"Colors of Captured A6M2?" Topic

This photo was featured in yesterday's Space.com "space history photo:"
link
It looks like it has been repainted with OD top and light gray bottom, but does anyone know the actual colors it had when found and then if it was repainted?

From the pictures taken in Alaska, it looks like it was painted in an overall light grey scheme. I'm not very familiar with the camouflage patterns of Japanese aircraft, so I suppose it could be a very light green.

A6M2 D1-108 (s/n 4593) was captured in 1942 and subsequently restored by the US Navy. It was repainted in the standard Navy scheme of Non-Specular Blue-Gray over Light Gray.

Prior to its loss D1-108 had the standard olive-gray finish common to all Zeros manufactured before about April 1943. Its tail code of D1-108 was in red and it had a single yellow band around the fuselage.

No Zeros were ever painted in a light gray colour. All were camouflaged with an olive-gray paint. Later in the war, when the upper surfaces were painted dark green, the under surfaces still remained in the same shade of olive-gray.

Several years ago when the Blayd Corp. remanufactured an A6M2 the paint was matched with a number of existing samples from several different Zeros recovered from the Solomons. A photo of this Zero provides a good idea of the original colours used on these planes.