New tarmac photos. These photographs show the same plane under the same lighting conditions as the original tile version, but with a new tarmac background. In Photoshop, the photos were reduced 50% from the original, and the quality was set to 8, verses 6 for the photos taken with the tile background.

Being a very shiny red, this model was very difficult to photograph and then process in Photoshop.

• In the original photo: The shiny and highly-reflective red surface causes flare to form where the lighting reflects off the fuselage. Also a darker area forms around the upper edge of the fuselage.
• In Photoshop: Reducing the quality of the photo to 8 (which must be done to reduce the size of the photo to a manageable level), causes the flare to pixelate, giving the photo a grainy appearance.

It seems the best way to get around the photographic part of the problem is to fill the frame with as much of the plane as possible. This increases the quality of the basic image.

The way around the Photoshop problem is to experiment with the quality setting to get the best balance between image quality and file size.

Background. The background in the tarmac photos has more variation and color, which adds more interest. The new background also softens the darker edges on the red fuselage. This reduces graininess.

The new tarmac photo files are actually two thirds the size of the original photo files taken with the tile background.

Very nice model, well made, and brightly colored with a nice shine.

Strong model. The model comes in a small plastic box. Because the box is small, it always sits on top of whatever pile of models it is on. Because the box is small, plastic, and always on top, it always falls off the pile it is on and lands on the floor. After about the tenth time it fell the tail unit popped off. Luckly, a little super-glue took care of the problem.

Photo. I don't know how well the photograph works. The background is one of two stone tiles I got from the local tile shop. The tiles were scrap, so they were nice enough to give them to me gratis. I'm trying to emulate a cement surface.