Talk:Messerschmitt Me 209

Illustrations

Even though the Me 209 reached some level of notoriety in its career, there are relatively few colour photographs of the aircraft in any of its variants. In the later 1990s, scale models of the type were designed that were based on careful research into the colours and markings that were employed. A historian and friend was able to visit the Polish aviation museum where the sole remaining 209 exists, albeit in a scrapped fuselage section that had been recovered. The German Huma 1/72 scale limited production model based on the research was one of the first models to depict the fine details that were necessary to create a accurate representation of the type. For some time, the illustration of a museum-quality build of the model was used to show the dramatic colours of the record-breaking V1/V4 series. FWiW Bzuk (talk) 02:39, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

You are not listening. Here's a quote from our policy/guidelines: "Wikipedia's goal is to be a free content encyclopedia, with free content defined as content that does not bear copyright restrictions on the right to redistribute, study, modify and improve, or otherwise use works for any purpose in any medium, even commercially. Any content not satisfying these criteria is said to be non-free. This includes all content (including images) that is fully copyrighted, or which is made available subject to restrictions such as "non-commercial use only" or "for use on Wikipedia only". (Many images that are generally available free of charge may thus still be "non-free" for Wikipedia's purposes.)" Poeticbent talk 02:51, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

Mike Grant, the owner of the image, said six years ago that he would be "willing to release this image" for Wikipedia.[1] Didn't he do so? Perhaps he changed the image copyright for a period, during which it was okayed for Wikipedia, then later he updated all his images to be copyrighted. Binksternet (talk) 04:14, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

The image was released for use in the Wikipedia article and for a time, was the only illustration for the article. I contacted the creator personally and since he was interested in the subject matter as much as I was, agreed to make his photograph of his completed model available for use in the article on the Messerschmitt Me 209. I later purchased a copy of the plastic scale model and noted that the work involved in turning a fairly basic scale model into a museum-quality example required careful attention to fidelity. AFAIK, the replacement image that was provided does not show the same configuration or colours/markings. I would have to resurrect some email conversations two computers ago to find the actual transcript of our messages, but the original reason for restricting or removing the image was that it was a "toy" belies the fact that the model was created to be an accurate representation of an obscure aviation subject, regardless of the pishpash statement above. FWiW Bzuk (talk) 13:34, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

To further explain the background of this particular image, when there was no illustration available for the Messerschmitt Me 209 article, I actually drew a "rough" full-colour drawing of the record-breaking scheme, but when I came upon an image of a static scale model in the exact same colours/markings, photographed in a well-lit studio photograph, I asked for permission to substitute that image. I have no abiding concern if the image is eventually removed due to a consensus agreement, but do have reservations that it is "toy-like" as the reasoning, considering that the replacement image is not as well-done, exhibits a crude finish and questionable markings in a table-top setting, as well as also representing the same colours/markings as the infobox image. FWiW Bzuk (talk) 14:00, 22 March 2015 (UTC)