Acrysion - IJN zelená

The green of Japanese carrier-based aircraft

The abbreviation in the name refers to the Imperial Japanese Navy. A dark, deeply seated green covered the upper surfaces of its aircraft in the second half of the war, while the underside stayed light. Anyone building a fighter or a bomber carried by an aircraft carrier needs precisely this kind of saturated tone, which looks almost black in photographs.

Worn paintwork as a typical feature

Japanese carrier-based machines are famous for chipped paint. The thin coat on the metal skin wore away from the boots of the mechanics and from the airflow and exposed the light metal beneath. In modeling terms it is handled by applying a metal base first, spraying the green over it and then polishing the green through or lifting it off in places.

Working the material

The paint is thinned and removed with water. For even coverage of a saturated tone, several weak passes with the coat left to flash off between them prove themselves. Stir the contents well before starting the work and as you go.

The marking system

The number in the frame at the top holds the place of the shade in the line, the name is given below it. The left side carries the character of the surface and the right the field of use, that is aircraft, vehicles, ships, weathering or base tones. Military colors are completed by the designation of the country and the period.

The underside and the whole scheme

The complete Japanese paintwork also includes a light underside and a differently colored leading edge of the wing. The green upper surface meets them either in a sharp line or in a sprayed transition, depending on the factory and on the phase of the war in which the machine was built.