I'm in the middle of Tamiya's A6M3 kit. Its one of their older kits, but holds up well. The instructions call out XF-13 Metallic Blue for interior surfaces, like the cockpit and wheel wells. Building mostly US planes, I'm used to zinc chromate primers for interior. Was the blue finish a blue anodize chem finish or painted?
IMHO you mean the Aotake Iro colour that was a semi-clear phenolic varnish. It could be of a greenish ( mostly ) or bluish tinge and depended on the number of layers of the coat and part manufacturers. And it was pinted but not anodized.
Of all major powers of the 2nd world war, Japan is probably the nation least documented. Outside of the general information, few details have been preserved, indexed and published. This also is the…
I was looking at the SHADE of green NOT necessarily the primer color. Japanese zinc chromate was blue green metalic color...not really zinc chromate but USED in the same way....I was saying THE COLOR of chip #6 looks like the right shade of green for the interior color NOT PRIMER!
OK. Grasped. However the Aotake Iro colour wasn't a primer but a corrosion preventative. What is more it wasn't a metalic paint. It was a translucent clear coating that was tinted in the interests of making it visible for uniform application. It possessed a high gloss, and due to its application over bright aluminum components it took on the appearance of a metallic-like bright blue or green. Therefore its tinge varied depending on the number of layers applied.
I'm past the cockpit stage on this build, I've used my artistic license and used XF-13 for all interiors. I'll do more research before starting on the Jack and Hayate in the wings to build.