Reason Why Raiden Props Are Brown?

I think it was the color of the oxide primer.

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" In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow; he's been up all night listening to Mohammad's radio" W. Zevon

It's just the color they used.

And the Zeros weren't lavender - IIRC the info's at

I don't recall what the deal was well enough to give you detailed information, but I veguely recall it being related to the weathering of the finish.

in article snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com, who me? at snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote on 17/6/04 20:03:

I seam to remember that the *lavender* colour used was infact just a badly faded brown, but where I remember this from I can't remember.

in article BCF7B085.1E1A5% snipped-for-privacy@griffon65.freeserve.co.uk, Rory Manton at snipped-for-privacy@griffon65.freeserve.co.uk wrote on 6/17/04 2:33 PM:

I've heard also that it was the fading of a light "gray??" top coat over the required red-oxide primer that the IJNAF used on its aircraft.

That primer often lasted much longer than the exterior color, hence a number of "pink" aircraft hulks found in the SWP jungles. Or like the Val that's on display at the Fredricksburg TX Museum of the Pacific.

MB

That is how I have interpreted it. Whether it was a topcoat of gray, or green; when heavily faded, weathered, and worn, when the red primer started to show through.....it took on a purplish tint under certain lighting.

In answer to the question, ISTR most of their prop blades were wooden & just painted brown.

The mauve/violet tints that are claimed seem to be in conjunction with Zero floatplanes. Their finishes were subjected not only to weathering but also constant washing by groundcrews to remove salt. The effect was quite probably to wear through the light gray and dark green finishes to the point that they became somewhat translucent and started to show the red-brown primer underneath, leading to the hues described.

As for the propeller color, the switch to the brown or 'tea-colored' finish from NMF happened on JNAF aircrat in 1944 (about the time the Raiden entered service), and so would be correct for any front-line JNAF airplane for the period.

All per Ian K. Baker's Aviation Coloring Book series, Volumes 36 and 37, JNAF.

Mark Schynert

They went bright red-orange when they met F6F Hellcats. Then they became good Zeros. :-)

Jim Klein