Anybody like Spitfires?

[bob letterman]

These are some of the best photographs of Spitfires I have seen!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3598540/The-Photographer-captures-pin-sharp-images-final-55-airworthy-Spitfires-using-just-handheld-camera.html

 

[lupanzer]

I agree!...simply stunning ... Thanks for posting ldguy

Luiz

 

[helios]

Very nice shots.

 

[SA Dave]

Nope I dont like Spitfires

I LOVE THEM!!!! :love

 

[moon puppy]

Man those are great shots!

 

[ausf]

Wow.

I guess some 'oil canning' of individual panels is in order, especially the cowl.

I'll never remove an exhaust seam again. B)

 

[iambrb]

Beautiful shots of an iconic aircraft.

Thanks Big-Guy!

 

[Hawkwrench]

Those are some beautiful pics of a cool looking fighter. Those pics are so vivid and clear, it's hard to believe they were taken with just a hand held camera!

Tim

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Excellent photos! Thanks for the link Bob!

Ausf, if you think the panel alignment on these is off a bit you should really study old WW2 photos of aircraft. The German aircraft especially over time had a lot of rough alignments on panels. The planes were not as smooth as the models we make.

 

[Hawkwrench]

Excellent photos! Thanks for the link Bob!

Ausf, if you think the panel alignment on these is off a bit you should really study old WW2 photos of aircraft. The German aircraft especially over time had a lot of rough alignments on panels. The planes were not as smooth as the models we make.

Yeah, but you'll have a hard time convincing a contest judge of that! :woohoo:

Tim

 

[sharkman]

Excellent photos! Thanks for the link Bob!

Ausf, if you think the panel alignment on these is off a bit you should really study old WW2 photos of aircraft. The German aircraft especially over time had a lot of rough alignments on panels. The planes were not as smooth as the models we make.

Yeah, but you'll have a hard time convincing a contest judge of that! :woohoo:

Tim

These are amazing!!! :woohoo:

After seeing these and realizing they are restored aircraft, I wonder if we modelers use a little too much weathering at times on these birds (and armor, and others....)

 

[bob letterman]

Sharkman,

Here is the way I look at the weathering. Have you ever been to a car show? All those beautiful cars from the 40s and 50s. They are spotless, they clean them with toothbrushes for pete's sake! I was around in the 40s and 50s and I can tell you those same cars being used on the street didn't look like that at all!

Restoring aircraft is a lot more expensive than restoring cars. I would be willing to bet that no aircraft in WW II looked anything like those spitfires. In my many years, I have looked at what must be tens or hundreds of thousands of WW II aircraft, taken during the war, and I have sometimes wondered if we were weathering them enough! Most were filthy. I think their primary concern was their airworthiness. The all important consideration was whether or not the planes could get you there and back. Being show clean was most likely waaaaay down on the list of priorities.

Something I might add, when I do occasionally see models that are over weathered, it is usually that they are over weathered in scale. I have always looked at unweathered planes and armor, ships, etc., and thought they had a toy-like appearance.

Just my opinion!

Bob

 

[jknaus]

Great pics, thanks
James

 

[moon puppy]

I have to agree with Dad here. With the limited exposure I got to B52 back in the 80s they were filthy. All sorts of fluids all over the place. Sure they went to the wash rack from time to time but it didn't take much to get them back in dirt mode. And this was at the height of the cold war and all we had to do was maintenance. The trick is layers of subtle weathering. (I have to keep remembering that!)

 

[bob letterman]

I have to agree with Dad here. With the limited exposure I got to B52 back in the 80s they were filthy. All sorts of fluids all over the place. Sure they went to the wash rack from time to time but it didn't take much to get them back in dirt mode. And this was at the height of the cold war and all we had to do was maintenance. The trick is layers of subtle weathering. (I have to keep remembering that!)

In 1959, 60 and 61, I was an Army engineer stationed at Etain, France Air Force Base. At that time, the home of the Air Force Thunderbirds. They were all F-100 Super Sabers then and, of course, the showcase of the US Air Force. As it turned out, I had a WW II jeep issued to me throughout my stay there. And, my jeep was serviced in a remote corner of the same gigantic hanger where two of the Super Sabers were maintained.

I used to walk around the planes while waiting to get my jeep. The mechanics even let me climb up and look into the cockpits. As you said, they were covered with dirty fluids, smoke stains, and plain old gritty film like a car gets traveling a long way on an Interstate Highway. In all that time, I noticed one being cleaned. I'm not saying that they were only cleaned once, just that in all that time, I can only recollect seeing it happen once.

I have also done a lot of traveling around the world and noticed that commercial aircraft are much cleaner inside and out, than military craft. But, even they get weathered and stained.

 

[sharkman]

Sharkman,

Here is the way I look at the weathering. Have you ever been to a car show? All those beautiful cars from the 40s and 50s. They are spotless, they clean them with toothbrushes for pete's sake! I was around in the 40s and 50s and I can tell you those same cars being used on the street didn't look like that at all!

Restoring aircraft is a lot more expensive than restoring cars. I would be willing to bet that no aircraft in WW II looked anything like those spitfires. In my many years, I have looked at what must be tens or hundreds of thousands of WW II aircraft, taken during the war, and I have sometimes wondered if we were weathering them enough! Most were filthy. I think their primary concern was their airworthiness. The all important consideration was whether or not the planes could get you there and back. Being show clean was most likely waaaaay down on the list of priorities.

Something I might add, when I do occasionally see models that are over weathered, it is usually that they are over weathered in scale. I have always looked at unweathered planes and armor, ships, etc., and thought they had a toy-like appearance.

Just my opinion!

Bob

Thanks Bob. I can appreciate that anything in use is going to be dirty. Just haven't been around aircraft that much myself and the few that I am around regularly are kept fairly clean. I guess your last comment about being over weathered in scale is more along what I was thinking (just didn't express it well in words). I certainly shouldn't be one to judge because I am still trying to reproduce weathering accurately myself!!

 

[bob letterman]

Sharkman,

Here is the way I look at the weathering. Have you ever been to a car show? All those beautiful cars from the 40s and 50s. They are spotless, they clean them with toothbrushes for pete's sake! I was around in the 40s and 50s and I can tell you those same cars being used on the street didn't look like that at all!

Restoring aircraft is a lot more expensive than restoring cars. I would be willing to bet that no aircraft in WW II looked anything like those spitfires. In my many years, I have looked at what must be tens or hundreds of thousands of WW II aircraft, taken during the war, and I have sometimes wondered if we were weathering them enough! Most were filthy. I think their primary concern was their airworthiness. The all important consideration was whether or not the planes could get you there and back. Being show clean was most likely waaaaay down on the list of priorities.

Something I might add, when I do occasionally see models that are over weathered, it is usually that they are over weathered in scale. I have always looked at unweathered planes and armor, ships, etc., and thought they had a toy-like appearance.

Just my opinion!

Bob

Thanks Bob. I can appreciate that anything in use is going to be dirty. Just haven't been around aircraft that much myself and the few that I am around regularly are kept fairly clean. I guess your last comment about being over weathered in scale is more along what I was thinking (just didn't express it well in words). I certainly shouldn't be one to judge because I am still trying to reproduce weathering accurately myself!!

Well, I was just giving my point of view. I'm certain that newly produced planes were delivered to the units in meticulous condition. So, they existed in the ETO as well as the PTO. I have been watching a series about the Memphis Belle, probably the most famous aircraft ever. It is being restored to perfect condition and that is taking years with a total of close to 100 people involved. They want it exactly as it was in May, 1943, when it was sent back to the states after it's 25th mission. Although, technically, it will be identical, It will be so pristine, that the crew would hardly recognize it. I can imagine what a 25 mission bomber would look like in terms of weathering.

I certainly didn't mean any disrespect for what you said, many modeler's prefer not to weather, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is all a matter of personal preference. I have similar feelings when i hear guys go into long diatribes about aircraft or armor color. I was in the army 13 years after WW II ended and I was issued a WW II Jeep. I would take it to the maintenance facility twice a year, because in peacetime, the army's dedication was to make everything pretty! So, we painted our vehicles twice a year. I remember going in and asking the sergeant in charge, where to get paint. He would point to a shelf that had maybe 15 used 5 gallon cans of Olive Drab, not one having enough paint to do the job in itself. They were from different companies, mostly American, but others from foreign countries. None seemed to ever be the same shade. When i asked what i should do, he would scream, "Mix them together until you have enough to paint your Jeep". I did and when the Jeeps were all together in the motor pool, not one was the identical shade of OD as any other. Every time I hear a modeler talk about FS colors or mention the paint isn't exactly right, I always think back to that maintenance hanger and i have to grin.

Models can be built factory fresh or weathered. What i meant by scale is this. If you weather a 1/72nd plane as if it was 1/48th or 1/32nd, and I have seen it done many times, it looks really bad. You wouldn't put a 1/48 scale propeller on a 1/72nd plane, bit I have seen them weather that way. That was all I meant!

 

[135engineer]

Thanks for sharing Bob. Great pics . I also agree with your insight on weathering

 

[paddy]

I wouldn't read too much in to pictures like these, lighting in most of them gives them an almost cartoon feel, rather computerised in my opinion. You cant have the sun out on the top surface and the bottom surface You do get light reflection of cloud below but i dont know, they look very sharpened and smoothed to me

the reality is probably a bit more like this