I'm planning to do my upcoming 350 scale Akagi project circa Pearl Harbor. Key reason is I remember that Fuchida had special markings on his Kate as attack leader. Could anyone direct me or show me a color diagram of them? It has been 30 years or so since I last saw them

Hi Steve,
I have found a couple of profiles on Wings Palette.
Hope they help.
Andy

Thanks Andy, but Fuchida was really special. I seem to remember he did the wings of the aircraft in yellow and red sunrise. Like I said, it has been a while and haven't seen anythng that refreshes memory.

Fuchida's B5N2 (in December 1941 there were no Allied code-names for Japanese aircraft) had green uppersurfaces and natural metal lower - the upper wings were definitely green; a photo of his aircraft on board Akagi after the operations against Ceylon in February 1942 shows this. It also shows that his aircraft looked well weathered, with large patches of natural metal showing through the top surface camouflage, which was painted directly on to the untreated metal. Apparently the B5Ns were the only JNAF aircraft to use natural metal because the alclad skinning was of a better quality than that used by other manufacturers:
http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/weathering_question.htm notes:
"Kates, even when camouflaged with the makeshift schemes that were the rule during this first day of the war, were painted without any primer and later were to exhibit a high degree of paint peeling. (See the photo of Fuchida’s plane during the operation against Ceylon, which was taken a not much later.)" Even in 1:350 scale it may be worth weathering Fuchida's aircraft, although not to the same extent as that photo
http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/gregspringer/b5n2_kate_artifacts.htm has photos of parts of Kates which were shot down during the attack.

Steve,

Fuchida's Kate AI-301, as it appeared during the Hawaiian Operation, didn't have any "special" markings, beyond the three yellow command stripes on it's red tail.

I'm thinking that you may be confusing this with the D3A1 Val (BI-231) flown by Egusa from the Soryu, or the D3A1 Val (E1-238) flown by Takahashi from the Shokaku. Both are conjectured to have had "special" paint schemes to act as recognition aids and to aid in reforming after the attack.

Hope this helps,

Bill

Hi Bill

The last post before yours was a year ago so you might not get a response. But thanks for posting anyway, any intel is good intel.

cheers

Bob

Ha! I glanced at the date and just saw the month and day. Well... if he builds as slowly as I do, I probably still caught him with plenty of time to spare

LOL, that's something that could be said for a great many of, I'm sure!!

cheers

Bob

I haven't even started it yet LOL. Plan to go at it in January for a campaign. I figure it will take quite a while as the underdeck PE is extremely complex. I found some drawings / paintings of wht I was looking for. Thanks for the new info.

It's always good to look at older posts and revive them if there's something new to add.


Bob