Painting Japanese tanks
Painting Japanese tanks is a lot easier than it first seems due to the manufacturing difficulties there was no real standard applied throughout the war. The official colour scheme identified below would have changed by tone shade etc throughout the war. Different theaters of operation could have had different suppliers, so generally there are some basic shades and as long as you get close its fine.
Our tanks are 1:72 scale so when using paints its always best to lighten them with pure white for scale effects we recommend 15-20% they will darken as you give then a weathering wash, most of the authentic pictures I have seen of Japanese tanks show significant weathering. The most difficult part is the yellow disruptive striping as you probably know yellow is not an easy colour to paint. Its best to put a base coat of light grey or white then yellow stripe on top
I use Vallejo Model air and Vallejo paints We also use Hataka HTK-AS69 WW2 Imperial Japanese Army AFV paint set
| Colour | Vallejo | Vallejo Model Air | Hataka | Notes |
| Pre-1942 Khaki (khaki-iro) | Khaki 70.988 or
Green brown 70.879 |
Earth Green early primer 70.611 | HTK-A240 IJA Khaki | base colour in early IJA scheme (1937-42), used on various types of AFVs |
| Pre-1942 Mahogany brown (Tochi-iro) | Flat brown 70.984 | Camouflage pale brown 71.035 | HTK-A241 IJA Tea brown | used for disruptive shapes in early IJA camouflage scheme (1937-42) |
| Pre-1942 Olive green (Midori-iro) | Luftwaffe camo green 70.823 | IJA Midouri green 71.134 | HTK-A242 IJA Olive green | used for disruptive shapes in early IJA camouflage scheme (1937-42) |
| Yellow (disruptive striping) | Flat yellow 70.953 | IJA Chrome yellow 71.135 | HTK-A107 Signal yellow | Used for disruptive stripes in early IJA camouflage scheme (1937-42) on various types of AFVs |
| Post-1942 Khaki (karekusa-iro) | Khaki 70.988 or middlestone 70.882 | 70.610 Surface primer Parched grass late | HTK-A243 IJA parched grass | IJA Parched Grass (Karekusa-iro), base colour in late IJA scheme (1943-45), used on various AFVs |
| Post-1942 brown (tochi-iro) | Flat brown 70.984
Chocolate brown 70.872 |
71.042 Camouflage black brown | HTK-A168 Dark brown | Exact match with IJA Earth Brown (Tochi-iro), used in both early and late IJA schemes |
| Post-1942 Olive Green (tsutikusa-iro) | Brown violet 70.887 | 608 US olive drab | HTK-A169 Green | Exact match with IJA Grass Green (Kusa-iro), used in late IJA camouflage scheme (1943-45) |
| Post-1942 green (kusa-iro9 | Reflective green 79.890 | 71.093 Nato green | HTK-A065 olive drab | Close match with IJA Olive Green (late), used for disruptive shapes in late IJA scheme (1943-45) |
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Chi -Ha medium Tank
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