"Vallejo Colors for IJN" Topic

I'm a pretty die-hard fan of Vallejo, what are the best colors for IJN ships and aircraft? From what I've seen 819 Iraqi Sand is best for decks, but I wanted to know good options for their naval greys and aircraft colors.

Vallejo has specialty sets for IJA and IJN aircraft.

The basic Japanese "gray" came in 4 varieties dependent upon the ship's home naval district. They were Kure, Maizuru, Yokosuka and Sasebo. Tamiya and Testors both make all 4. I'm sure other companies do as well. Do paint chip comparisons to Vallejo. There are websites devoted to "most comparable" colrs between hobby paint lines. Mostly to compensate for lines no longer available.

For the various colors the Japanese used for late war camo, you'll have to do comparison research.

Hope this helps.

PDF link

This gives Vallejo colors for various fleets of WWII. It's not adjusted for scale if you want lighter colors.

They used a couple of different colors for their ships – one a much darker gray than the other.

Sorry, can't help with suggestions.

As mentioned, you'll want to adjust for scale effect, at least for the aircraft.

Mal Wright is currently working on a comprehensive book on the colors of the IJN, similar to his books on the Royal Navy and which grey a ship was painted when. As Exeter points out, they had four primary tones of grey, depending on where the ship was last repainted. I also like Vallejo 819 for decks for US and European navies, but I used a darker color (a red brown – 982 Cavalry Brown, I believe) for IJN decks – can't remember why I started doing that.

Because it's correct. The Japanese used a linoleum like product on their surface ship's decks, if I recall correctly it was something to do with dissipating heat. Carriers tan brown, warships red brown.