A6M2-21 WIP a la BH

[anadc4]

fabulous use of shade and detail. The different colour rudder is down to one surface being fabric and the other metal. The deep rich finish on the USAF Museum example wasn't something that the factories of wartime Japan could achieve. Then it was often a single coat of paint sprayed over bare metal or a thin lacquer.

Read in a book that the metallic green/blue finish used to protect the bare metal of Zeros was in fact a clear lacquer with a blue dye in it so the painter could see where he had been. The "metallic" effect was entirely due to the metal below remaining visible. How true this assertion is, I don't know.

David

[BLOWHARD]

Thanks for the compliments guys

Sure the fabric surfaces would look a little different just by being a different material. Also, Jester is right, most all Japanese moving surfaces do look different. I'm not sure why they were done this way exactly but they were actually painted a different color. And not only that, they were produced by subcontractors in many cases. I think all Zero fabric surfaces were subcontracted.
It's weird but it makes the plane more interesting

About the clear paint over bare aluminum, this is correct. It's called Aotake. I'm not sure about the color though. The color used in Zeros is pretty green, like the color of green traffic lights around the US.

I've seen a lot of blue colored interior colors too but I'm not sure about those.
At least on Zeros it isn't used on cockpit interiors, but rather any unpainted areas that would be exposed, it was an anti corrosive. Wheel wells, flap interiors and things like that are painted in Aotake.
An interesting color notez; Mitsubishi wheel wells were painted the same color as the external surfaces where Nakajima planes had aotake wheel wells.

[Jesters-Ink]

This is the next level blow.

[BLOWHARD]

Yeah, but the next level of what?

[anadc4]

The book/magazine article I read suggested that colours used by modellers and restorers were closer to Western concepts of primers than the Japanese originals. The finish in the museum Zero's gear looks just like the stuff you see on new Boeings. This book/magazine article said that the colour - which it called a blue-green- was uneven, being darker in places where the finish was thickest, such as in the corners of the wheel well.

Sid Marshall's Nakajima Oscar was still in its original markings back in the 1960s. While I cannot recall the colour of the wheel wells, I would remember if it had been vibrant. The upper sides had suffered from long exposure to the sun but the undersides were in good condition. Wish I had taken more notice.

[BLOWHARD]

Yep, the color is pretty uneven, as you'd expect with painting clear over bare aluminum.
I think the translation of aotake is "green bamboo."