vince14

Amen to that - and I say that as a Brit.

All Type N's had strips of cane tacked to the wing ribs on top of the fabric, it's just that some of them had the canes painted black instead of being left in their natural colour.

What you're seeing with the upper wing there is the effect on the fabric of being submerged in water. Looks like that aircraft flipped over whilst on water, and it's being recovered.

I'm not saying that it's only spotters, but there is a small element within the hobby which seems to think it's OK to do it (as there are with those flying drones too close to aircraft, and with those who take a 'souvenir' from an aircraft in a museum). I know for a fact that BTP issued a memo to officers working around airports to be on the lookout for people pointing anything other than a camera at aircraft (which specifically mentioned checking 'spotters areas'). True, but there's still an selection of aviation enthusiasts and modellers who seem to think that air museums should be their private property, on which they can do as they like, and that the 'Great Unwashed' should be barred.

Sadly that isn't the case. There are plenty of tales of museum exhibits (both aircraft and otherwise) that have been damaged - sometimes irreparably - by over-enthusiastic 'armchair experts' or, even worse, deliberately vandalised by 'collectors'. Little Johnny's sticky fingers are the least of the problems. We enthusiasts can take things too far. It seems that the modern trend for shining a laser pointer at aircraft in flight is not mainly performed by 'yobbos', but rather aircraft spotters playing a game called 'Laser Tagging'.

What is evident in this thread is the quaint British habit of denigrating our own country. The UK is one of the best in the world at preserving aviation heritage, from big museums like Hendon and Cosford down to tiny operations like the 'Carperbagger' museum. We now have a centre that is teaching automotive and aviation restoration located on the best preserved ex-RAF station in the country (Bicester). Go to most other European countries and the level of preservation is tiny in comparison. Yes, there could be improvements to some of the museums - nothing's perfect after all - but the way some of you harp on it's like we rank behind Mozambique in terms of aircraft preservation.

As Christian said, there's a lack of definitive evidence either way. In my own mind I've decided that they were most likely to have been finished in aluminium dope, with natural metal panels, as the contrast between the fabric and metal areas doesn't seem that distinct - plus, the Hanriots were built around the time when French aircraft were primarily finished in overall aluminium dope, and we know that the (French-built) Italian Hanriots were finished in that scheme. I think this picture of D.37 lends support to the theory they were overall silver.

Actually unveiled yesterday...

Which specific airframe? Bolivia operated six of them.

This might shed some light. Scroll to page 6 - http://www.thai-aviation.net/files/T_28/Non_SE_Asian_military_T_28.pdf

Just Google EZ-Line - there's plenty of places that stock it.

If you've never bothered with them, how can you know what they're like in terms of details? It may have been (somewhat) true of very old kits, but any 1/32 kit produced in the last 10-15 years will have much more detail than a 1/48, even if they share the same heritage. I've moved exclusively to 1/32 and disposed of all my 1/48 and 1/72 kits. The range of subjects is more limited than for the smaller scales, and you need more display room, but in terms of 'bang for buck' I think they're unrivaled.

The 'turquoise' colour didn't appear until the second-generation MiG-21.

I've got Version A sitting in the stash right now - it's a very impressive kit!

I think it's related to the Fiat and Ferrari split - I would assume all the licences have become invalid and would need to be re-negotiated.