Question Regarding IJAAF KI-84 Camo: 47th Sentai, 3rd Chutai

[JHumbert15]

Hi All,

I had a question regarding the KI-84 camo for the 3rd Chutai of the 47th Sentai in 1945. Specifically, the plane of Capt. Teiichi Hatano himself. I have seen 3 versions of his plane, and I want to understand the differences between them and the actual camo used.

The first version that I see is plane 45:


My question regarding this camo is: is it accurate? It would make sense for the fuselage bands to be yellow, as the tail isignia and rudder. However, the actual photo of this plane looks like this:

You can see that this appears to be plane 45. However, the fuselage bands don't look yellow, as the number and tail insignia are, and they are a brighter color than the bands.

That said, another version of this plane that I found is here:

This has blue bands, and is supposedly when the unit was being transferred. Additionally, the plane number has gone to "69" rather than "45".

The final profile for this plane is:


From what I can gather, it seems that the plane started as "45" with yellow bands, and progressed through "69" with blue, then a red band, until Hatano was killed.

Does anyone have any info on the transition of the camo for this aircraft? Could it be that the aircraft never had yellow bands, and rather were blue as shown in the actual photograph? Or that the aircraft went from yellow to blue bands while still aircraft "45"?

I know this is a loaded question, but any help is appreciated.

Thanks!
Jake

 

[Shinpachi]

Stripe color on the fuselage for the 3rd Churai is widely believed yellow today because, as long as I have researched, IJA veteran Minoru Akimoto testified the colors of spinner, stripes and tail marking were same for the 47th Sentai in Maru Mechanic. He also testified he had not seen any brownish colors for the Ki-84 fuselage in Tokorozawa AB and Chofu AB at least of Tokyo district. I recommend you to enjoy your own imagination as your 2nd pic might be a historic discovery.

 

[JHumbert15]

Stripe color on the fuselage for the 3rd Churai is widely believed yellow today because, as long as I have researched, IJA veteran Minoru Akimoto testified the colors of spinner, stripes and tail marking were same for the 47th Sentai in Maru Mechanic. He also testified he had not seen any brownish colors for the Ki-84 fuselage in Tokorozawa AB and Chofu AB at least of Tokyo district. I recommend you to enjoy your own imagination as your 2nd pic might be a historic discovery.

Awesome thanks. I thought it would make sense for the spinners, tail and bands to match as well. I have a copy of IJAAF Camo/Markings by Donald Thorpe on the way, so I'm hoping that will shed some light as well.

Jake