Marcus, @mvtb
Your Ki-100 looks as if it is almost done now ! It looks fantastic and brushing the aluminum color on the fabric control surfaces is like adding icing on a cake... Well done my friend. It now looks proper, and it also looks very nice.
I mentioned in Tom Bebout's Ki-100 build, that the fabric control surfaces were painted an aluminum color on all of the Ki-61 Hien's as well as the Ki-100's (which originated from the Ki-61). It is a common misconception these parts were painted using the IJA "Light Gray / Green". This is not the case.
This practice of using the IJA Light Gray Green was discontinued on the later model Ki-43's and Ki-44's. If you take a good close look at original photos of these later mark "Oscar's" and "Tojo's", these planes will also have the fabric control surfaces painted using aluminum colored dope. The dope was used to tighten and seal the fabric. If you have ever built any "old school" balsa wood models and covered them with tissue paper, then you are familiar with "dope" and how it is used.
Here are a few pictures that back up what I'm stating. This is a Ki-61 from the Akeno Flying School.
Look at the color of the rudder and compare it to the overall shade of the nearby unpainted natural metal finish on the vertical fin.
This is a photo of another Ki-61 that has flipped over on it's back during a landing accident.
I believe this plane was assigned to the 244th Sentai. The ailerons (and elevators) on this plane are also the same color as the bare metal on the underside of the wing (and horizontal stabilizer).
This next photo is of a Ki-61 that was partially restored as a static display in Japan. It has some metal parts that were fabricated. I know this is a "restoration" so it's not original, but you will see they too have painted the fabric in an aluminum color. This was intentionally done and is authentic. Kawasaki sponsored this aircraft.
They have also matched the color that was found on the interior. It is not RLM 79 as the Hasegawa kit instructions state. It's a darker color and you can see it on the panel in this picture of the same aircraft display. You have done a very good job representing the color on yours.
In fact, on some of the later built Ki-100's, the cockpit color was the same as the exterior of the plane. This bit of information was found on the Ki-100 that is on display in London. From what I have read, the exterior color of the plane matched the interior cockpit areas. Keep in mind that some of the Ki-100's originally started life as Ki-61's, and were then converted to accept the radial engine when the inverted V-12 was not available for installation. This is why some of the Ki-100's would have the cockpits painted just as the Ki-61's did... because they were Ki-61's to start with.
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1. Kawasaki cockpit color
These next two pictures show Ki-100's. In this photo you can see the aileron has a very similar light reflection as the rest of the wing does. Out closer to the wingtip, the fabric's appearance on the surface has changed the way the color looks a little. This is because of how light reflects off cloth surfaces differently from that of a smooth metal surface.
Finally in this last picture, you can see how the ailerons look very similar in appearance to the wing tips. The flaps are down, so they look different too. I really like this picture because it shows how the metal panels on the underside of the wing have a different "grain" to them. The fabric controls on the horizontal stabilizer also match the surrounding metal very well.
I commend you on your Ki-100... It looks especially nice with the painted on tail stripes. By the looks of things, this one might be in the headlines section soon.
Thanks for posting the updates. The main thing we need to remember is to have fun. It's your model and you can paint it any way you want to. I try to make mine authentic as I can at the time I build them. But on the majority of the completed Ki-61 and Ki-100 models in my display case, I have painted mine incorrectly using the IJA Light Gray Green too. Back when I built them, I didn't have internet access.
Somewhere in my model library, I have a copy of an article that states specifically how and when this change from Light Gray Green to Aluminum color was done on these airframes I mentioned above. Once I locate it, I will copy and post it up to further prove my statements, (if necessary). Pictures speak volumes. This stuff is fascinating to me, and it's amazing at how far the study of various aircraft colors has gone in the past several years...
Hope this helps... 🙂
