Gary: Considering how little you can see of the cockpit down inside there it looks good enough! 

Small update on my Zero, I tried drilling the holes in the seat but the plastic was too thick, so I cut the center section out and replaced it with .005 inch thick styrene. I will mark the holes and drill them next.

Also, I started on the engine. The front seven cylinders has been removed from sprue and trimed. Just waiting for the back seven to catch up.

I painted the area behind the seat Mitsubishi cockpit green on the A6M1 and the two A6M2's I've built, as I think they were all early enough to be built only by Mitsubishi.

Should post a link when quoting research ...

I find the link below interesting.  Even though almost 20 years old,  but fact is that references are made to physical findings regarding the decking colour :

http://www.j-aircraft.com/faq/A6M_pt4.htm#Mitsubishi%20Zero%20Cockpit%20Deck%20Color

Cool photo here,  supposedly of an A6M3 in 1943.   Although severely chalked and weathered,  the decking and cowl do look to be the same tone of grey.

Another quote from Nick Millman (from 2013), he too gives black decking for both Zero manufacturers:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234947758-zero-detail-colours/

"The cockpit decking wasn't black as such but the same anti-glare blue black as the cowling. It was to a standard IJN specification of four parts carbon black to one part ultramarine pigment (similar to RAF 'Night') and most of the differences attributed to MItsubishi and Nakajima cowlings arose from the way the procured paints weathered and degraded.

Whilst the cowlings got regular maintenance the decking rarely, if ever, did so on in service machines it often ended up looking flatter and greyer over time."

regards,  

Jack

Thanks Jack, that's evidence enough for me. I'm going to go back and repaint the back deck of my Zero black. 

Guys, I found out this morning that my dad has passed away. I'm going to be off the forum for a bit till things clear up. Please keep at it as always, I'll try to be back early next week. Any thoughts and prayers are welcome... 

Cliff...  Sorry to hear that, as always, our thoughts are in your corner

Cliff,

That's sad news concerning your father.  My condolences.  Hope you'll be back with us soon.  Prayers for your family and you.

Gary

Jack,

Well, you've almost convinced me, though I feel very uneasy about relying upon one authority (Nick).  I'll take your word that this is not a "colorized" photo. Here's another more recent article upon A6M colors from Imodeler.

https://imodeler.com/2019/04/japanese-a6m-zero-colors-part-1/

Note that the article contains almost the same photo Jack posted, but with a soldier standing beside the wreck.  Someone had a very steady hand, or the camera was on a tripod!

Might want to hold off on the "black" and paint the rear decking "Navy Dark Blue".

Still, there are some photos of wrecked Japanese aircraft at the end of the war that make me go "hmmmm..."

Are these colorized photos?  I don't know.  The rear deck in both photos does appear to be lighter than the cowling.  Could it be oxidation?  Maybe.  That is what makes me go "hmmmm..."

Thanks for your information!

Gary

So sorry to hear that Cliff.  Godspeed.

Dear Cliff,

Sorry about the passing of your father, my thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family.

regards,

Jack

My deepest condolences, Cliff. We lost my father-in-law this last september and it just isn't easy. Our hearts go out to you and your family.

BK

Hi Gary, thank you for the Imodeller link, lots of info presented there, and 'all under one roof.'   Have it bookmarked for a future build.

In my last post, I quoted both Nick (Aviation of Japan) as well as linked J-Aircraft.  These are two different entities not affiliated with each other, but both talk about the black decking.

Concerning the last two photos crammed with aircraft, going to assume not colourized.  To be fair though, we are trying to judge a colour through the glass canopy that has the sun glaring off the surface.  The headrest area definitely has a blue hue, so took a reading of the area:

So the above is GIMP software (available free).  What I like about it's eyedropper tool is you can adjust the size for reading a colour, so that it averages the result instead of just reading one pixel.  The white square with pointer indicates the area and size measured.

Over the resulting find, have pasted a screen shot of FS 36164 from the Colorserver.net for ease of comparison.  Not that dissimilar from the Imodeler link, where they describe the weathering of anti-glare black would shift into light blue grey.  Not stating this is conclusive, just interesting.

regards,

Jack

I'm jumping in on this topic late, but I did a ton of research when I built my Zero and I can't find my links for it, but it was determined that the rear deck and engine cowl are painted the same color. There are pics out there of surviving parts that never saw the light of day that prove they are the same black with blue tinge. Gunze Mr Color makes the perfect color for it, Cowling Color, Mr Color 125. I'll see if I can find those references as they sealed the deal when I was given them.

BK

Hi Cliff,

Sorry to hear about your father, my condolences.

Thinking of you, take care of yourself and your loved ones.

Piers

I'm going paint my tiny one 'black'. I makes more sense to me that part of the should be black.

Latest progress on the Chi-Ha:  the tank itself is done, just working on the commander figure now.  The decals for this were a real pain in the a$$!  I don't what it is with Tamiya, if they changed how they mae their decals, or if they went to a new outside supplier or what, but the last two Tamiya kits I have built, both purchased within the last year, have had absolute shite decals.  I'vee always used the same method - gloss clear coat, then apply decals and settle them down using Micro-Set/Micro-Sol, then matt clear coat - and usually have no problem, but the last two Tamiya kits have had the decls silver horribly, to the point they were (on this kit) completely opaque white!  I ended up having to hand paint the markings.

Hello AA, that is great looking camou work on the Chi-Ha.

Is there any date printed on the box or instructions?  Even though you purchased recently, it may have been on the store shelf for a number of years.  This Tamyia subject was first tooled in 1975, with a re-box in 1987 containing an 'improved' turret.

regards,

Jack

Hey thanks guys! Sorry between all the stuff with the funeral and I really didn't feel like posting anything. Guess I'm back now. In any case I could use something to keep my mind occupied. 

AA: Great job there on the Chi-Ha, I agree the camo looks spot on and great job there on the commander. 

And thanks everyone for the discussion on the rear cockpit deck. Still haven't repainted mine yet. 

Hi Gamera! Been wanting to do this Hasegawa 1/32 Oscar for a while so plese sign me up in this GB.

Hey PJ that looks cool, will go put you down now! 

Thanks gamera. Hey sorry for your loss. I read about it over Bish's GB.

Thanks PJ and welcome to the GB! 

Gamera

Thanks PJ and welcome to the GB! 

 

PJ-  The only airworthy Oscar is at the Erickson Collection, about 120 miles from me.  It is US powered though, just barely fits in the cowling .

Will be watching it come together in your capable hands.

Thanks GH. I'm doing some research before starting. Was hoping to get some decals with colorful markings but  there's not a good selection of them for this subject in this scale. The kit decals appear to be in usable condition so I just may go with them.

PJ: Just for kicks I looked on Ebay and there's a couple of sets of decals for your Ki-43. Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, and Chinese Nationalist, Communist, and Manchukuo (Japanese collaborator government). To be anal captured Japanese aircraft aren't within the GB but I'd be more than willing to let things slide just to see you get her built. 

BTW: None of them are cheap though. Twenty-five bucks including shipping for a set of decals is rather on the steep side for me. 

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=1%2F32nd+Ki-43+decal&_sacat=0

Gamera

PJ: Just for kicks I looked on Ebay and there's a couple of sets of decals for your Ki-43. Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, and Chinese Nationalist, Communist, and Manchukuo (Japanese collaborator government). To be anal captured Japanese aircraft aren't within the GB but I'd be more than willing to let things slide just to see you get her built. 

BTW: None of them are cheap though. Twenty-five bucks including shipping for a set of decals is rather on the steep side for me. 

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=1%2F32nd+Ki-43+decal&_sacat=0

 

Thanks for looking. I saw them too but they are not exactly what I was looking for. The kit decals have two versions I'm liking. I can always paint the markings if the decals are bad. 

plasticjunkie

 

 

Gamera

PJ: Just for kicks I looked on Ebay and there's a couple of sets of decals for your Ki-43. Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, and Chinese Nationalist, Communist, and Manchukuo (Japanese collaborator government). To be anal captured Japanese aircraft aren't within the GB but I'd be more than willing to let things slide just to see you get her built. 

BTW: None of them are cheap though. Twenty-five bucks including shipping for a set of decals is rather on the steep side for me. 

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=1%2F32nd+Ki-43+decal&_sacat=0

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking. I saw them too but they are not exactly what I was looking for. The kit decals have two versions I'm liking. I can always paint the markings if the decals are bad. 

 

Sure! Just thought I'd point it out. Looking forward to seeing how the markings come out.