I’ve received as a christmas present a Hasegawa 1/72 A6M5 Zero Type 52… but in the instruction sheet, like the DML kits, only uses Gunze Sangyo colors, as I use Model Master enamels (I only can get Model Master and Humbrol enamels in my country), I want to know which colors must I use for my Zeke… another question, I’ve seen that this plane haves a brown propeller… which kind of brown is it?.. for the engine cowling, which color must I use?, the instruction sheet says something like “cowling color”… what about landing gear wells an doors?.. which is this metallic blue/green?.. and finally, the instruction sheet says that I must paint the landing gear legs black, is that correct?..
For the Humbroll paint numbers, I can help ; I’ve got one of those reference tables that convert the numbers to Humbroll.
Late model Zekes were painted IJN Green over IJN Grey or Bare Metal, depending on the prototype. Both colors are available from ModelMaster. The cowls were painted Blue/Black. MM doesn’t offer this color, but just mix Dark Sea Blue with Black about 2:1. The props were a reddish brown, actually a Japanese primer color. Italian Dark Brown is a pretty good match in MM, although I use Floquil Box Car Red, a model railroad color. It’s not exact, but the MM Japaneses Interior Metallic Blue is close for wheel bays. Landing gears were painted black on many Japaneses AC.
Regards, Rick
Iif you want a Mitsubishi-built A6M5, the upper surface is closest to FS 24052, or Model Master Acryl Marine Corps Green. The inside would be Polly Scale IJA Green, for Mitsubishi Zeroes. The cowling color the guys gave you is dead on (or as dead on as this gets, because Japanese colors are the source of endless argument and discussion). The “clear blue” is called “Aotake.” It can be duplicated best thusly: 50% MM Dark Green Pearl, 30% MM OD, 20% Testors Teal, all of these in acrylic. This mixture should be thinned out and applied over an undercoat of aluminum. But if you aren’t doing this for a museum, or a model show, just mix about 30 percent clear blue acrylic to about 60 percent clear green acrylic and spray it over aluminum.
Nakajima Zeroes had a whole different set of colors and mixtures, which I will not burden anyone with right now.
Because of a current outside project I’m involved in, I have a real live expert babysitting me, and he gets his information not only from contemporary Japanese factory documents and tech orders, but actual pieces salvaged from Pacific Islands. I’m going insane trying to unlearn everything I’ve been taught about Japanese a/c colors. I use Tamiya Hull Red (which is reddish brown) on the back of my props and spinners where appropriate, but it’s really no different from what Rick recommended. And at least that part’s correct, and I don’t have to learn something new.
If you really want to do it right, get the dry transfers of the stripes and all the stenciling from Hobbydecal. You will never see a better Zero than one built using this sheet (and my man Ryan Toews, the color expert, designed it, and knowing how insane he’s gone researching this stuff, I know it’s dead on.)
But my mantra is, if heavy researching is not personally fun for you, and takes the joy out of modeling, then make your model the closest color that satisfies you and you alone, and let the real fanatics fight out the details of this or that shade of green. But if you get into a jam on color, always go to www.j-aircraft.com. That is the last word on Japanese WW II aviation research, especially colors and markings.
Tom
Zero, try this link.
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/colorcharts.asp
It will give you all the info you need to cross reference the Gunze colour codes to most other painr manufacturers.
Best of luck.
Karl