Stew Dapple

She turned out a beauty Dennis, if I ever get round to doing mine I shall be bookmarking this Cheers, Stew

In the Scale Aircraft Modelling 'Combat Colours' book for the Zero by Nick Millman it advises Aotake for the wheel wells of Nakajima-built Zeroes and the airframe colour for Mitsubishi-built ones, so the Tamiya instructions might be correct for the markings options provided. Looking forward to your build, I have been on numerous occasions tempted by this kit Cheers, Stew

Oy! That was a trade secret! Cheers, Stew

Nice to hear from you again Edward, and good to hear you are all okay Cheers, Stew

Hi Dennis, No problem with that at all mate, but I'm not necessarily the best resource, I'm not above making some howlers when it comes to my interpretation of colours and/or schemes If you are interested in Japanese Army and Navy aircraft and you haven't already been there I heartily recommend Nick Millman's Aviation of Japan blog; there's so much stuff on there it's not all that easy to navigate to what you want (it goes back years!) but I generally find if you google something like "Aviation of Japan Ki-61" you'll get a good selection to look at Cheers, Stew

Looking really nice Dennis, it's quite a relaxing kit to build, isn't it? Cheers, Stew

Hi Clifton, A good rule of thumb is that you cannot stir the paint too much; there are dedicated paint stirrers available - Badger make one, for instance - but I use one of those battery-operated coffee frothers from IKEA (I got two for £5 from ebay but I'm sure there is some equally cheap US equivalent) and I do recommend that or something like it because there is a lot of pigment in the paint. The uneven finish you describe does sound like it could have done with more stirring. I usually airbrush it, but I have on many occasions brush-painted, I usually thin it about 50% and aim to do two or three thin coats as required rather than trying to do it in one. HTH, Cheers, Stew

Your modelling knife is pretty hardcore too Cheers, Stew

Good lord, is that your modelling gear? Cheers, Stew

I think if the underside is shown as RLM65 the uppers should be either 70/71 or 71/02. If the uppers are 74/75 the underside should be RLM76. As for what those might be in Humbrol numbers that's well beyond me I'm afraid but there are some paint number converters online (though how accurate they are, again, I can't say). Cheers, Stew

Hi Doggy, That would be RLM70 Black-green. Cheers, Stew

Good god that really was (almost) four years ago, now I feel considerably older than I did when I woke up... Anyway nice progress mate, good luck with the squiggles - for what it's worth if they were applied in the field, they might well have been a bit inconsistent in real life Cheers, Stew

Great model and excellent presentation, nice work Didier Cheers, Stew

Hope this might help: https://www.roverparts.com/News/archive/PinkPantherHistory.cfm Cheers, Stew

Should've told her you were just pleased to see her Cheers, Stewe