You can get an even more realistic effect using tonal changes, softening and adding grain to the ‘film’.

And you can go the other way starting with old monochrome pictures.

Only three, or is that the best you could do ?

Slipstream: I hope your information is correct, because I will be repeating it parrot fashion at dinner parties when I want to impress!

I wonder what the constraints were on the builder of this Merlin model that made him choose that particular scale.

Janie..’tis all true, volumes are a cube function, areas are a square function. I am not sure what constraints were imposed, there may be a convention in the model world that dictates 1/5 scale. It would be more practical but more expensive to go for a larger size from a metalurgical aspect and where tolerances become less critical. The closer to full size you go the easier it is to adhere to the scaling factor on component parts. For example, a 2mm thick piece of dural is fairly stiff, reduce it to 0.4 mm and it bends like kitchen foil. This means that, for example, conrods that were made of aluminium in the original have to be made of steel in the model.

This will either impress or force a change of topic at your dinner parties 😉

I belive Meatheringham has a small museum/visitor centre and some of the original buildings although the airfield has now returned to agriculture. They also have a ghost apparently, The Meatheringham lady.

How about the rugby players John Orwin ( Cpl at Brize Norton 1980’s ) and Rory Underwood ( Flt Lt ).

I heard about barry’s Spitfire in 1990, I believe It was vandalised beyond repair in the mid 90’s (though I wonder if it would ever have been allowed to fly anyway) and was donated to a museum at Tangmere.

They did say that the Spitfire would form the basis for a restoration to static display standard. I agree that this program would have come across better if recorded and edited but interesting never the less.

I believe the change was to increase the rudder area to counteract the torque from a more powerful engine and a 4 blade prop. I also believe that a spin off of this was an increase in the crosswind limit. Trimming would be carried out the same – to relieve pressure on the stick. With regard to the rudder, the pilot may notice an increase in the force needed to move it in flight, not sure really, you’d need to ask someone lucky enough to fly both types.