Sir Crash,

The model is painted as a scale Spitfire. The original builder took some pains to paint it in an authentic scheme and probably used a 60's dated drawing to get the markings. Some scale drawings are not exactly correct, even today, so the serial not matching the code isn't too suprising.

Many British fighters were painted silver in the CBI, the Aus/NZ Spitfires may have been silver too. Or it may have been artistic license by the builder. The greenish color may have been applied after the decals were added, or some reaction with air over time.

This is a Control Line Precision Aerobatic model. It was designed to perform all of the maneuvers in the F2B event schedule. The model needs to have a very tight corner to perform this pattern within the hemisphere of C/L flight created by the 60 to 70 foot control lines and the 5 foot level flight requirements. Therefore the model has a thick, aerobatic, non-scale wing section. This is very typical of C/L Aerobatic models. 3D R/C benefits directly from many designers having been old C/Liners, or found the designs with thick wings flown by those that were desireable for 3D.

C/L models do not need as long of a tail moment to be stable as an R/C model, necessarily. But many of the larger ones do have longer moments than these Classic designs from the sixties. The speed in which CLPA models fly is a lot of the reason, as well as them being made to change direction in a small space. Typically a CLPA model goes about 55 mph.

Notice that the model with engine, tank and everything for flight probably weighs 45 oz or less. This is very typical of C/L competition models. For instance my 770 sq in model weighs 64 oz. The structure is light and strong for flight, but not for crashing or landing in the rocks and weeds like your typical R/C model. If you keep it light, and power it with something reasonable like a 25, it'll be a nice 3D job that you can do stuff right in front of you. Unlike a Fun Fly, arrowshaft body 3D'er, it'll be junk if you hit the ground with it because it's old, brittle and built with 4 to 6 pound density balsa!

Neat model, have fun.

Chris...