No Cigar

[Krystal McGinty-Carter]

The feathered props were the first thing I noticed.


But I have to say, I fail to see the Niku reference. It says that there is a reflection of an island  but I don't see it. To me, it looks like a sea bird getting ready to meet its maker is a very abrupt and messy way. Now Im going to be sitting here staring at it like one of those Magic Eye prints.

Its a nice painting though. Artist is definitely talented.

[Craig Romig]

As a work of art I liked it. It is a very nice painting. The one thing i saw was the sun rising in the east as the plane was pointed north. But i am not here to argue other's points of view. Thank you for the link to the picture.

[Tim Collins]

Another "glaring"  ::) inaccuracy is the shiny aluminum of Finch's Electra.

What? After all the back and forth about there being reflections in the fotos showing the purported 2-2-v-1 or whatever the damn thing is being called, now Electras can't have shiny aluminum skin? You guys are pathetic.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

What? After all the back and forth about there being reflections in the fotos showing the purported 2-2-v-1 or whatever the damn thing id being called, noe Electras can't have shiny aluminum skin?

Finch's Electra demonstrates that aluminum can be highly polished, as shown in the painting.

The photos from the round-the-world flight show that AE's Electra, in fact, was not maintained in a highly-polished state.

That is why the shiny patch sticks out like a sore thumb shortly after it was installed.

The painting is intended to represent not Finch's Electra, but AE's.  One discrepancy between the painting and the real Electra is the shiny surface depicted in the painting.

[Tim Collins]

Finch's Electra demonstrates that aluminum can be highly polished, as shown in the painting.

Ok, I'll bite. How, specifically, does it do that? It's a painting, an artists representation It can only demonstrate the artist's painting ability, specifically in this regard his ability to paint what may be considered a realistic representation of reflective surfaces, among other obvious aspects (airplanes, water etc).

The photos from the round-the-world flight show that AE's Electra, in fact, was not maintained in a highly-polished state.

That is why the shiny patch sticks out like a sore thumb shortly after it was installed.

The painting is intended to represent not Finch's Electra, but AE's.  One discrepancy between the painting and the real Electra is the shiny surface depicted in the painting.

Did I mention that it's a painting? Didn't you take aesthetics in college?

[Greg Daspit]

Although not an accurate representation of AE's plane, one of the effective techniques the artist used to illustrate shiny metal is the use of reflections. For example, note the reflection of the wing and nacelle on the fuselage. The artist also distorts the reflection to help illustrate the curvature of the fuselage.

The patch on AE's plane was clearly more shiny than the rest of the plane as can be seen in the historic photographs.  Although some have interpreted some of these photos as indicating big dents in the patch,  I think they are simply reflections, and if you look at the context can better understand them. For example, the patch seen in the Miami ramp photo is reflecting a crowd of onlookers and the Darwin Hangar photo is reflecting the starboard wing and hangar structure.  Both reflections in those photos are slightly distorted due to the curved surface, similar to how the artist illustrated reflections in this rendering. IMHO

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

Finch's Electra demonstrates that aluminum can be highly polished, as shown in the painting.

Ok, I'll bite. How, specifically, does it do that? It's a painting, an artists representation It can only demonstrate the artist's painting ability, specifically in this regard his ability to paint what may be considered a realistic representation of reflective surfaces, among other obvious aspects (airplanes, water etc).

The painting corresponds to what is observable in pictures of Finch's Electra.  I grant this is not a perfect "demonstration." 

Ric asked what differences people could see between the painting and the AE's Electra.

My answer is "shiny aluminum skin."

Did I mention that it's a painting? Didn't you take aesthetics in college?

Yes, I know it's a painting.  Yes, I took courses involving aesthetics.  Both of these truths are irrelevant to the question you asked: "After all the back and forth about there being reflections in the fotos showing the purported 2-2-v-1 or whatever the damn thing id being called, noe Electras can't have shiny aluminum skin?"

I did not say, "no Electra's can have shiny aluminum skin."  (I am assuming this is what you meant to type.)

I concede that Linda Finch's aircraft has a shiny aluminum skin.

The painter seems to have used her aircraft as a stand-in for AE's.

It is purportedly a painting of AE's Electra in the last seconds of flight before splashing into the ocean.

He got the detail wrong about the kind of props on AE's aircraft, probably because he copied what is on Finch's aircraft.

He got the detail wrong about the shiny skin, probably because he was using Finch's aircraft as a model.

I don't feel that I've had to reach deep into my training as an English major, a master's of philosophy, or as a Ph.D. to spot this difference between the painting and AE's aircraft.  I seem to remember pairs of cartoons in the Sunday comics that challenged the reader to list differences between one panel and the next.