap interiors, and fuselage interiors (cockpits were overpainted, the color depending on the manufacturer).
To represent this, I first spray the surfaces with aluminum (any brand will do). Next, I mix Gunze clear blue (you can add touches of clear green or amber also) with Future. I spray this over it in light coats. It takes a while for the color to build, but the effects are much more realistic than using a metallic paint to simulate Aotake.
I’ll edit this to include a great walkaround of an A6M2 cockpit (very similar - only a couple of instruments are different).
http://j-aircraft.com/walk/dave_pluth/blayd/blayd.htm
This example uses Aotake green, rather than blue, in some areas.
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.