[COLOR=”Blue”]I’ve noticed that with WT660’s original decals, the area of the water-slide transfers is easily discernable from the aluminium paint underneath. I presumed that age had discoloured the shellac or whatever they were made from, having gone a darker golden colour, but I seem to remember Airfix kit transfers in the 1960s were similarly discoloured from new!

In modelling parlance it’s called yellowing. The old carrier films for decals were basically ordinary clear varnish which yellows over time. Nowadays the carrier films are acrylics and are pretty much non yellowing. To get rid of yellowing on a decal sheet simply tape the decal to the inside of a window that faces the sun and leave for a couple of days – that bleaches the yellow out.

Somewhere I have an envelope with water slide decals that were applied in the cockpit of a C47. The AVG in Burma’s Flying Tiger and Angels etc. were printed decals that were applied to the aircraft then covered with some dope to keep them on. Which explains why in all the colour pics the area around the image is darker than the rest of the OD. IIRC the Disney studio provided images of various cartoon characters that were applied like decals during WW2. Use of decals is quite common and far simpler than painting everything, especially a lot of stencilled data. Also IIRC when the ex-Saudi Lightnings were returned to the UK they carried RAF markings in the form of stick on decals.

…Hunter was very much an advocate for the type and believed that if properly used, could be a formidable fighting machine. He introduced tactics where his Defiants would get themselves into a ‘circling wagon’ defensive circle that would make it difficult for single seaters to engage the Defiants. Oddly enough Messerschmitt Bf 110s carried out a similar tactic during the BoB. …

Yes but as the Me110 demonstrated flying around in a defensive circle might be a bit of a morale booster for the tail gunner and gives the pilot something to do, but unfortunately it is actually quite useless for any aggressive action like shooting down the enemy if they decide to sit back and watch you gamely circling and using up fuel. At some stage you have to cut and run and then you are dead meat.

The Defiant was an interesting approach to a tactical situation that never actually occurred. So quite rightly it was quickly removed from operations where it was not useful and transferred to night ops where it was.

… I have found two crashed cheetah engines that would be ideal for spares or as garden ornaments …

Well a cheetah in the garden would certainly keep door to door salesmen out. 😀

Personally I do not like CGI – I can never see it as anything other than a hi-tech cartoon.

Have they said which century yet?

No they haven’t quite decided yet. 😀

And here I was thinking it was a proposed system for providing toilet facilities on small aircraft. :diablo:

Great film aircraft wise, but that theme song 😮