WWI Aircraft Paint schemes Question

[Guest]

Howdy guys,

Ok, I just bought Eduardo's 1:48th scale Albatros D.Va "Jasta" WWI Biplane. Looking over the suggested paint schemes, they showed the various types including the one with the purple, yellow, red "camo"(?) on the wings.

My question is this, was this paint scheme in fact "Camo"? And, (part 2) Being that aviation was a new "weapon" in WWI, were the aircraft painted bright colors just due to the pilots need to show off?

I realize that today aircraft are marked similarly for ease of Identification, were the bright and unique color schemes of WWI meant to make the planes easily recognizable to friendly forces as well as to sometimes "strike fear" into the hearts of the enemy? (Think Blue max and the red baron).



"After the turn of the century, in the clear blue skies over germany, came the roar and the rumble men had never heard, like the screamin sounds of a Big warbird. Up from the ground our hero arose, a funny looking dog with a big black nose, he flew into the sky to seek revenge. But the Baron shot him down..."Curses foiled again!"

Snoopy and the Red Baron by The Royal Guardsmen

Have a good day,

Greg

[Guest]

The Germans used that kind of camouflage to break up the outlines of an aircraft when it's on the ground.

The pattern is basically lots of hexagons of different colours, that particular example though it's actually used sparingly and on the undersides of the wings too. The theory behind it is a bit like the splinter camouflage used on battleships to break up the outline of a vessel and to make it harder to recognise the aircraft.

As far as the image above though, the ample use of yellow on the fuselage has no comouflage value what so ever!

I'd go for the hexagonal camo though as it'd be a real challenge to paint and could look excellent once completed.

[Guest]

Alan, at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious the so called "yellow'" is natural varnished plywood that the fuselage was made from.

Geedubbya, "Jasta" is short for Jagdstaffel (or "Fighter Squadron") and should be followed by a number (or sometimes a name such as Jasta 2 being renamed Jasta Boelcke after the death of its founder and commander)to identify the unit, otherwise it makes as much sense as saying "here is a P-51 in the markings of fighter squadron"(remember that in German the "J" is pronounced as a "Y")

A group of Jastas could be formed into a Jagdgeschwader, e.g. The Richtohofen Jagdgeschwader (J.G.1) consisted of jasta 4, 6, 10 and 11 with the object of providing a permanent grouping of certain Jagdstaffeln that could be moved as a self-contained formation, to attain air supremacy on a particular sector as required. Because it was self contaiined, often moved by train, and had canvas hangars and tents they were often referred to as 'circuses"

as in Von Ricthofen's Flying Circus.

There are several different combinations of lozenge fabric and it varies between upper and lower surfaces, naval aircraft etc. It is a complicated subject, because of the fabric width/manufactures different ideas of applying it to the aircraft /etc. It will keep you busy researching for years.

[Guest]

Alan, at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious the so called "yellow'" is natural varnished plywood that the fuselage was made from.

It's actually "yellow" in colour though and probably has very little sucess as a camouflage colour, likewise with the stripes on the tail!

Here's some extra information regarding the colours used for the German hexagonal camouflage patterns:

http://www.wwi-models.org/misc/Colors/German/loz2/index.html

[Guest]

I love the virtual aircaft this guy has created but I cannot begin to imagine how you would go about painting a model in such a scheme.

[Guest]

Howdy Guys,

Thanks for the input so far. I have been looking thru google and other sites for ideas on how I want to proceed with this model.

I havent really decided how to go about painting it yet.

However, I am narrowing it down to a few different schemes. I see several here that I like in these 3d computer images: http://mwmiller.theaerodrome.com/

and I have found even more while searching google for Albatros D.Va .

Anyway, keep on with the comments and I will try to get this thing completed hopefully today. Then I can post photos.

Have a good day,

Greg

[wonwinglo]

The Germans got around the bizarre pattern by printing fabric to the specified colours,Shuttleworths restored LVG had lozenge printed fabric done to the original specification.

There are decal sheets available in 1=72nd and 1=48th scales to apply to your smaller models.

I once hand painted lozenge pattern by hand on the bottom wing of a Fokker D.7,if you are building a larger model it can be achieved by printing tissue with the respective pattern,to do this first make a mask for each sector of the lozenge which overlays each subsequent design,to print use artists pastels stencil fashion,then move onto the next colour,finally fix with artists fixative.

The yellowed woodwork came about with seaplane varnish applied with a brush,after a while the varnish would oxidise giving it that lovely vintage looking patina.

With continual use of castor oil on rotary type engines this would soften the paint finish just as it does when you do not fuel proof a model aircraft,looking at many old photographs wrinkled fabric and peeling paint were the norm on WW1 aeroplanes.

Lozenge finishes are not for the faint hearted model builder.