A final mystery....
I've been over to agree where all the decals should go on the bike, it's scheduled for completion later this week.... I took some more "before" pics
Whilst doing this we spotted in the bright lights, that there are two marks in the head tube - where the Raleigh badge would go. But these holes look like they have been filled and painted ?
I'm reasonably confident the bike has never been repainted, so why would they go to the trouble of drilling holes in the frame, then filling them before painting ?
Looking back at pics from that period the badges are the metal ones, not transfers, so it's still my intention to go for a metal one, indeed I've taken already taken the studs off a badge in readiness for fitting.
Finally I did take some pics of Chris Walkers's Banana Falcon
from 1991, which has exactly the right balance of pattina for my taste, and is what I'm aiming for.