The Little World

Fans of Rowan and Martin may recognise that line, and bless Dan and Dick for the joy they brought us. But colour theory is not as simple as that – particularly if you are going to venture into the Little World.

I did just that tone afternoon when I tried to organise my Tamiya and Mr. Hobby paints into air force categories to make it easier to reach for the appropriate bottle. I found myself very grateful to the makers when they actually put the information on the little jars. I found Tamiya averted that certain of their colours were dedicated to the RAF or the Imperial Japanese Navy or Army. I was prepared to believe them as it seemed reasonable; who better to know Japanese colours than a Japanese paint maker? And then I went to the internet and Googled…

Oh dear Lord.

The number of variations of green for the Imperial Japanese airplanes…Kawanishi, Mitsubishi, Nakajima, etc. and the number of scholarly sources cited…paint chips, museum pieces, theoretical records, imperial pronouncements…I ended up dizzy, and not from the paint fumes.

A simple man, I have determined that I will not keep 247 different shades of green for the Japanese aircraft. Nor will I mix paint for Allied planes that attempts to reproduce the exact colour of the 24th of July 2, 1944, on the south side of the Loire at 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon. If I want to go mad, I will do it over sex or money or really good pizza – not paint colours.

I’ve gotten somewhere – there are labels on the paint shelves and I’ve tentatively put some bottles in their place. But I am realistic enough to realise that they could all fall off the shelves and be put back in the dark and the results would be fairly similar.