Colin, @coling
This is some very nice work you have done here ! All that masking is paying off nicely... 🙂
As far as the yellow fuselage stripes, they do look better as you have them painted now.

As far as the number on the fuselage Hinomaru, I still believe they were a shade of yellow. They could have been a water based paint, I'm not sure though. The way they look in the two pictures I posted last, is an effect of the sunlight and how the light reflected off the different angles on the fuselage and vertical fin. It is more pronounced on the fuselage, because it is rounded, than it is on the vertical fin and rudder... because they are more in line with the sun at the time this picture was taken and are somewhat in the shade.

I have seen numerous artists illustrations that were not done properly. Some have used the wrong colors when they painted them. The same thing goes with decals. After time, people begin to think the illustrations are correct, when they are not always that way. Here again we often think that a decal manufacturer does their homework and gets it right... sadly that's not always true either.

It's best to find a photo of the plane and try to make an "educated best guess" and go from there if you are striving for accuracy. The color picture I posted was one I found a while ago... I don't "think" it has been colorized, but anything is possible. In that picture the number on the fuselage Hinomaru is yellow.

In the end however, it is your model and your build. Do what makes you happy and let the naysayers do what they do best, and that is a lot of talking... Hardly do we ever see "that crowd" build anything, as they are way too busy nit picking someone else's work.

I'm sure whatever color you decide to paint yours in will be just fine. You are knocking this one out of the park !

and I can't wait to see the next set of pictures... Stay safe my friend.

Thank you, George, Spiros, George, Louis and Erik. Great to have your feedback and suggestions! I will be leaving the hino numbers and tail codes until after the clear coat. That will give me time to think things through and check references and photos. One interesting fact about the hino numbers is that surviving pilots of the squadron did not remember them at all and even insisted that they had never existed (in spite of photographic evidence). According to researchers for the Osprey book, they were applied for training purposes/aircraft ID and either wore off or were removed during combat operations. A couple of photos I have show Kanno's plane with no hino number at all. So, I guess a third option is to not have the numbers. I think I want them though because they look interesting and distinctive. We'll see.

Here is a tiny update to show the fix I did to the starboard hino. I created a new mask cut extra carefully with the circle cutter and positioned it over the slightly lopsided marking. The perfect circle revealed the slight distortion in the white surround - which stuck out around the edge of the mask. The fact that the Tamiya tape mask was also a bit translucent helped to make sure that it would look good all around after respraying. The pics show before and after the fix.

Very subtle, I know, maybe half a millimeter of difference. Even so, I am glad I got it done.

Hi Colin (@coling) your attention to detail makes my meagre efforts pale into insignificance, but I think you're right about the gloss coat, it definitely makes the colours appear that bit richer. Also, adding the numbers, whatever colour you eventually go for, will add that little bit of extra interest.

Looking great, Colin @coling!
Yep, the clear coat has saturated things really nicely and the oil pin wash will bring nicely on the rivet detail. I think it will all look perfectly balanced, under the final mattish coat.
As for progress pics, please post them, as often as possible: it's really nice to follow all your little steps; as if we are building the model by ourselves!

Looks great. My .02¢ about the number colour; looks white to me compared to the tail numbers. Again...looking at and translating B&W photos is a minefield

Thanks, George. I concur about the color of the numbers. Just in case, however, I have gone for a decal option, so I could rip off the numbers later and replace them with yellow ones if need be. See below.

Thanks, Spiros for the confirmation on the oil wash effect. When I spend all day working on something, I can't really see it clearly anymore. Good to have affirmative feedback.

I have put in a full day today decaling. I considered doing more stencil creation and airbrushing for the tail and hino numbers but I found I just couldn't work up the energy. I also dreaded more leakage and remedial paintwork. Then I had an idea. Instead of cutting a stencil for the tail numbers, I could take the same amount of care with better results by trimming off ALL of the carrier film on the kit decals numbers The resultant decals don't look like decals because there is nothing to silver. Here's how I did it. I punched out the round parts of the numbers "3" and "5" using a leather punch.

I trimmed off all the straight edges with small scissors or an exacto blade and steel rule. The rounded outer edges were trimmed with curved scissors (I think they are made for nail trimming). Each number was individually applied with tweezers so I had to do some careful measuring and handling with tweezers to line them up. Good thing Hasegawa decals are nice and tough and resist tearing. The results speak for themselves. I am very happy with the look and with the amount of control I had over the whole process. Of course it took time and patience to cut such tiny numbers out cleanly but a good visor, sharp scissors and Max Richter on the computer speakers made the operation quite relaxing. The stencils and especially the super delicate red line decal for the flaps took some time as well but less concentration. Hope you like the results.

Thanks for your comments, Louis. I am happy you like the decaling result. I do definitely value your insight on the hino numbers. If I may make a brief observation about the colorized photo, it actually looks retouched to me. Notice how each of the aircraft in the formation lines up with the camera in a way identical to the largest aircraft. Look especially at the tail section and also the hunched over position of the pilot with the canopy open. All the aircraft also have the same wear pattern with paint missing at the wing root. I think someone took one image and copied it to make two "other" aircraft, simply changing details like the image size, the tail numbers and the stripes. In fact, I think the main image may be the one of Kanno's plane as parked with the landing gear photo-shopped out (again, check out the tail section). Anyway, this doesn't have any real relevance to your point about the colors. It's just that I have my doubts that this one photo is an authentic wartime color picture. As I noted in today's posting, I have reserved the option of changing the hino numbers later by having them as decals. Just a quick swipe with scotch tape and I could replace them, given convincing evidence they should be yellow. Thanks again for your feedback. Always great to hear from you. Stay safe and happy modeling.