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The Ame-Iro I used is Gunze C128 on the gray Rufe and both A6M3 (then covered with C015 on top). The gray on the green Rufe is Gunze C035.

Thanks for your comments and questions. This is one of photos taken yesterday on my balcony: The model is set on a stand and on the left side you can see my son's cheek - he assisted me to achieve the props rotation. Then a few minutes of background cloning and that's it! Yes. It took about 1 hour with 0,2 mm nozzle per model.

My Hasegawa Zeros finished in recent weeks. More photos are available - just click the pictures below. 1. Nakajima A6M2-N (Rufe) D-105, Toko Naval Flying Group, Kiska Island, Aleutian Islands, summer 1942 2. Nakajima A6M2-N (Rufe) NI-119, 802 Kokutai, Emidj base on Jaluit island (Marshall Island), August 1943 3. Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero Model 32 (Hamp) T2-190, 204 Kokutai, Rabaul, summer 1943 4. Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero Model 22 (Zeke) UI-105, 25 Koku Sentai, 251 Kokutai, Rabaul, May 1943. Flown by Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, the top ace of Japanese Navy (87 kills).

My model is painted RAF Dark Green and Medium Sea Grey (Gunze Mr.Colors).

I did the "Passion Wagon" from Airfix and Kits World. The only modification to the kit was removed fin. It was simple. Don't worry, you can do it. I would be careful with that. The fuselage section of P-51C in the point of fillet front was higher than in P-51D. Therefore the fillet was also different. It won't fit without modifications. It seems to be much more difficult than simple removing of the Airfix fillet.

I use Gunze Mr.Colors. The Olive Drab and Neutral Grey look good to me too, but I have also postshaded them a little with Dark Earth and a light grey respectively on some panels and Smoke Gray on panel lines.

P-40E No. 96, S/N probably 40-596, of 11 Fighter Squadron, 343 Fighter Group "Aleutian Tigers", Fort Glenn, Umnak Island, Aleutians, summer 1942. Some sources say the plane was flown by Major John S. Chennault. Kit: Academy 1/72. Tail numbers - Techmod decals.

P-40B No. 155 of 47 Pursuit Squadron, 15 Pursuit Group, Wheeler Field, Hawaii. In this aircraft Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor (3 air victories, unofficially 6) as one of the few was defending Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Kit: Airfix, 1/72. Decals: AML. Markings of the aircraft are speculative, because AFAIK there is no photo of Taylor's aircraft.

There was Cessna Bobcat from Pavla, 1/72.

Hello! I have started the Rufe Dual Combo (Hasegawa 1/72). One of the models is going to be an Aleutian Rufe like this one. However, I have some doubts regarding its rudder color. Hasegawa shows it in yellow, but wasn't it just a different shade of gray, caused by different weathering of Ame-iro on metal and fabric, or maybe a repair of the fabric skin? Have Japanese Navy used yellow rudders as recognition markings at Aleutians? It would be unusual... Looking forward for your opinions. Thank you.

I have built the Italeri kit some time before the new Airfix appeared. I have used Pavla resin propeller, radiators (still not accurate), cannons and wheels. Rescribed the whole airframe, corrected upper cowling and wheel wells, and made wide cannon blisters. The result is better than before, but still some inaccuracies can be found: Today there is no need to build this kit - my build was expensive (with the resin parts) and required much effort. My next Mk.IXcs will be AZ-Models (I have 7 of them in stash). As a teenager about 25 years ago I also have built some other Spitfire kits. Here is Polish kit Farmtex/Lotnia, which was Mk.IX UTI (Russian two-seater), but I have converted it to Mk.Vb. Despite of the conversion, the original "quality" of the kit is still visible: Czech KP Mk.IXe kit converted to bubble-top Mk.XVI: Another KP kit built as Mk.IXc:

Are you sure you need the conversion kit? I converted my Airfix P-51D using nothing but a knife and some sandpapers. No putty was needed here.

There were no Mk.IVs with PK codes. I think you meant 'RF or PD' - both refer to 303 Sqn, the only Polish unit with Mk.IVs. Aftermarket decals for 303 Sqn Mustangs in 1/48 scale can be found here and here.

The model looks nice. Just a little naming correction: it is rather an F-16A FSD, not YF-16. YF-16 were two prototypes (72-1567 and 72-1568) with smaller overall dimensions, no radar, different nose gear door and smaller ventral fins. Your model looks like FSD (Full Scale Development) or early production F-16A. Its painting scheme is similar to YF-16s and the first FSD, but the number is fake - it should be 50745 (for 75-0745 aircraft). Pair of F-16 FSDs YF-16 - note smaller nose and ventral fins, different nose gear doors.

The model is painted with Gunze GX1 White. According to instructions it should be FS17875, which in Gunze Mr.Colors palette is C316, but the paint is a little on ivory side, so I preferred pure white GX1.

The cockpit is where it should be, but it is from a different aircraft. Just some minor improvements. I moved the upper antenna and light to the left from centerline and added some sensors on cockpit sides and nose boom. The "chrome" parts of the boom and intakes lips are decorated with Bare Metal Foil. But real battle was with the decals. They were yellowed, but it is not the biggest problem. The long elements of decals tend to became longer after i put them on the model, so they wrinkled and it looked like a positive panel line every ca. 7 mm of stripes. Decal liquids did not help. My last resort was to cover it with gloss varnish (Gunze GX100) and polish. It did not solve the problem completely, but at least the wrinkles do not dominate in the overall look of the model. Meanwhile I understood the people who painted their X-29 in what-if schemes of "F-29A" fighter. I was not that smart. If you have any decals bigger than 2 centimeters, be prepared for similar problems. However, I don.t know what you can do about it except for replacing the decals with aftermarket ones.

The first prototype of experimental X-29, 82-0003, first flown on December 14, 1984 at Edwards. Pilot: Chuck Sewell. On December 13, 1985 she became the first supersonic aircraft with forward-swept wing. The first X-29 is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. The second prototype, 82-0049, was first flown on May 23, 1989. Now she is on display at the Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base.

I can recommend the MPM Hi-Tech kit.

Two additional photoshopped images:

The second X-15, No. 56-0071, after a landing accident rebuilt as X-15A-2. She was used for test flights with external fuel tanks, dummy ramjet and ablative heat protection. On October 10, 1967, she set the speed World Record flying 7274 km/h (Mach 6,7) piloted by Pete Knight. It was her 54th flight and the last one due to airframe damage by heat. Currently she is exhibited in USAF Museum in Wright Patterson airbase.

Bahrain Grand Prix was the first Formula One race in 2010 (March 14). For Fernando Alonso it was the first race in Ferrari team. He finished the race as the leader and his partner Felipe Massa was the second to cross the finish line. Great debut for Ferrari F10! This is my first F1 car in 1/24 scale. Earlier I did four 1/43 Hellers, bit that's a different story. I was not exactly following the Revell's instructions, because I didn't like the idea of attaching the front suspension to unfinished body. I modified one part of the suspension to attach it to the body when it was finished. I also had some problems with rubber tyres - one of them was too wide to fit it's rim. All of them had visible traces of molding, which was not done perfectly. I had to paint the tyres, and in this case I'd prefer them molded of plastic, not rubber.

Beautiful Spitfire. I just recommend to swap the landing gear doors and remove the landing gear scissors as they were there in later aircraft only, together with slightly different doors.

You're right, Pete. The first time in my modelling I had to use a magnifying glass was two days ago, when I was setting decals on the Leopard. The decals allow to create license plates for any Polish Leopard, so they are made of a background decal with [u-A00 T] and 4 sets of digits. I had to set 1 and 2 separately to create [u-A0012T] for #0166. The rear plate is 2,5 mm high and has 2 lines of characters. It was impossible for me to do it with naked eyes.