Here's my Hasegawa Rufe that I did when the kit was first released way back when.
I showed maroon primer starting to show through the paint on the bottom of the floats and high traffic areas.

And from 1968, the State of the Art. The new Tamiya "Purple" Pete on the cover.

How things have changed since this book changed my 13 year old prospective on what building models could be versus making toys.

It's getting there. It was a pretty busy week, so there wasn't a lot of time for airplane stuff.

All of the seams are finally sanded and prepped. I shot the gray lower surfaces this afternoon, using Model Master IJN Sky Gray, lightened, as usual, with a little white. I'm going to let that cure while I'm at work. Hopefully I can get the upper green paint on next weekend. I'm not looking forward to masking the canopy...

Thanks, Bernd! It is a nice kit, even if it is old, and has gone together pretty well so far.

Bernd, on my kit, the panel lines are so petite they're almost nonexistent!

Rick, I remember the purple Pete, but I was only 10 years old when that book came out, so needless to say, I didn't have a copy...

After a couple of weeks of life intervention, I was finally able to get back to work on the Rufe. After the usual several hours of masking (which was made a bit more interesting with the addition of the floats), I shot the upper surface IJN dark green. Finally got the problem with my air compressor regulator ironed out and the paint went on just fine. It also helped that it wasn't 99 degrees outside! The green was lightened with some light gray, but it still looks a bit bright. I'm hoping it tones down a bit once I get the flat coat and weathering on. She'll sit for a bit while I go back to generate some revenue, then I'll get started on the decals and all the other little things that need to happen. The upper part of the rudder will be hand brushed in silver to simulate an unpainted fabric surface.

In the last photo is a surprise, a barn find of sorts. While shuffling some other stuff around, I found a 1/48 Monogram F-16 that I started who knows how long ago. It deserves to get finished after sitting around all this time, probably in the markings of the 111th FS, which was based at Ellington Field here in Houston...

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Looking great Jaime, keep up the good work.

Jaime you're really making that old girl shine, looks great.

Got a little more work done today. The prop, bomb racks and exhaust stacks were painted and installed. One of the little aileron balances flew off into the netherworld while I was trying to cut it off the sprue, so this model won't have them, but it isn't noticeable so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Main float has been attached and fit much better than I expected. Once the glues sets on that, I'll attach the tip floats and the airplane will be pretty much complete. Masking the canopy proved to not be a good idea as the framing is very light in places and I got quite a bit of paint bleeding under the tape. Fortunately, I only did part of the main canopy on one side, since I wasn't sure if how well this would go. I'm having much better luck doing this by hand with a fine brush. The decal setting solution cracked the two upper wing hinomarus, but didn't affect any of the other decals at all. I'll try to work that damage into the weathering.

Jaime, I think I have some spare Hinomsrus as well, if working them into the weathering doesn't work out.