What color is the cowl of a type 52 A6M5 Zero?
Is it black or a black/blue(very dark) color?
also it looks kind of glossy, what do you all think?

thanks!
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I've always painted it Semi-Gloss black, but I believe the actual color is supposed to be blue. Really dark, almost black.

An almost black blue.

Tamiya has the cowl painted Semi-Gloss Black in their 1/32nd scale Zero, and believe it or not it matches the reference photos provided in the kit. Most restored Zeros have black cowls as well. stug

Just paint it black and get it done with. Nobody is going to know the differance anyway. Maybe add a little touch of dark blue to it.

~CHip

if its the IJN geen scheme, then I think semi-gloss black is called for.

tamyia has the zeke zero matt black,
i guess that is flat black,

I posted a pic of the Zeke 52 that flies out of Chino Planes of Fame in the reference photo section on MSN. Sorry about the shadows, California weather is tuff. But it looks blue-black to me.

Hi tek2

David Klaus's IPMS guide quotes FS 37031

An old copy of Airfoil magazine quotes: FS 37038

Both are so dark as to be almost black - so if you add the smallest touch of blue to your black (1:10?), you shouldn't be too far off. If the result looks dark blue, then you've added too much!!

Hope this helps :-)

All the best

Rowan