Then to quote your source...starting sometime in 1942..."As a general rule, until late 1944 multi-engined IJAAF planes were painted in the factory with a primer undercoat and an overcoat of the traditional glossy gray-green.
Single-engined fighters were sent out to frontline units
without a prior application of primer. It was there, at the unit level in the field, that the camouflage was completed. Initially the most common scheme used was a solid coat of Jungle green, then all variations of blotches, stripes, and combinations of two or more colors were used on these planes. IJAAF camouflage colors were used mainly, but sometimes mixing produced non-standard colors, and the use of captured paint was also allowed. The important thing is that the lack of primer generated a lot of paint chipping and peeling, to the point where it has now been established that some artists’ renditions of planes in a blotched camouflage were in fact misinterpretations of a solid color coat that had peeled to the point where it looked like this “blotching” was done deliberately ! "
http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/weat ... estion.htm
...and "It is known today that the cause of this poor paint coverage was the lack of primer under the external color, a reflection on the quality of manufacturing rather than the materials....The actual cause for this heavily-worn paint is that during some periods of the war, standard manufacturing procedures omitted the application of primer, leading directly to heavy paint chipping and peeling on many aircraft."...from the same reference as above.....by François P. WEILL
To further paraphrase Weill, IJNAF aircraft were better treated owing to the understanding that salt air and water exposure of all aluminum aircraft caused "granular corrossion" that ate the aluminum away or caused it to be brittle. IJN aircraft were, therefore, given special paint treatments and not subject to the chipping and peeling until later in the war. Part of this was "Alclad" coatings that appeared to be bare aluminum. Another possible cause is the fact that IJN aircraft had hangar decks to protect them while IJAAF aircraft sat mostly in the open subject to the prevailing weather conditions.
I think we are both right, and both wrong.....there are alot of conflicting information available...even 70 years later...and the debate still rages. I appreciate your input and encourage everybody to go out and seek, find, evaluate, and decide for yourselves.
ALL Zero's also recv'd the standard gray/green undercoat (after 1943 particulary) as well which often appeared as a tanish color in photographs when seen thru peeled paint. Bottom line as far as paint goes the Japanse factories that produced the Zero's weren't like a Ford factory pulling a car off to go to the shop that's going to convert it to a convertible, this one gets primed, this one don't...
