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I'm not a builder, but I am a collector and I have put in some time as a volunteer on some restoration projects over the years.
Markings do not need to be large and can be put in places that are unseen when the part is installed - for example on the back of a data plate, on the back of an instrument dial, etc. Once installed no one knows they are there, but when the next restoration is done in 20 or 50 years, there will be no question as to what is are original WW I aircraft parts and what was made and added at a later date. Keeping records, including photos, is part of the process but there is an expectation that those records may be lost or damaged over the years no matter how careful you are with them.
In the collecting field, I am constanting trying to determine what is original from the period and what is not. Reproductions of WW I aircraft parts, uniforms, badges, etc. are not a recent phenomenon - it has been going on for many decades. My urging in this regard is to think of what will happen to something like a well made unmarked reproduction once it gets out into the marketplace and changes hands several times over the years. What is sold today as a reproduction and priced as a reproduction is likely at some point to be sold by someone as an original and that is when less than expert collectors get stung which hurts the hobby. If the reproduction is good enough, it can even get to the point where some will start to think of it as a variation or such and that confuses the research on what is really WW I vintage.
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2 July 2008, 02:40 PM
Linear Mode
