James,
It depends on what Zero you are building. M2 model 11 and 21 and M3 model 22 and 32 originally were overall Ame-iro. In 1943 during the production of M3 the colors changed to IJN Dark Green over IJN Light Grey. All M5 and M7 (except for rare individual exceptions) were Green over Grey. Training aircraft were usually all Orange but some were Red, or Green over Orange. The A6M2N (Rufe) started in Ame-iro and went to Green over Grey in '43 also. I have never seen a bare metal Zero except in captured markings.
Tamiya Grey-Green is not actually intended as a match for Ame-iro, it is supposed to be Nakajima Grey-Green. This was a color they used on their planes pre-war/early war. Most notably the Ki-27. Later it was used to paint the controll surfaces of their fighters, especially the Ki-44 and Ki-84. I posted the following in another thred, perhaps you will find it usefull:
Ask 10 different modelers what color Ame-iro is and you will likely get about 24 answers ranging from Tamiya Grey-Green to an hour long chemistry lesson involving complicated drop by drop mixes of no longer made paint brands. Every human percieves color a tiny bit different than every other. What I see as an exact match for something, another will see as slightly off. I personally think that Tamiya Grey-Green is too green and RLM02 is far too dark and to grey. Here again we have the problem that the color was probably a little different between Nakajima and Mitsubishi and it changed as it aged. It started out as a light grey with just a little hint of brown and green in it and as it aged it darkened and the brown aspects became more prominent. So if you are painting a model 11 or 21 in China you want it mostly grey. If you are doing one that has seen a year of combat it should be browner. Obviously, I have never seen the color fresh, but the pieces of aircraft I have seen in Japan that still had this paint on them I would describe as a brownish, very slightly greenish, light grey. Model Master IJN Grey looks fine to me for late model undersurfaces but is no good for Ame-iro unless brown and green are added. I have not seen Valajho, Life Color, or White Ensin colors as the LHS doesn't stock them.
When I was in Tokyo this past May I picked up a series of 1/100 scale "easy build" kits made by Doyusha. These are kits with the parts all pre-painted and they go togeather in like 20 min. At 395 yen I couldn't help myself. I also thought to myself that it would be realy cool to be able to brag to my modeling buddies that I not only bought models in Japan but I built one to.Cool ![Cool [8D]](/emoticons/icon_smile_cool.gif)
So I got a little tube of glue and a disposable blade and went to it. I built the Zero of course and when it was done I was kind of suprised how good it looked. The color especially looked......right somehow. I was going to go to Yasukuni Jinja a couple days later and decided to take the model with me. Long story short, I held it up to several paintings and various displays including some (I think) wing fragments and was damn surprised at how good a match the color was. I'm just going to try to match this little model from now on if I do an Ame-iro Zero.
Other things to remember are that not ALL the early (mod 11) Zeros were in Ame-iro. There was another color used on a few aircraft called White-Grey. I have seen 2 photos of this color and it is obviously lighter then Ame-iro. I don't know if any mod 21 had this color. Also as the mod 21 was still being produced by Nakajima after the colors went over to green uppers, you see plenty of M2 and some M3 in all Ame-iro, Green (hand applied and factory applied) over Ame-iro, Green over IJN Grey, and even all Green.
The only "advice" I ever feel comfortable giving anyone along these lines is that this is all about having fun and enjoying building models and indulging our passion for (in this case) military history. I subscribe to the 3foot rule of modeling. When you are finished, step back 3 feet and ask yourself: Does my (Zero) look like a (Zero)? Did I have fun with this build? Did I improve any of my skills or find anything I would like to try to improve next time or maby even learn something? Yes?! BRILLIANT!!! Pat yourself on the back and feel proud of yourself, because you deserve to. Don't be a bolt counter. Granted some of them make mind-blowing models on a level I will never reach. But it is just all too easy to build a great model and then convince yourself it sucks if you stress over perfection.
Andrew