Hello Tom, @tom-bebout

Again I thank you for the heads up about this book. It's very informative and I'm happy to have made it an addition to the ever growing library. If I ever hit the lottery I might consider dragging one of these up from under the ice ! All it takes is money...

Stephen, @stephen-w-towle
Thank you for sharing this link with me. That's a very cool story right there !

Michel, @michel-verschuere
I'm happy to hear that you are following this project. I know that I have been watching your scratch built tower emerge from piles of wood, and it's amazing. I'm following your build too ! However I hope that I don't let you down.

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement.

Guess what arrived today in the mail ? You got it... another important missing link. This is the book written by Dana Bell.

It has some fantastic color pictures in it. Here's one that immediately caught my attention.

This photo also caught my eye...

Look closely at the caption. Mr. Bell thinks that these early Lightning's were painted using OD Green and Neutral Gray.

Not some RAF colors as mentioned elsewhere. The choice is yours. As I spoke before you could paint yours purple. After all it's a hobby, and it's supposed to be fun isn't it ? One has taken the fun right out of this for me recently.

Read what has been written, use your own mind and draw your own informed conclusions.

Dana Bell goes on to explain how OD Green could have looked like various colors, and stated his reasons why. This man has spent countless hours in various Archives and knows his business when it comes to this stuff. Here's what he has to say about OD Green.

The book also has a few color chip samples that show the variations of colors that were used. Again, please keep in mind that what you see on your monitor is most likely different from what these chips will really look like in person. There are a lot of variables to consider and writing about this a person could write their own book about how color changes in different lighting conditions... Meanwhile here are a few pictures showing the colors. These are not RAF equivalents and are Army colors as indicated in the photos.


My best suggestion for you if your dead set serious about this, is to buy the book for yourself.

Finally I might have made a little headway on the type of Zero that was escorting the Admiral during Operation Vengeance. I found a few pictures online showing these "clip wing" square tip A6M-3 type 33 planes with markings from the 204th Kokutai.

Does this mean that the plane flown that day was a square wingtip version ? Nope...

I'm still not done digging.

As a side note, I might be taking a sabbatical from here for a while. Time will tell what happens next. This place isn't what it used to be for me anymore. Some of you will know what I mean. Enough said about that. We will see where the wind blows next... part of me wants to just say screw it all and leave. Close up shop and delete my account.

The other part of me is loyalty to my very close personal friends. If I decide to stay, this will be the only reason. I would only be staying for my good friends.

If I decide to permanently leave, it will give me more time to spend with my wife, and I'll have more time for building. It takes time from the work bench to post things, and my spare time is valuable to me.

You might want to start digging into my articles if there's something of interest before they are gone for good.

As always, comments are encouraged.

Thank you James ! @jamesb

Should I decide to stay, you would definitely be one of the reasons why... I needed to hear that. Thanks Pal...you're the best. No matter what happens next, I will definitely keep in touch with you. Some how, some way. I Promise...

Thank you very much Michel ! @michel-verschuere

The information regarding the 204th Kokutai is not too predominant with my study materials. In fact it's sketchy at best. I'll roll with what I "hope" is correct and see where the study leads me. This is one of the things I love about building models, and that's learning something new with each build. I have been spending some time doing various internet searches, and there's not much out there on the 204th in regards to finding the serial number or something that will help me determine what exact sub type Zero was flown on the mission.

I sincerely appreciate the extremely kind words. Should I decide to stay active here, you will be one of the reasons why. I have met some very wonderful persons here on Imodeler, and you are among those wonderful people.

No matter what happens next, I will keep in touch with you.

I promise you, just as I promised James.

Louis, you are just killing on this project. Incredible! A real joy to follow your careful research into the subject matter.

Paul, @paulwheeler

You just don't know how much your single post here has had such a positive effect on me. Thank you VERY much. I took your words to heart, and I just sent you a friendship request.

After I posted this, I started receiving numerous PM's from some of my other friends too. You guys are all wonderful. There is NO way I could toss all of this out over the actions of one person.

Thank you good Sir ! and welcome to Imodeler...

I'm staying, and unless I get banned from here, you guys are stuck with me... I'll do my best to mind my own business, and not offend.

Chuck, @uscusn

"It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood" to quote Mr. Rogers... I'm not going anywhere now. You guys are stuck with me, until I get banned ! But hopefully this will not happen any time soon. I really do enjoy being here with my true friends. My friends are the only thing that kept me here...

I have muted a "certain person" and will not read anything he has to say. This reminds me of another song, "One Bad Apple" by the Osmonds...

I'm going to ignore him and try to act as if he doesn't exist. I'll try my very best not to comment on anything he posts, even when it's blatantly wrong, and I hope that he returns the favor in kind. For some reason I can't remove him from my friend list, but I'll keep trying.

This just goes to show you boys and girls, that things are not what they always appear to be. A person can pretend to be something they are not, and can write something that is not always true. This is your "Mr. Rogers" lesson for the day... Good, I knew you could do it !

Now I'll quote Forrest Gump... "That's all I got to say about that".

Anyhow, back to the subject at hand. I found a very cool illustration that shows Yamamoto's Betty. Please keep in mind this is an illustration, and could contain errors. This is someone's interpretation on how they "thought" the plane should look. It could be very accurate, but I'm not going to comment about that until I have found out more...

The plane the Admiral was shot down and killed in was fairly new and had been in service for only a short time. As such, and combined with the fact that it was used to transport a high ranking officer, I am going to say that "most likely" it was well taken care of, and had minimal wear on the paint.

On the other hand, the humidity, heat and sunlight in the South Pacific can be a very harsh environment for painted surfaces, so in a short amount of time, a lot of damage can occur.

If you are building your G4M, I suggest you do a little research into the colors used too. Some Betty's were reported to have been delivered in natural metal and painted only on the upper surfaces. These planes would have remained with an unpainted natural metal finish on the underside of the fuselage, horizontal stabilizers and wings.

Next up is a photo that was taken of the Admiral's plane shortly after it crashed into the jungle.

One of the outer wing panels was later removed from the crash site and is now on display at the Yamamoto shrine. I'm interested to see if the lower surface of the wing was painted in a light gray color, or was it natural metal as some were.

Inquiring minds want to know. What is left of the plane (after souvenir hunters took parts from it over the years), is still there to this very day where it crashed...

In my searching I happened to stumble across these pictures. It shows a Betty with an Ohka in flight. This particular G4M lacks the fuselage side blisters... the same ones the plane was allegedly named after because of this predominant feature, who was reported to be a female nurse in Pennsylvania named "Betty".

I just happen to know this guy who has a few more of these Tamiya G4M's in his stash... this could be a future project. Now to get one of those Fine Molds 1/48 Ohka's. Hmmm.

As always,
Comments are encouraged.

One more thing. I want to thank each and every one of you that have sent me PM's over the past few days. I'll get back to you as soon as possible... Thank you again for your words of wisdom.

Glad you decided to stay, Louis. I enjoy your articles, that are always rich with research, and certainly would have missed them. My skills will never approach yours, but I do enjoy sharing with modelers like you. Cheers.