A lot of quality work, my friend @coling! Looks superb so far!

Excellent result on the canopy, Colin @coling
Preperation is always an important step.

Very nice masking! A lot of work!

Thanks, Bernard @lis . Glad the masking is finally done. Lots of work that made me a bit cross-eyed. More paint to go on this week.

I got the underside painted this week. It was very interesting reviewing the wisdom on Pearl Harbor camo painting for IJN aircraft from various carriers at J-Aircraft. com. It seems most aircraft were painted on the way and somewhat crudely. There is pretty strong consensus on the undersides being a color called hairyokushoko. So to take the plunge, I pre-shaded the underside with flat black in panel lines and other crevices and tried out my version of this color. I started the camo by spraying over the black pres-shade with a darker version of hairokushoko I mixed from Tamiya paints 2 parts Flat White, 2.5 parts XF-76 IJN Grey Green and 1 part XF-49 Khaki, This gave me the greenish grey with a distinctly brown tint that matched images really well in my Kagero reference book.

I then oversprayed this, mostly in the middle of panels with a lighter version using 4 parts Flat White to the original proportions of the other colors. Overall, I wanted to spray lightly enough to have rivet and panel detail remain highlighted by the black undercoat, angling the airbrush and keeping it some distance from the surface and more in the center of each panel. I am happy with the results. Funny that the shots with the darker color inside the spray booth can seem a bit lighter than the final shots with the lighter final coat. That is just the effect of drying and lighting, I guess. Hope you like it so far. Masking and top green coat next followed by green mottle. I will do the black cowling last.

Very nice result on the painting, Colin @coling
You mixture is a perfect match to the original color.

Thanks, John. The shade is very subtle and varies a lot with ambient light. It looks most brown or khaki in low evening light and in photographs. I know it will seem to change again when the green coat is down to contrast with it.