Good start Hoss. Yeah, there's a lot of confusion about the chipping and paint quality of Japanese planes.
For a short synopsis, at the beginning of the war, most manufactures, most notably Mitsubishi, used a good quality primer and a good quality semigloss paints. Notice I said most, not all. Nakajima, while they may have used primer at the start of the war, it was of a poor quality, so you'll see many Kate's with chipping paint from early war on. Later war most manufactures stopped using primer all together because of material shortages and naval blockades, except Mitsubishi, so you will see chipping as a major issue, especially on army aircraft, not so much navy. Mitsubishi used a red primer for their Bettys (and possibly other bombers), so if you did see them chip, you would probably see red underneath.
Very late was Zeros, probably around the Type 52s, like you have there, Mitsubishi, at least what I have read and researched, stopped using primer as well and then started seeing the chipping issues as time went by. By that time however, most of the IJN carries were sunk and there really wasn't a need to fill the decks with the Model Zero. Most of the older versions were used as the dreaded Kamikaze.
It pains me to hear that people (not anyone on the forums that I know of) believe that the Japanese took poor care of their Aircraft. That is most utterly a false assumption. The Japanese took great care of their machines and made the most with what they had.
One thing that I find fascinating. Once the US started testing aircraft like the Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) and the N1K Shiden (George) with our high-octane avgas and a tune up, those planes out preformed even the Mustang. Say thank you our silent service fleet that keep a strangle hold on the merchant shipping.
Enough of my usual soapbox that I’m sure Gam gets tired of
Speaking of sunk carriers, on to the Akagi.
I sprayed a gloss coat on the wood deck and stained. Here it is half stained.
I then added three coats of the gloss coat and added the decals. That was an ordeal as decals don’t like to adhere to wood, imagine that. 
Once that all “dried” I then sprayed a few more clear coats. The katakana letter ã‚¢ “A” on the stern came apart, thank you Hase for your wonderful decals. So, I masked and spray the letter. After a few hours messing with that I was able to add the weathering I.E. oil spills, fuel leaks, tire marks and other sundry offences that happen to a wood carrier deck, using pastels and oils where I’m right at the point where I feel I’ve gone far enough. Not too much but not too little. Most of the stern will be covered with 27 or was it 28 
aircraft and one hundred plus crew so the deck will be more of a background than the center point.
Oh yeah, the island it glued down now.
Next I need to finish the mast, a few ladders that I bought that were too long for what I had in my ladder stock, mast rigging, AA guns, deck safety netting, catch wires, aircraft catch system, side small boats, lowered antennas, landing light system.... You know, all those small nagging annoying items at add tons of interest to a build.