OK. My brain is fried. I just searched the net for the proper exterior paint color for the 1/48 Tamiya Mitsubishi A6M-2, the version that flew off of the Akagi off of the coast of Hawaii on 12/8/41. The instructions call for XF-76 gray-green. But from what I read, that’s actually more correct for later built Nakijima Zeros. Supposedly the early Mitsubishi Zeros were more of a true grey. I cannot find any cross reference over to Testors MM for this color (XF-76). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Bob
Bob, there are some variations, and I think Tamiya has a new color out, but I shot mine w/xf-76 and then went out for pizza.
Glenn
Thanks Glenn. If anyone else has any info on the new ( and maybe more correct ) Tamiya color please let me know. And also with any luck there will be a cross reference to Testors MM enamel.
No cross ref to Testors. But the Zero man Brian Criner suggests a mix of zinc chromate, white, and sac bomber tan. I have the ratios in my book at home I can post later. This was supposedly mixed to a relic piece of zero skin. But, from what I understand, no zero’s were gray, and that the Tamiya color you quote is pretty accurate for A6M-2’s.
Thanks Nathan. Please post the ratios just in case some others may be wondering about the same thing. From all of the stuff that I read last night it sort of looks like all of the early Mitsubishi A6M-2 Zeros were indeed the same color but some of the confusion comes into play because a number of the pieces that were found seem to indicate that the color tended to fade rather quickly to some sort of light gray. Maybe that tropical Sun and salt air cause some sort of a shift. Also let me know which Zinc Chromate to use, whether it’s the yellow stuff in the little square bottle or the Green stuff in the Testors MM bottle. I do actually have all the colors mentioned so I’m willing to “Give it a go”. Later, Bob
Hello Bob, the whole early zero color issue has been somewhat of a debate for quite sometime. From what I recall from my research, poor quaility of photography at the time lead to the assumption that these were light grey or even white, however, some sheet metal from a wrecked zero surfaced, I believe at Pearl, which revealed the Ame-hiro color discovery. The Ame-hiro was named such because it resembled a popular caramel candy in Japan at the time. XF-76 is Tamiya’s answer to this color and I find it to be a perfect match for my early Japanese needs. From what I’ve read, the Ame-hiro was the same or similar on both Nakajima and Mitsubishi built A6M2 planes. In case your curious to see how XF-76 looks, here’s Sakai’s zero I built last year, which I believe was a Mitsubishi made machine.
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/148424.aspx
Hope this helps,
Joe
Thanks Joe. I followed the link. Your Zero is top notch. Since I don’t have easy access to the Tamiya paint I will wait to hear back from Nate about the mix that he mentioned. I have all of those colors in Testors enamel. There are two other things that I want to experiment with on this plane. As far as the black cowl is concerned, I’ve read a lot about the slight bluish tint, so I will try what one guy did. He mixed some of the FS 35042 U.S. Navy Dark Sea Blue with the black. Next, I want to try something different on the blue protective coating in the wheel wells. Since it was a coating, I will paint them aluminum, then take my wife’s food coloring and mix it with Future floor polish for the slightly translucent effect. I did this once before and it’s pretty neat looking. You can get it as dark as you want to and you can play around with the tint by adding yellow, etc. I knew there was a reason we kept that stuff around for something other than coloring Easter eggs !! Thanks again. Bob