I just got Hasegawa’s 1:72 Shinden kit and have most of the colors sorted out thanks to some of the guys here, but I still have a few questions on the interior colors and the prop.
The instructions call for Gunze “Interior green” for the cockpit. The online paint guides I was referred to made it look like Tamiya’s “Dark Yellow” would be a little lighter but similar, but I was wondering if Chromate yellow would be closer.
The other interior issue had to do with the landing gear bays. The instructions indicate the same color as the aircraft’s undersinde, which seemed odd to me. Would an experimental Japanese aircraft from that time really have that, or would it be the same interior color?
Finally, I was wondering about the color for the prop. What the heck is the Gunze “Propeller color” ( black box, white #131 )? The paint guides made it look like black, which I was planning on using.
I’d forego that “Chromate Yellow”… Interior Green or perhaps Bronze Green is a closer match, but that’s a SWAG… “Dark Yellow” from Tamiya is fine for Panzers, but not aircraft interiors…
“Propeller Color” is that Japanese Brown Primer , IIRC, same for the spinner n most Japanese aircraft… As for the wheel wells, I’d also SWAG them to be interior green as well…
Here’s some of the more decent pics I have, and they show the gear doors as a lighter color, whether that’s grey, silver, or light green, I can’t tell, but I’d guess it’s about the same as the undersides…
Von Hammer’s advice is solid. The prop colour is a slightly reddish brown- a little less reddish than what I’d call a rusty brown.
I can’t speak for any certainly about the Shinden, and I’m not sure there is anything for sure when it comes to Japanese a/c but many planes from around the end of the war the landing gear bays and doors weren’t painted at all. So they’d appear in plain natural metal aluminum. Some a/c the undersides weren’t painted either so they could be either aluminum or light grey. Hammer’s photos look light grey to me here though.
As to the cockpit I’ll have to look that up. Mitsubishi interior looks kinda like green zinc chromate to me and Nakajima interior something like RAF grey-green. Kawasaki used a tan colour. There wasn’t as far as I know any specific interior colour applied to all Japanese a/c. So, sorry I’ll have to get back to you on that.
Thanks for the tips, guys. The pics also help. Though plenty were available online, it didn’t occur to me until I was looking at these to see if the interior of the bay doors looked the same as the exterior. Even in b&w, either chromate would be a different shade, and these pice seem to show it as being the same ( though I guess a dull metallic would look similar as well ).
As for that prop color, the first description mentioned brown and the othwer mentioned reddish brown. I still haven’t found much in the way of color pics, and suspect the subtleties of the shade might not show up on film very well, so I’m considering 2 options. One is to use the basic Testors enamel color called “Rubber” ( which would seem to fit the almost-black brown description ), and the other is a mix of Tamiya’s “Hull Red” with some black ( to add the reddish aspect of the second description).
Any opinions on which approach would be a better match?
I understand this is not the a/c that you are asking about, but it shows how the Air Force Museum has treated a late war Japanese fighter, as far as prop and wheel well.
I’d go with the XF-64 Red Brown… The Testor’s Rubber is a very dark brown, and matches the color of new rubber quite well, but is nowhere near the brown primer color you wnat…
Kugai: yes ditto to Dogsbody and von Hammer on the Tamiya XF-64. Model Master acrylic ‘Leather’ is close but lighter if you want a scale or faded look. The prop shade is pretty close to the earth brown used by the RAF in the early war brown and dark green camo.
I pulled out Robert C. Mikesh’s ‘Japanese Aircraft Interiors’ last night and found several photos of the Shinden in the Smithsonian Museum. The aircraft is in unrestored condition and somewhat rough. The interior paint is badly faded but since some restorations aren’t painted in the original colours it’s not all bad.
The interior colour looks blue-green to me. Maybe about half way between both or a green with a very strong blue tint to it. It doesn’t really look anything like Mitsubishi or Nakajima or any other Japanese interior paint to me. Mikesh suggests US Federal Standard FS34082 but with slightly less yellow. I searched my paint drawer and the closest thing I could find was Model Master Enamel 2135 Soviet Interior Blue Green was very close to the faded paint colour. MM acylic FS05246 RAAF Foliage Green K3/178 or K3/173 (printing smudged and couldn’t tell which) was somewhat close to the non-faded areas but greener and darker.
Sorry I couldn’t hit it any closer but I couldn’t find anything that was an exact match.
Frankly, there isn’t anywhere near as much known about Japanese aircraft as American, British, German, etc so I wouldn’t worry myself to death over it. Just take your best guess and run with it.
Thanks for all the help, guys! With all this and assuming nothing major comes up, I should have the kit done around New Year’s ( working on it while other projects are drying, etc. ). Though it might seem silly to worry so much about accurate colors for a project I’m pretty much doing straight from the box, I figure the least I can do is try for a decent result with the basics.
BTW, kanabria: The Yukikaze avatar is a great touch!
Thanks, not many people recognize it. If you want to read the original story, Haikasoru has printed an english translation of the original book by Chohei Kambayashi.
Thanks for the tip on the sequel! I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for it. I got the translation you mentioned earlier this year, and have had the anime for a few years.
I also have most of the Bandai EX kits waiting to be built. Maybe the sequels you mentioned will be adapted to anime form as well and inspire Bandai and the makers of the resin kits to do some re-releases.
