I made some new AIM-9s as I realized some of the older ones weren't accurate, particularly in the fins and color schemes. I found that there are tons of variations in coloration, even just within the US military. The USAF in particular didn't seem to have any sort of standardization for their missile markings in the 70s and 80s. Some of the source images had four or five missiles of the same type, but all of them looked different! The seekers with anodized heads also come out in a variety of colors, ranging from light to dark bronze to green to nearly black. That's a result of the process, color varies between batches. I've tried to include as many representative variations as possible so people have an easier time matching a photo source or picking something that matches the aesthetic they are looking for in their aircraft. I'll get around to doing other variations of the family, like the Sidearm, Chapperal, and CATMs soon. Maybe paint schemes for other countries as well. There is one major variant not shown here that appears in service as an air-to-air missile, the AIM-9JULI. This was a conversion for Juliet, November, and Papa series missiles offered by a German company. It retrofitted the missiles with the all-aspect seeker unit from a Lima. It is only used by the Spanish Air Force, as far as I know.
Some notes on the drawings:
I chose to display them with the rail interfaces showing. This is the grey bits on top of the missile. These should be erased when they are mounted on an aircraft, especially if the missile is mounted horizontally.
The AIM-9X has a prominent spine along the side opposite the rail interfaces. This is depicted as a grey line. As this spine changes the appearance of the missile when facing the viewer, I made a special side view for use on wingtips and the like. Other missiles are more or less symmetrical, and do not need special modification regarding their orientation. I am not familiar with any AIM-9 mount that has the missiles with the fins parallel and perpendicular to the ground, so all are displayed at a 45 degree angle.
The AIM-9C is radar guided, and was only used for a brief time on the F-8 Crusader. The stockpiles of this missile were turned into the AGM-122 Sidearm anti-radiation missile.
Here's a guide I put together showing the differences in layout.
