AWM Mosquito

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:20 am

The de Havilland Mosquito at the Australian War Memorial Canberra.

IMHO, an appalling display, like a kit dumped on the top of a shoebox.

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:21 am

Ah! Cranial Fecal Impaction, is not restricted to just to the States!

RMAllnutt · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:28 pm

You should see the Spitfire Mk.II at the Canadian War museum... you can only see its belly! Not even a side view. I never understand how museums do this sort of thing.

Richard

BLR · **Joined:** Mon May 03, 2004 2:47 pm **Posts:** 425

Seems to be a trend. MOF in Seattle, Personal Courage Wing, P-38 propped up on a billboard. Not the best way to display an aircraft.

Brian

Augsburgeagle · **Joined:** Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:17 am **Posts:** 112

why are so many museums so badly lit? The battle of Britain hall at Hendon is a complete Gem but for some reason it's like a Grotto inside, you can hardly see the aircraft to photograph them!

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:07 pm

RMAllnutt wrote:

You should see the Spitfire Mk.II at the Canadian War museum... you can only see its belly! Not even a side view. I never understand how museums do this sort of thing.

Good one, Richard. My personal Palme d'Or for the appallingly bad modern 'display'. There's NO excuse for this. But then the Canadian War Museum has a big fat book on the architect and the building and NOTHING on the museum or the collection - kind of says where the status is laid.

Augsburgeagle wrote:

why are so many museums so badly lit? The battle of Britain hall at Hendon is a complete Gem but for some reason it's like a Grotto inside, you can hardly see the aircraft to photograph them!

That's because they aren't 'badly lit' but are 'atmospherically lit'. :oops:

Let's just be grateful for the low-light capability of most digital cameras.

Regards,

daveymac82c · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:28 pm

Hey James,

Is that last image of the Spitfire Mk. V a replica? Maybe it's my eyes but it doesn't look quite right. I can't put my finger on it, but something's... hmm... too shiny?

-David

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:32 pm

daveymac82c wrote:

Is that last image of the Spitfire Mk. V a replica? Maybe it's my eyes but it doesn't look quite right. I can't put my finger on it, but something's... hmm... too shiny?

Tragically, it's a very rare cannon armed Mk.IIb (the only survivor of that sub-mark, P8332, and supposed to be the only surviving presentation Spitfire) with a poorly applied high-gloss blow-over paint job shoved in the rafters.

http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/coll ... fireMkIIB/

daveymac82c · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:41 pm

Hey James,

Thanks for the info. Yeah, that finish looks bad in my opinion. Makes it look like it's made of plastic or something. The shots of it from the link you provided made it look really nice though.

That is a real shame to have it so poorly displayed considering its significance. Regardless of how it's displayed I want to go see it!

-David

spookythecat · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2008 12:36 pm

BLR wrote:

Seems to be a trend. MOF in Seattle, Personal Courage Wing, P-38 propped up on a billboard. Not the best way to display an aircraft.

Brian

I was gonna say the same thing. It's a great collection but the billboards kinda kill it a little.

fritzthefox · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2008 2:08 pm

I don't work at a museum or anything, but I believe low lighting is an effort at preservation. High-intensity lights can rapidly degrade paper, textiles and dyes.

Canso42 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2008 4:44 pm

[quote="fritzthefox"]I don't work at a museum or anything, but I believe low lighting is an effort at preservation. High-intensity lights can rapidly degrade paper, textiles and dyes.[/quote]

I agree, Fritz. I've had to re-do a couple of display panels this year on the PBY-5A at LSFM from fluorescent lights. (man that's hard to spell)
Doug

k5083 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:10 pm

JDK wrote:

RMAllnutt wrote:

You should see the Spitfire Mk.II at the Canadian War museum... you can only see its belly! Not even a side view. I never understand how museums do this sort of thing.

Good one, Richard. My personal Palme d'Or for the appallingly bad modern 'display'. There's NO excuse for this. But then the Canadian War Museum has a big fat book on the architect and the building and NOTHING on the museum or the collection - kind of says where the status is laid.

That Spitfire gets moved around quite a bit. At times it has been better displayed; at other times, even worse. (An example of the latter being when it was displayed at the War Museum with only one wing, the other wing being displayed across town at Rockcliffe.)

For me the Seattle lightning takes the cake, at least for irony. Note that the content of the mural is a P-38 coming at you -- exactly what is hiding behind the mural. They use a picture of the thing to conceal the actual thing!!

August

JDK · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:38 pm

fritzthefox wrote:

I don't work at a museum or anything, but I believe low lighting is an effort at preservation. High-intensity lights can rapidly degrade paper, textiles and dyes.

I do (did) and it can be an issue. You know, Roman fabric, mediaeval wall paintings and the like. How much it's a risk for a 21st century modern paints aircraft paint scheme is moot.

Mick Grinter · **Posted:** Thu Sep 11, 2008 4:57 am

Museums are badly lik to protect the displays from fading.And they look Crappy. :lol:

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