I am building a Japanese Aichi 'Val' for the air over the sea campaign and I need help on getting a good white/cream colour to paint it , please could anyone help me to get the correct colour for japanese planes.

Hello Joe!

I must say I'm not an "ame-iro" specialist but I guess there's nothing you could do wrong by adding a little bit of grey and/or brown to your white color. Make some test on white paper! The white fuselage stripes (see Val pic) must show contrast to the navy light grey!
In my opinion the exact shade is not THAT important . I think the most important is to make some minor variations on the plane itself! By pre or post shading or by giving some light weathering... Don't forget to cover your plane with Futur (or something alike) because the japanese navy planes where varnished to protect them from salt corrosion...
By the way, some Val's had a green camouflage during Pearl Harbor! Maybe this could be an option too!




Jean-Luc

Thanks for your help and thats a very nice model.

Joe, I found that Floquil Concrete is a pretty good match for the gray you're looking for. That is the color I did mine in and it looks good to me. "Q"

Hi Joe,
This Zero was painted with Humbrol 147 Light Aircraft Grey, if I recall correctly, as it was built a long time ago. Then I was informed that this was a good match. I now know better and would go with White Ensign Models Colourcoats.

The colour is quite unique but I wouldn't worry to much about an exact shade (unless you are particularly anal about that sort of thing) as the colour aparently veried quite dramatically due to the light conditions.
I'm in the process of building a Val as an online build HERE
Mal

tamiya does a range of IJN and JA colours. And from off the top of my head there is an IJN grey very close to JA cockpit green grey. You could use either. Depending on the shade you want. I may edit this post when i get home and i'll give proper code's and so on.

IJNAF aircraft were not really white nor light gray, as we used to think. Research into revealed WW2 Japanese paint chips, the appearance of relics, examination of crashed planes having been removed from environments that preserve paint, etc. is demonstrating they were painted a gray-green-olive-esque color (that often weathered into a chalky gray/white finish.)

From Mr. Lansdale, moderator of J-aircraft.com:




These were found and shared bu WATANABE-San and SUMMER-San from Japan.


OFFICIAL IJNAF COLOR STANDARDS FOR WW II AIRCRAFT On-Line


Colour of Kaga's Val's during the PH Attack (color photos of relic parts)

Imperial Japanese Navy Gray-Green Paint

Pearl Harbor Val (color photo)