Rick hit it right on the head. I've been in touch with Ryan Thoews, a Canadian guy who has become one of the foremost authorities on Japanese colors and markings, and in particularly, their multitudinous stencils they had on their planes, which kit makers and artists ignore due to a lack of research on the subject. Anyway, I asked him for some close colors for my A6M3 Type 22 I'm building for an Brit magazine. On the cowling, he suggested 70 percent MM gloss black with 30 percent sea blue. For mine, I altered it a bit by using flat sea blue to take some of the shine away. I gives a beautiful shade of black. However, use a primer, because I sprayed acrylic thinned with alcohol straight to the plastic, and for some reason it rubs off easily. Maybe I should have used water to thin the MM acrylics. Ryan also gave me mixes for the proper colors for interiors and exteriors on the various marks of the Zero, and based on which manufacturer made the plane. Mitsubishi colors differed from Nakajima-built Zeroes quite a bit. For example, the interior of my Type 22, all of which were made by Mitsubishi, is a sort of lightened OD, while the cockpit of a Nakajima Zero (they made many of the later Type 52's) is the color you'll find in Poly Scale as IJN interior green. I have a sheet of dry transfer stencils and stripes for Zeroes put out by Hobbydecal and designed by Ryan based on his research for the Blayde organization for their restoration/rebuild of an A6M2 (they wound up using nothing but the gear on the original plane, creating all the rest from scratch).
TOM