by Martin Waligorski & Urban Fredriksson
Japanese Army and Navy Aircraft Colours
World War II period.
A letter prefix in front of the Colour name means:
- A – Army aircraft
- N – Navy aircraft
A number following the letter is believed to be an arbitrary classification system originated by D.Thorpe. Helpful info about some more intricate colours was extracted from Camouflage and Markings of Nakajima Oscar by Mark Wlodarczyk, previously published at this site.
This chart has been last revised in September 2006
| Imperial Japanese Army aircraft | ||||||||
| Colour name | Comment | FS | Humbrol | Tamiya | Xtracolor | Polly S | Gunze Sangyo | Model Master |
| A.1 Dark Green | Upper camouflage, together with A.2 | FS:34094 (34092) | Hu:149 | |||||
| A.2 Olive Green | Upper camouflage overall colour, or together with A.1 | FS:34088 | 1*Hu:155 + 1*Hu:159 | T:XF-13/51? | X:X351 | P:PCJ91 | GS:H60 | |
| A.5 Light Grey Green | Upper & lower surfaces | FS:35414 | 5*Hu:34 + 3*Hu:115 + 3*Hu:65 | T:XF-14 | X:X352 | P:PCJ90? | GS:H62 | |
| A.6 Dark Grey | Upper surfaces | FS:36152 | 4*Hu:156 + 3*Hu:106 + 1*Hu:112 + 1*Hu:34 | |||||
| A.7 Medium Grey | Upper surfaces | FS:36293 | 7*Hu:28 + 2*Hu:156 + 1*Hu:34 | |||||
| A.9 Light Grey | Upper surfaces | FS:37722 | 16*Hu:34 + 3*Hu:72 + 1*Hu:28 | |||||
| A.11 Dark Brown | Upper surfaces | FS:30059 (34049) | 8*Hu:107 + 1*Hu:33 | |||||
| A.12 Medium Brown | Upper surfaces, spinners | FS:30109 (30111) | 6*Hu:178 + 4*Hu:70 + 3*Hu:34 + 2*Hu:107 | |||||
| A.14 Light Earth | Upper surfaces | FS:30400 | 3*Hu:63 + 3*Hu:118 + 3*Hu:34 + 2*Hu:121 | |||||
| A.15 Ivory Yellow | Upper surfaces | FS:30371 | Hu:93 | |||||
| A.22 Deep Blue | Upper surfaces | FS:35050 | Hu:190 | |||||
| Army Silver | Hu:11 | T:XF-16 | ||||||
| Light Green | Used togehter with A.1 and A.2 in three-tone schemes | FS:34172 | ||||||
| Light Green-Grey | Factory undersurface finish of Ki-43 Mod. III onwards | FS:36357 | ||||||
| Dark Brown-Green | One of factory Top surface finishes of Ki-43 Mod. III onwards | FS:30118 | ||||||
| Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft | ||||||||
| Colour name | Comment | FS | Humbrol | Tamiya | Xtracolor | Polly S | Gunze Sangyo | Model Master |
| N.1 Black Green | Upper surfaces | FS:34092 | Hu:149 | |||||
| N.2 Dark Green | Upper surfaces | FS:34077 | 5*Hu:91 + 1*Hu:116 + 1*Hu:3 | T:XF-11 | X:X353 | P:PCJ92 | GS:H59 (N1?) | |
| N.3 Dark Grey Green | Upper surfaces | FS:34095 | 2*Hu:80 + 1*Hu:117 | |||||
| N.4 Light Grey Green | Interior colour | FS:34226 | 6*Hu:78 + 3*Hu:34 + 1*Hu:72 | |||||
| N.5 Bamboo | Cockpit interiors | FS:34098 | 12*Hu:150 + 1*Hu:155 + 1*Hu:154 | |||||
| N.8 Dark Grey | Used as upper- and overall colour | FS:36081 | Hu:32 | |||||
| N.9 Medium Grey | Used as upper- and overall colo | FS:36251 | 8*Hu:64 + 2*Hu:156 + 1*Hu:106 | |||||
| N.10 Light Grey | Used as upper- and overall colo | FS:36492 | 8*Hu:34 + 1*Hu:156 + 1*Hu:28 | T:XF-12 | X:X354 | P:PCJ90? | GS:H61 | |
| N.17 Brown | Upper surfaces | FS:30145 | 4*Hu:110 + 1*Hu:62 (Hu:110) | T:XF-10 | GS:H37 | |||
| N.18 Red Orange | Trainer aircraft overall colour | FS:31400 | 8*Hu:178 + 1*Hu:60 | T:X-13 | X:X355 | GS:H63 | ||
| Mauve | Doubtful whether actually existed | 6*Hu:34 + 4*Hu:25 + 2*Hu:153 + 2*Hu:64 | P:PCJ89 Violet | |||||
| Miscellaneous colours | ||||||||
| Colour name | Comment | FS | Humbrol | Tamiya | Xtracolor | Polly S | Gunze Sangyo | Model Master |
| Aodake Iro (Interior metallic blue) | Interior colour. Actually a transparent blue-green lacquer on natural metal background | 1*Hu:52 + 1*Hu:50 | T:X-13 | X:X355 | GS:H63 | |||
| Cockpit Green-Olive | FS:34255 | |||||||
| Cockpit Grey-Green | FS:34226 | |||||||
| Cockpit Khaki-Brown | FS:33448 | |||||||
| Hinomaru Red | Initially bright red, faded in time to rusty-pinkish brown (FS:31328) | FS:31086 | ||||||
| Identification yellow | Used from 1943 for quick-recognition bands on leading edges of fighter a/c | FS:33538 | ||||||
| Light Green-Grey fabric primer | FS:36314 | |||||||
| Army/Navy Lt. Olive (greyish) | (A./N.21?) | T:XF-22? | P:PCJ94 | |||||