What's new
British Ordnance Collectors Network

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Looking for colour codes for restoring Japanese projectiles

O

ogreve

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

I know Bougainville has asked something along these lines, but I haven't (yet) seen an answer.

I'm about to restore several Japanese projectiles in calibres of 20mm (IJA), 25mm (IJN) and 37mm (IJA).

Being a perfectionist, I'd like to get the colours for the colour bands and Kanji as correct as possible. Therefore, I'm hoping someone can give me some standardised colour codes for the colours as they were used by the IJA and the IJN. If no one knows the EXACT colours, but does know colours that come very close, that would be very much appreciated too.

From specimens I have with original paint, I have noticed that the colours aren't 100% identical from item to item, so there is some slack space to work with.

I will be needing good approximations for at least the following colours:

IJA:
-Red
-Yellow
-Green

IJN:
-Green
-Marroon
-Yellow
-Orange
-Red

Cheers!
Olafo
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Olafo,

Yes it is a problem when one wants to get it exactly right.

I did alot of hunting around comparing paint colours on the internet and came up with a reasonably good match for red and yellow.

Red - British Standard 381C No. 539 Red
Yellow - British Standard 381C No. 356 Golden Yellow

I could only get these in enamal gloss so afterwards I gave a light spray with a can of satin estapol to take the shine off it.

If you have no luck go onto the internet and search for the Japanese Standard Colour Codes. A lot of countries have their own standard colour codes and Japan is one of them. My guess is that it would be the closest lead as to colour shades used on Japanese ordnance.

I spent hours matching samples excetra to get a shade available here in Australia and that is what I came up with in the reds and the yellows. Bear in mind that some of the original paint work that we see has more than likely faded over the years depending on the conditions it has been exposed to. Also that there could be a slight variation between arsenals.

The question is did the arsenals mix their own paint or was it supplied from one source.

Cheers,
BOUGAINVILLE
 
Hi guys,

Thanks so far!

Over here there is a store (for you Dutchies: it is called "Action") where good spray paint is sold very cheaply, but the problem is that they only have very few colours available. They have primer, black-matte, black-shiny, red-shiny, yellow-shiny, green-shiny, white-shiny.

The prices at that store are so good that I bought cans of all of those colours. The primer, black and white are great (I've used them before when restoring a KwK43 projo). As for the other colours, I decided to use an old paintless 20x102 projo for colour samples. I painted it black and then applied dummy colour bands of all colours.

When comparing it side by side to good specimens I have with original paint, I get the following results:
-The green is way too dark; not usable.
-The yellow appears to be a tiny tad on the dark side too (certainly for "Navy yellow" but also for "Army yellow").
-The red one looks pretty good.

Fortunately (in this case) our eyes are much more 'forgiving' for reds and yellows than they are for greens. It looks like the red and yellow I have come across will do for the IJA red and yellow, and in the case of red also for the IJN red (as it is used for example on the 20mm tracer rounds).

So, the quest is on for a good green (and for the missing IJN colours).The only 25mm projo I have that has some original green paint on it is an HE one, with marroon body and green band near the fuse. The green looks pretty similar to the IJA green, but from pictures I've seen the completely green IJN projos seem to have a somewhat different shade of green.

Can anyone tell me if the IJA green appears to be the same as the IJN green?

Cheers!
Olafo
 
No. 539 Red is equivalent to Australian Standard R14 Waratah (available from Dulux)

No. 356 Golden Yellow is equivalent to Australian Standard Y14 Golden Yellow (available from Dulux)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top