ORIGINAL: chasrb
If it does not make me question if it is real or not, it simply does not belong here, period!
By this standard this thread would be about 3 pages long and would have long since died. I think the standards have risen over time. For myself, I'd be satisfied with pictures where the photographer/owner (and ideally one would be both) made an attempt to present the model AS IF IT WERE a real aircraft. My only contribution to this thread (years ago) was a photo of my EIII held up against the evening sky to give the impression of an inflight shot made from the very unrealistic (unrealizable) position of about 10 feet in front and a to the right of the spinning rotary engine DURING A DIVE. There is no possible way that this photo could have been made with a ground based camera. Is the model flawless? Certainly not.
My point? For me it's all about theatrical effect. And in fact I'll take a good bit of theater over a technical perfect shot of a model in broad daylight against a featureless blue sky 9 out of 10 times. In other words, for me it's the PHOTO not the MODEL. For example, I like the shot below. But it's not perfectly sharp and the P-51 is sport scale at best.