"Japanese WWII landing craft, colour please?" Topic

Hi all, I recently bought an assortment of the above in 15mm and I'm looking for the correct (hopefully Vallejo) colour to paint them. Some illustrations show an indeterminate grey, others a olivish green, both with natural wood duck boards in the bottom.

Which is the correct colour?, did it change at different times in the war (early/late?).

Would the crew be wearing naval rig or SNLF rig?

Come on you naval buffs, help out an old landlubber please.

From Micro Maritime Art
link

Thanks Toronto48, I saw those, but there are others of varying colours

IIRC, the ones on the Tamiya boxes were gray as well.

Given it is a Japanese company, I suspect they'd have better knowledge than many.

Figarti, a Chinese firm, makes a nice one in resin in 1/30th scale.

Linton Wells II, "Painting Systems of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1904-1945", Warship International, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1982), pp. 21-22 states: "In the 1931 revision of the painting regulations, special service vessels [such as the Daihatsu] were not distinguished from other warships". From this I would conclude they were gray.

FWIW, the metal drums in the cargo hold should be painted either be navy blue (for IJN drums) or khaki (for IJA drums).

I think the answer is, "It varied."

Back in Yokohama, crew could wear white or blue Navy rig, but in the combat zone khaki-drab tropical uniform was most prevalent (started as green, faded to drab, or started as suntan, faded to drab, either way). The barges could also be operated by soldiers in Army dominated theaters like China, New Guinea and the Philippines.

Grey was the standard paint job, but in the Pacific from mid-war on the barges were heavily camouflaged to hide them from allied aircraft that dominated the skies in daytime. This probably included camouflage paint in some cases. Army barges could also be painted with Army olive paint.

A barge in the tropics for any length of time would probably have faded, peeling paintwork and a lot of rust.

Thanks chaps