What kind of reaction would this idea get?

If you want a reminder of how dirty real aircraft get, check out the second-to-last photo in this post – the latest Fokker D.VIII repro from TVAL after her first display (today).
http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=airshow&thread=15903&post=156103

….they originally would have been natural metal.

Doesn’t mean they look right! :diablo:

Nooooo :eek:, B-17’s should be olive drab.

The factory quit panting B-17s in January, 1944.
Since all B-17s currently flying are Gs, and most Gs were made after that date, they originally would have been natural metal.

That aircraft recently sold on Platinum Fighters. Apparently it is coming to Europe. Good for some but bad for others!

But quite possibly correct for its time period.
There ia a huge difference between a in service warbird and a civil pre or post-war types.

Yes, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but anti-polish people will be on the wrong side of authenticity. Remember, ther are more aircraft types than warbirds.

What about the one they sanded all the dome head rivets “flush” during the prep, and apparently the owner flew it away unfinished; can’t remember the type, but seem to remember it was a US warbird.

…..she was bare metal with a blue stripe up the fin and looked much much better, IMHO.

Nooooo :eek:, B-17’s should be olive drab, B-24’s are natural metal!! They look wrong any other way! I remember the blue fin band, then the red that followed. The yellow tail scheme was nice, but didn’t last long before the Memphis Belle film came along, and we’ve been stuck with that ever since.

Quote:
I just wish owners would stop polishing bare aluminium to a mirror finish.

I completely agree, this is a disgrace! 😀

That aircraft recently sold on Platinum Fighters. Apparently it is coming to Europe. Good for some but bad for others!

I don’t think ‘Sally B’ ever looked better than here.

That’s pretty nice but when I first walked through Sally B, she was bare metal with a blue stripe up the fin and looked much much better, IMHO.

Hmmmm yea Hangar 11’s P40 looks nice!

http://www.hangar11.co.uk/p40gallery.html

Those posts referencing plastic modelling errors missed the fact fact I specifically said flying models.

{snip}

I’m afraid that is a subtlety that was lost on me Graeme.

Richard

And here’s me thinking this was a thread about warbird schemes and in response to my personal opinion about mirror finishes I’m shot at with examples of civilain aircraft, where the mirror finish is appropriate (but it still doesn’t get my juices flowing).
My personal favourite warbird was the Shuttleworth Spitfire Mk V before her restoration. She was kept clean (but not by someone with OCD) but the paintwork was grubby/scratched/worn. I do hope that when she reappears from the workshop she is again allowed to ‘weather’ naturally.

Quote:
I just wish owners would stop polishing bare aluminium to a mirror finish.

I completely agree, this is a disgrace! 😀

Looking through the history books, I can’t say I’ve seen that many glossy, polished, washed down after every flight fighting machines. There’s a picture of an olive drab P-51 in Roger Freeman’s Mighty Eighth in Colour which shows all the underside paint around the dog house to have been blasted away by the prop wash. Nice perfectly masked invasion strips is another thing I’m not keen on. If I had the money to spare, I’d pay someone to paint a warbird to look used, repaired etc, so long as it was done carefully without going OTT.

G’day folks,
I’ll add my vote for a big, two foot-wide, gluey thumb print somewhere on the upper surface of the aeroplane!

It would be fun for Airfix to sponsor an aircraft for the airshow season decorated like you suggest.
I can’t see a Spitfire owner going for it, but perhaps a jet.

As one who jumped in with silly jokes, I’ll be serious for a minute.

I don’t understand the idea that one would need to recreate a modeller’s work on a real aeroplane. The modeller is recreating a scale version of an aeroplane at a given point in history, while an owner of a real aeroplane could also weather the aeroplane to represent a certain point in history. This, then, doesn’t need to refer to scale models at all.

If model A in 2011 is a representation of aeroplane B in 1943, then aeroplane C in 2012 could also be painted up as aeroplane B in 1943. Even if model A was done before aeroplane C, the work done to aeroplane C is surely a representation of aeroplane B in 1943, not a representation of model A in 2011 which is also a representation of aeroplane B in 1943.

Hmm, I think I’ve confused myself!

I don’t mean to be smart here, I just don’t see that one would copy a scale replica of an original when one bypass the middle-man and just copy the original. I’m very happy to have my misconceptions set straight, by all means.

Cheers,
Matt

Those posts referencing plastic modelling errors missed the fact fact I specifically said flying models. I have seen many excellent examples of large scale Rc models which look the aged part. Some of which would be difficult to tell from the full size in flight.

Oh, and the yellow prop tips should all be of slightly different sizes, and show evidence of having been applied by dipping the blade in a tin of paint!

I think there’d need to be a shiny, clear coat over the insignia, extending about six inches outside the borders of the markings.

*cough*

Cheers,
Matt

… and some of the aerial masts and guns snapped off.

Or the undercarriage legs the wrong way round.

: )

G’day folks,

I’ll add my vote for a big, two foot-wide, gluey thumb print somewhere on the upper surface of the aeroplane!

Cheers,
Matt

The BoB film a/c were (over) weathered. ‘The Piece of Cake’ were too. I seem to recall even one or two of the BBMF had ‘cordite’ weathering at one stage. Schemes naturally weather with use and fade in the sun.
‘Bullet holes?. Now we are being childish… What about blood…? :rolleyes:

I think the Battle of Britain planes were decorated in accordance with the model team’s efforts, not the other way around. Of course, as the planes were flown every day, they weathered very quickly!!

The Piece of Cake Spits weren’t really weathered much, as I remember. They were all painted in generic 1940 camouflage, initially with peel-off squadron codes until they were omitted entirely on the grounds of continuity. The Messerschmitts were painted in generic Luftwaffe camo also.