Kasumigaura A6M2s pt.1

Our friend Sergio L. de H. Teixeira left the following comment:

Hi George, thanks for sharing your research and conclusions! But I'm still struggling with the "trainer yellow/orange dilemma". I'm building a Fine Moulds A6M2 (early production) and I want to finish it as Ka-103. After reading and confronting many articles about the matter, I'm really thinking on painting it in this fashion:
- Overal orange yellow, with red IFF stripes and blue/black top cowling, with olive grey/ameiro l/g bays.
I came to this conclusion because Ka-103, like sistership Ka-101, are ex frontline fighters, which were transferred to a training unit; in my opinion the planes went repainted in different times (Ka-103 looks pristine, while Ka-101 looks very weathered, mainly in the cowling and the IFF stripes); I don't think they kept the olive grey/ameiro original paint and their cowling only were repainted and/or the blue back removed, leaving just the upper part. And I think there's a possibility their l/g bays were left in the previous, original olive grey/ameiro color (typical of Mitsubishi built A6M2s).
Of course I'm not 100% sure and I'm open to suggestions.
Thanks in advance.

The A6M2s of the Kasumigaura Kokutai have been a source of both intrigue and confusion, leading to many challenges over time.

Please note that this posting is focusing on the Kasumigaura A6M2s; not the unit's A6M2-Ks or other aircraft types or the Zeros of other trainer units.

Sergio wants to build "か-103" (KA-103) so let's start with this aircraft.

There are many photos, some of very high quality, some less so, of KA-101 and KA-103 in various Japanese publications, most of them showing the two aircraft together but also individually. We gathered the information below from all these publications but especially MARU Extra #23 which has the best quality photos and the most information.

Here's the first photo from Model Art Profile #12. 

The aircraft is an early production A6M2 Model 21 built by Mitsubishi with the characteristic aileron mass balance; a feature that only the first 326 Zeros had. 

The pilot is LCDR Yanagisawa Hachiro (died April 1945) and the photo is said to have been taken around Autumn 1942.

As Sergio noted, the aircraft has a most unusual for an IJNAF aircraft antiglare panel on the cowling.

All sources agree that the aircraft looked like that in order to take part in the movie "Hawai Mare Oki Kaisen" (The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya) released by Toho on December 3, 1942. The exact reason and background story are not known but some sources say that it was probably to play the role of an "enemy aircraft".

It seems the aircraft retained this unusual finish while in Kasumigaura for some time.

Here's another photo of KA-103 from FAOW Special #6.

In both photos, it is clear that the cowling antiglare paint was first removed and then it was repainted with the same paint as the rest of the aircraft.

Here's another photo from MARU Extra #23 featuring LTJG Asaeda Kuniomi posing at the cockpit of KA-103.

And another from the same publication with LCDR Yanagisawa Hachiro this time by the cockpit.

Here's a photo of KA-101 from the publication Military Aircraft #12 with some stills from a movie.

Note the red rear part of the spinner. The cowling of the aircraft looks to be in the same very good condition as the KA-103, but that was not always the case. In this photo from MARU Extra #23 we can see that the earlier "black" antiglare paint has been quite roughly removed. 

The other side looks equally bad and note also the bad condition of the IFF stripe. Photo from FAOW #5.

Here's another photo of KA-101 from FAOW Special #6.

And two more with probably KA-101 in the foreground from MARU Extra #23.

What about the aircraft on the starboard side? Here's another photo of MARU Extra #23.

And as we can see KA-102 also had the same unusual cowling. 

But in this photo sequence, it is surrounded by Mitsubishi A5Ms of the Kasumigaura school. 

Before we address the issues of the overall color and others, here are two more photo of KA-101 from FAOW #5 and MARU Extra #23. Note the variety of aircraft types in the top photo.

So, let's talk now about the overall color of these aircraft. It is very important to clarify that Japanese aircraft, Navy & Army, were delivered by the factories painted according to their originally specified roles. Fighters were painted as fighters, trainers as trainers. If a fighter was assigned to a trainer unit, it would have required a substantial effort to remove the original paint (take into consideration the red/brown primer for the Zeros) and then repaint the whole aircraft as a trainer. Then, go through the whole process one more time, if for instance, it was reassigned to a combat unit.

Just repainting the whole aircraft as a trainer over the original factory paint, would saddle it with kilos of paint that, again, would have needed to be removed in case the aircraft changed role. The whole process would have been particularly tedious and would require considerable man-hours that nobody really had. 

One more thing to consider.

The original IJNAF general orders detailing how all aircraft types were to be painted, dated June 1944 but in effect since October 5, 1942, made clear that "...camouflaged aircraft should have their IFF stripes painted kiiro (yellow). Aircraft without camouflage should have their IFF stripes painted red or yellow" Note that "red" comes first.

The orders continue by mentioning: "But trainers, experimental and other aircraft should be painted yellow if the circumstances permit". 

Trainer aircraft did not have IFF stripes because they didn't need them. They were painted in such a way, overall "yellow", so as to be easily recognizable anyway.

So, in the case of the Kasumigaura KA-101, KA-102 and KA-103 Zeros, they were delivered by Mitsubishi in overall gray. If they had gone through the time-consuming and tedious process of being repainted "yellow" as trainers, they would not need to have IFF stripes. The presence of the IFF stripes is a very clear indication that these aircraft, as seen in these photos, were in overall gray, not trainer "yellow". Not to mention that they just don't look like being painted in trainer "yellow".

Another issue is the exact color of the IFF stripes.

In all the above photos, the IFF stripes look unusually dark. In some photos, they seem to be exactly or almost exactly the same color as the hinomaru. Some researchers who, for some inexplicable reason, don't believe in the existence of red IFF stripes insist that either the KA Zero stripes were painted "dark orange" or that the photographic conditions make them look dark. Every single Japanese researcher and author that mentions the stripes, makes it very clear that they were indeed red. Only one mentions in passing they were probably "dark orange".

The above-mentioned official orders clarify beyond any doubt that red paint was to be used on aircraft without camouflage. The KA Zeros do not have any camouflage, and therefore it is only natural to assume that their IFF stripes were painted red because the orders stipulated so and because they look red!

Nohara Shigeru has illustrated KA-103 in the Green Arrow publication as such.

He opted for dark orange IFF stripes while in other publications he insists they were red.

Personally, I prefer the illustration by Ibukuro Toyohiko from Gakken's "Zero-sem Perfect Guide".

Maybe not as dramatic as an overall trainer "yellow" Zero would have been but in my opinion, sufficiently unusual and eye-catching as a modelling subject.