A6M3 Skins

[Fencer51]

2 Kokutai late 1942, early 43 at Lae in New Guinea





A6M3 if 25 Koku Sentai, 251 Kokutai, Rabual in April 1943 flown by Hiryoshi Nishaizawa

[lyric1]

 

[HighTone]

Great job on UI105, looks beautiful and is one of my favorites.

Thanks 

[Karnak]

Those look great.  I'll likely use one of them as the A6M3 has become one of my go to fighters.

[Greebo]

Very nice work on the A6M3s Fencer.

[007Rusty]

 

[Mitsu]

 

[oboe]

Very nice Fencer!

[tmetal]

a personal education request here: did the Japanese have a problem with their paint not bonding to their planes? or was it just that as the war went on and turned against them the supply of paint had to be rationed and they were not able to paint over normal wear and tear on the airframes? or maybe a combination of the two.    I ask because many of the IJ plane skins in game as well as pictures of the actual planes show lots of missing paint.

Great work btw fencer, I like the one out of Rabaul the best. 

[Greebo]

It wasn't so much the paint, as the way it was applied. On some Japanese planes the camouflage paint was applied direct to the airframe metal, rather than having a primer coat applied first. This combined with the often harsh climates caused the paint to flake off badly.

A6Ms usually had primer applied, as it was intended as shipborne fighter. I think the one Fencer has modelled here has had a green top finish hurriedly applied in the field.

The N1K2 is an example of an aircraft which had no primer coat applied. The undersides were left bare metal and green paint was applied directly to the top surfaces. This aircraft often flaked quite badly.

[tmetal]

Thanks for the quick responce Greebo; interesting stuff. 

[oboe]

It wasn't so much the paint, as the way it was applied. On some Japanese planes the camouflage paint was applied direct to the airframe metal, rather than having a primer coat applied first. This combined with the often harsh climates caused the paint to flake off badly.

A6Ms usually had primer applied, as it was intended as shipborne fighter. I think the one Fencer has modelled here has had a green top finish hurriedly applied in the field.

The N1K2 is an example of an aircraft which had no primer coat applied. The undersides were left bare metal and green paint was applied directly to the top surfaces. This aircraft often flaked quite badly.

Greebo is this true of both JAAF and IJN aircraft?  I was looking at some camo Ki.61s and it looks to me that the green paint was applied over the eggshell pale white, rather than the bare metal.  I had always assumed the Tony's camo was applied over bare metal.

[Greebo]

I'm not sure about IJAAF aircraft. As I have never skinned any, I have just not looked into it. Most of my info on the subject of Japanese paint finishes comes from the research section of the J-Aircraft site.

[Nefarious]

Looking good Fencer!

[Hajo]

very very nice