Finally got some spare time and had a little play with this. Took a photo of a serial, enlarged it, printed and had a play. Not the sharpest of images to start with – which I thought might make the test fairer.
Anyway, the photo
Wrapped under the table (lined up roughly with a model)
Skewed
And enlarged. Some stray artefacts from the distortion but the numbers come back readable.
I think there is something in this technique – it requires care and other research to back it up but gives a good leg up.
What do you think?
AllanK
Thanks for the hi res. I’m getting similar results from it. These are the stages, I was mostly playing in Pixelmator on a Mac but also put it into Aperture for some enhancement:
The original (reduced in size for the web) I’ve drawn on a line to show the vertical axis of the letters/numbers
Using transform-skew to distort the image to push that line back to vertical.
I know, I know, that is an awfully big distortion and likely to create other stray effects and problems but the numbers are there and lets see where it goes.
Adjust the levels – this is the subjective stage. By watching the results of playing with the sliders I can sometimes see feint marks appear which perhaps confirm whether e.g. a number is a 3 or an 8. This is a reasonable result on my computer and to my eyes.
Make it black and white. At this stage it looked to me like L2159 – but that’s a Sunderland which means I’ve been looking at too many pics of the same aircraft – again!
So I inverted the image – my final result. Screw your eyes up and all sorts of numbers appear.
There are two things I would do from here. One is to run it through various levels and curves settings and write a series of possible numbers – is that really a 9 an 8 or a 3 etc. I’ve done that and am fairly happy the last number is probably a 3
Second, using more traditional research work out which aircraft are likely to have been in a position to be used – or in a position for their port wing to be used (?) So while I think I can read K9823 I’m not an expert on Spitfires – for that I hand back to Mark12 and other Spitfire researchers.
Have fun guys
AllanK
A bit quick and dirty – I did a little lightening and altered contrast, then inverted the picture and distorted it to push the digits back to a reasonably straight appearance and this came out. Haven’t even sharpened it
Might be worth trying something similar with different settings – it is amazing how often the numbers leap out.
I take it the numbers are read from the wing tip towards the fuselage, hence I inverted it? I think I can see K9823
A row of Canberra noses.
I’ll leave it to Pagen and others to let you know which is which, ‘cos I can’t remember 😮
Hmm – more than one ladder on a Sunderland. I agree unlikely to be the internal one – and later Sunderlands seem to have rectangular section treads.
And then there is the tail ladder – more commonly seen on the early aircraft. I think it got deleted from the aircraft as part of early war weight saving measures.
This has the curved ends and supports – if yours show signs of being cut down from one of these then I’ll see if I can get more detail.
Certainly not Sunderland. Have one sitting in the hangar. Has curved ends and a support in the centre. Anyone want it???
I’d love it – not entirely sure where to put it. But seriously, I might know somebody who would be interested. I’ll have a word and can put you in touch.
AllanK
Hmm – more than one ladder on a Sunderland. I agree unlikely to be the internal one – and later Sunderlands seem to have rectangular section treads.
And then there is the tail ladder – more commonly seen on the early aircraft. I think it got deleted from the aircraft as part of early war weight saving measures.
This has the curved ends and supports – if yours show signs of being cut down from one of these then I’ll see if I can get more detail.
Certainly not Sunderland. Have one sitting in the hangar. Has curved ends and a support in the centre. Anyone want it???
I’d love it – not entirely sure where to put it. But seriously, I might know somebody who would be interested. I’ll have a word and can put you in touch.
AllanK
If the undersurface color was yellow I am not able to disting the division line between the upper and under colors on the fuselage. Any suggestion about this issue?
This is a crop from the pic above to show detail – I can’t make out a difference in paint – apart from the new planing hull being tested.
But then another photo of just the hull seems to show a difference – unless it is a shadow.
At that time they were trying different planing hulls on the A.37 as a set of trials – this was a 1:15 hull with ventilation. While testing these hulls the underside of the aircraft would be worked on frequently – and repainted. it is your call on which version to model – I’m not an expert at interpreting photos.
Have fun though.
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