You're absolutely correct Bernard... you hit the proverbial nail on the head.

You described exactly how the color "Aotake" was used using the F4U "Salmon" color as an example.

The "Aotake" preservative coating was excellent from what I gathered from online research. In fact it was reported as actually being better than similar coatings or paints used by the US at the time. One aircraft recovery specialist made a statement about it... He said that if you were lucky enough to find a wreck of a WW2 aircraft, and it wasn't corroded beyond recognition, then it was probably Japanese... (or something very similar to this statement).

On "most" of the Mitsubishi built Zero's, the wheel wells and landing gear covers were painted over with the surrounding colors "most" of the time.

However from what I have read, Nakajima opted not to over paint the wheel well areas. That's why it's fairly usual to find the "Aotake" color present in the wheel wells and main gear doors on Nakajima built A6M's. Tom Cleaver just posted some excellent photos of the Planes of Fame A6M. There's a ton of great information available there.

Granted this plane has previously been restored, but he stated that Steve Hinton ensured the correct colors were maintained during the first restoration.

I was shocked to find out that the SAC Bomber Tan was discontinued ... They did the same with PRU Blue, and several other colors in the Model Master line up. Too bad. Maybe there was another color that they were manufacturing that was very similar ? Who knows for sure...

Here's a picture of a Mitsubishi built Zero landing gear doors and wheel wells. You can see the wells have been painted in the same color as the surrounding paint.

This photo is from the Flying Heritage Collection and is an A6M-3,

I have seen various color photos that were taken of Japanese planes after the War had ended. Just like you stated Bernard, they looked as if the paint was peeling off considerably, and / or had also faded.

I have painted numerous automobiles that I have restored over the years. I can tell you from first hand experience that if a surface isn't properly cleaned of oils, dust / dirt and contaminants, the paint will not adhere properly. The same is true if a poor quality primer or no primer at all is used.

I have even seen some paint jobs ruined by the simple mistake of someone touching the surface to be painted with a bare hand. The oils in your skin are sometimes enough to set off a reaction. That is why you should always wipe down a surface with a prep solution just before painting.

I suspect that the conditions of the paint on Late War Japanese planes could be a product of any of these problems... Lack of a skilled work force, poor quality of paints due to a lack of raw materials, lack of time since these planes were needed in a hurry and they didn't care about corrosion protection (since these planes were not expected to last more than a few weeks)... etc.

I also found this very cool photo that shows a variation of "Aotake" on the same part ! It varies from a nice blue to a green...

This photo was also from Coles Aircraft.com

Frank, I hope these pictures will help you with your quest for information on the Zero...