CPO 1st Class Saburo Sakai Skin

[donna43]

Tainan Kokutai Lae, New Guinea, July 1942  Feel free to use it.

Scanner is down so I took photo with cell phone.

[Karnak]

Default skin on the A6M2 is a Saburo Sakai skin, maybe even that one.

[donna43]

Different plane?  Default has V-128 greenish color  this one as shown is different.

[Shifty]

The greenish/tan caramel color is the correct color for the early war Zeke and Tainan Kokutai. The light gray color as shown in your print is incorrect.

[SIK1]

V-103 may very well be the same green grey color as V-128. There is much debate about the proper grey color of Japanese Navy planes within the modeling world and you will find examples in both the green grey, and the neutral grey. Much of the research is starting to lean towards the green grey as being the proper color.

My favorite Sakai skin would be this green painted over the grey.

[Shifty]

SIK,

That is a 251st Kokutai A6M3 Model 22 flown by Sakai's friend Hiroyoshi Nishizawa in 1943. Sakai had already been wounded and sent back to Japan 10 months earlier.
The Tainan Kokutai had been renamed the 251st Kokutai by this time. I believe that skin is in the game as well flying on the A6M3 Model 32 even though the actual aircraft was a model 22.

[SIK1]

Thanks Shifty, it's still one of my favorite zero skins, and Nishizawa was no slouch in his own right.

[Shifty]

Thanks Shifty, it's still one of my favorite zero skins, and Nishizawa was no slouch in his own right.

He was the man of the IJN.  I just did a ton of research for a website for LCA's Tainan Kokutai so I had all that info fresh in my head. A couple of months from now and I won't remember a thing. 

[donna43]

The greenish/tan caramel color is the correct color for the early war Zeke and Tainan Kokutai. The light gray color as shown in your print is incorrect.

(Image removed from quote.)

I thought so wasn't sure.   

[Shifty]

Donna,

If you're interested in Japanese aircraft and want the benefit of some great researchers I highly reccomend this forum.

http://www.j-aircraft.org/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=2f78843a25759cb4d15f9ef4b5aecc64;

For years almost everyone thought the light gray was the correct color on early war Zekes. There are some great threads on this BBS about how the actual colors were
figured out through pieces of wreckage or whole wrecks discovered in NG and the Solomons. Even if you only have a passing interest it is a great Bulletin Board.  
Also if you're a fan of the Tainan Kokutai, there's a book titled Eagles of the Southern Sky. It is a wonderful book, I bought it last Spring it is a bit pricey at $70+ but it is the best book on that unit you will find. The link is below.

http://www.tainanbooks.com/index.html

[donna43]

Cool

[HighTone]

J-aircraft.com is and excelent source on WW2 Japanese avaition, both army and navy. And Eagles of the Southern Sky is an great book and an awesome read. Especially for a WW2 geek like myself...lol


Bring on the Tainan Kokutai and the 251st Kokutai skins.


Busa....where are you?


And Greebo thanks again for all of the Japanese skins you have provided us.