This kit was somewhat disappointing when I first bought it several years ago. The small parts were little more than blobs of soft plastic from which one was expected to carve the required pieces. The decals featured some bits and pieces of specific aerobatic airplanes, but not enough to complete any of the schemes without some extremely delicate masking and painting of small areas. With all of these challenges, the kit sat in my stash, untouched, for the better part of a decade.

Click on images below to see larger images

After I finally figured out how to make my own decals for another modeling  project using a home PC and printer, this kit was the first subject that popped to mind. I really like Pitts Specials painted in 'stock' schemes as opposed to sponsored performer schemes, so that was the end goal of the build. All of the designs were drawn in MS Paint with some tweaking in Adobe Photoshop, and the final product printed onto Expert's Choice clear decal paper on an HP Deskjet D4160 printer. Several test printings on regular paper were required to check and adjust sizes, angles and shapes on the actual model before the final decals could be printed.
 
Otherwise, the kit was built without any aftermarket or scratch-built parts. The only major modification made was to shorten the rear of the wheel pants by about 3/16', and reshape them. All of the paints are Testors Model Master enamels, except the front of the prop blades which are Floquil's 'Old Silver'.

Darin