Japanese camouflage late war

[Graham Boak]

Wasn't the standard colour an olive green, which is well known for being on the borders of green and brown, and often fades browner? The IJAAF had a brown in use earlier, and there seems to be no reason why it could not have continued in use - whether it did or not as a general statement, there would seem to be no reason to rule it out completely at all times. Another reason for colour changes is the shortage of particular pigments in siege economies, something discussed in terms of the German paints but not (to my knowledge) for the Japanese. It wasn't just the oil that wasn't getting through to the homeland.

I would argue that most of the evidence on the net are profiles, and we should all be aware of how unreliable they are! I certainly recall profiles of Ki.100 in brown, with references to it being common on late-war types. There are however other sources than Osprey, especially in Japanese publications. Though there is of course no reason to expect to older ones not so suffer from the same misunderstandings of the official colours as those in the West.

Without being able to access my copy at the moment, is there not evidence of browns in Thorpe? I know that Nick Millman finds these particular elderly works reliable - perhaps surprisingly so.