In comparison to its two main adversaries – the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy – the Imperial Japanese Navy developed little in the way of camouflage schemes, and utilized a much smaller range of colors. Camouflage schemes saw some use on units assigned to the Aleutians, on seaplane tenders, armed merchant cruisers and merchant ships, and in the late war years on some cruisers and aircraft carriers. Of primary interest to modelers of the IJN is the fact that the four principal navy yards – Kure, Sasebo, Maizuru, and Yokosuka – utilized gray paints that differed somewhat in shade. Thus the modeler desiring greatest accuracy must conduct enough research to know which yard a given ship was assigned to or refitted and repaired. This set of paint chips provides all four grays, and as a bonus we also include a partial list of IJN ships and dates they underwent construction or major refits at these yards. The set also provides two greens used on aircraft carriers later in the war, as well as a tan used in combination with the greens and grays for flight deck camouflage. The final color provided – linoleum – was not a paint color, but rather the molded-in color of the linoleum used on the weather decks of some ships. All colors were carefully matched to Japanese sources.

This set contains 10 chips on a single sheet and covers the following colors: