"Japanese carrier aircraft colors?" Topic

In the big carrier battles of 1942, what was the main aircraft color? Green or White? I know that there was an off-white color and a few camouflage planes, but was the ratio Green to white 50-50? 25-75.

thanks

It depends on the aircraft type and when in 1942. At Coral Sea and Midway the fighters were painted in a very light grey, which in larger scales (1/72, 1/48 etc) is close to Humbrol 64. The latter is itself similar to the light gray seen on 1970s era USN aircraft. There is an argument that in Pacific sunlight at altitude this could fairly be represented by just flat white. A specimen Zero was recovered from the Aleutians and was that shade of grey under a glaze that had turned slightly brown after 60-odd years of ageing.

The torpedo bombers were in natural metal with blobs of dark green on the topsides. The dive bombers were usually similar to the fighters.

By later 1942 the switch to dark green was under way although I have a feeling this was because a lot of the aircraft had been transferred ashore.

As for proportions, well, AIUI the nominal air group complement of a Japanese fleet CV was between 63 and 72 aircraft in multiples of 9, not including crated spares in the hold. This would be something like 18 fighters, 18 or 27 dive bombers and 18 or 27 torpedo-bombers. By Midway most were in fact down to 50-odd per ship. Kaga was slower than the others and this reduced the number of Kates she ever carried, i.e. it was always 18 rather than 27 IIRC, because any more than that and the deck between the front row of Kates and the bow was insufficient for them to get airborne.

Up to 50% of the Kates were level bombers at Pearl, even though torpedo-capable; the limitation was apparently torpedo stowage.

At the time of the major carrier battles of 1942 (Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz) the Japanese carrier aircraft had fairly consistent camouflage schemes.

The Zeros were painted in a light khaki or olive-gray scheme. The use of upper surface green camouflage only came into use in March/April 1943.

The D3A1 Val dive-bombers were painted with a similar light khaki/ olive-gray paint until about February 1942 when dark green camouflage was added to their upper surfaces.

The B5M2 Kates were similarly painted from as early as Pearl Harbor, but a small portion of these aircraft had the dark green paint applied over aluminum colored paint.

Starting in August 1942 all aircraft had yellow IFF markings applied to the inner leading edge of each wing.

The use of a white-gray paint on any of these planes is incorrect. Please refer to my postings on this earlier discussion of Zero paint. TMP link

d88--just out of curiosity,why did you post this here,rather than one of the Air boards?

Didn't think of it. I thought WW2 would cover it. Maybe I'll try it there. I'm doing tiny 1/2400 scale aircraft I got from Shapeways mounted on clear squares. Detail is not very important. Just looking for ratio of green to whitish Japanese planes.

If you are a cheapskate like me and use el cheapo craft paints, the closest color is "Italian sage" – a pale gray green. (also good for drybrushing highlights on German uniforms)