"Japanese Aircraft Colors 1941 to Mid 1942 CBI" Topic

I'm planning to paint up some Japanese aircraft for a series of games with the American Volunteer's (Flying Tigers) and Japanese. Looking to understand if the Ki-21 Sally's were all in Japanese green or if there were any mottled camouflage schemes in use in late 1941 to mid-1942. Also looking for thoughts on color schemes for Ki-43 Oscar's and Ki-27 Nate's. It seems the Oscar's would be in Japanese green. The Nate's in pale olive gray.

I've found a few website discussions but they seem to be for late 1942 or even later.
Thanks for your thoughts.

Todd

Posting just so I can find this discussion again. I'm looking into gaming the New Guinea campaign, so I would also like some expert advice on appropriate pre-'42 IJAAF colors.

#Yellow Admiral

I'm no expert, but I thought New Guinea was sort of split in terms of air authority. The Navy had the east, and the army had the west. Not sure how this refines your question. I don't think the Navy got into NG until after Rabaul, so Feb Mar April 42.

I'm still pretty unclear on the IJN/IJA split of duties on New Guinea. I hope to figure it out enough to game it though.

- Ix

If you know what aircraft to look up, it's usually worth some time on the Wings Pallette site.

Here's some paintings of a few CBI area planes I know about:

G3M Nell: wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/b/1032/65/3

Ki-21 Sally: wp.scn.ru/en/ww15/b/1015/65/0

Ki-43 Oscar: wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/f/768/65/0

Ki-27 Nate: wp.scn.ru/en/ww15/f/1017/65/1

You get the idea.

- Ix

Thanks Yellow Admiral, that's one of the sites I had been taking a look at. Challenge is that many of the images don't have a date along with the image. I did find a few examples from the period. Most images are profile only so it's hard to gauge what the upper wing meatball's looks like. Red only or with a white ring. Didn't find anything concrete on the Sally's. I'll dig some more on that site.

Thanks,

Todd

I noticed that lot of the images for even the few planes I listed are missing dates. That's disappointing.

There are very few overhead profiles on Wings Palette, and even fewer undersides. It's not usually enough information to figure out insignia placement and particulars of the markings. I have to turn elsewhere to figure out things like the placement of wing insignia, how wide the yellow IFF stripes on Japanese wings should be, the shape and size of stripes in British cammo pattern, etc. Photos and books help a lot.

There does seem to be a dearth of images of CBI planes.

- Ix

For japanese aircraft in WWII go to:

aviationofjapan.com

near the bottom of the photos are 4 pics with color schemes having dates and units/locations

link