Hi all. Question for you concerning the Nakajima KI-84 "Frank" Japanese fighter.
All of my reference material shows a natural metal KI-84 with natural metal alierons and elevators. My pal Fred says his sources show the control surfaces greenish colored. Could we both be right?
Any input would be appreciated.
I am building an aircraft from the 29th fighter group (Sentai) based on Taiwan in 1945. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks, Russell. AKA Siderius

Hi Russel,

Not too long ago I did a Hase Kawanishi "George" (the pics of which are still on aeroscale somewhere) and I had some of the same questions. What I found out was that some aircraft had their undersides painted silver versus a natural bare aluminium. As for the control surfaces, they were fabric (at least for the George they were) so I used a gray mixed with flat aluminium. For the top sides I used the main color lightened with white and light blue, just a bit to show more fading and weathering.

Hasegawa's instructions did call for blue to be mixed in with the IJA green for the top side of the control surfaces at a ratio of about 90/10 green/blue. I hope this helps, as it is one of those questions that has so many variables. I think that with any late war Axis vehicle, one could get away with quite a lot.

Keep us posted with your aircraft.

-Derek