"Gernot Hassenpflug" wrote in message
...
(Vicente Vazquez) writes:

Let me try to post an aviation-related message among this
rec.aviation.political.ihateyou.military messages that have taken over
the board. :-)

There's always a discussion among scale modellers regarding the
correct colors for IJN Mitsubishi Zeros. One of them is about the
existance or not of a color called "Ameiro". Some say it was the
actual color used on some Zeros, while others say it was not a color,
but actually a varnish applied over the original IJN Gray (or white)
that became yellowish with time.

Does anyone have any info on that?

I applaud your efforts, my killfile grows every day thanks to the load
of idiots posting in this group.

Ameiro was a varnish, and the name was coined by I think a post-war
writer. A reasonable discussion on this is found on the Japanese
Airplanes discussion board run by Jim Lansdale. Personally I have not
seen any carrier-aircraft of WW2 with this type of varnish, but plenty
of China war photos of early A6Ms and the preceding A5Ms show a kind
of tinge of yellow. Maybe the protectice coating was abandoned
early-war?


--
G Hassenpflug * IJN & JMSDF equipment/history fan

Just guessing here, but it sounds like this would be something connected to
the Japanese experimenting during the period with ways to avoid corrosion on
their Naval aircraft. Using a varnish would produce a lighter mill
thickness in the dry finish than a paint film and afford protection with
this weight saving factored in.
Just a thought. I'm not a historian. :-))
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired
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