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Mitsubishi Zero V-107 marking question


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Ohayo gozaimasu Gato San,

The Zero 21 "V-107" was noted in the log of Saburo Sakai for early combat in the Philippines. At that time he flew with the TAINAN KOKUTAI Headquarters Buntai, thus the blue diagonal stripe. From Dec 1941 to Late March 1942 the tail codes were white with red piping.

The diagonal stripe colors were like the Luftwaffe Staffel colors:

White = First Buntai

Red = Second Buntai

Yellow = Third Buntai

Blue = HQ

Oh, with the move by ship to Rabaul in late March, the newer Zeros acquired had the same diagonal stripe system, but the tail codes were black.

Uniquely the command stripes for the TAINAN KU were like the 3rd Kokutai in the Philippines...from Dec 41 to late March 1942.

That command system changed, when at Rabaul, to a system similar to that aboard the Kido Butai. Osamu Tagaya tried to address the command stripe change in the Japanese Info Clearinghouse/"Pacific Front" in the early 1980s...which S. Nohara copied for his MODEL ART Special on the topic. This study was the start of the deeper studies continuing today.

Hope this helps,

David Aiken

Edited by David_Aiken
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  • 2 weeks later...

hello David, is a mixture of white and olive drab(50-50),plus yellow(I believe I add so much yellow,for my next Zero i gotta use more olive drab and just a bit of yellow.

Cheers.

Ahhh, so! Gato san,

Perhaps a photo under natural light would help in the understanding. Send me a scan...

Thank you so much!

Cheers,

David Aiken

PearlHarborHistory AT Hotmail dot com

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