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Esacdrille N 3 adjutant Pere Dorme's Nieuport 17 N 1428 was indeed camouflaged. Flown during the summer months of 1916 it was an early version with a one piece cowling and without Cockades on the upper surface of the top wing. This scheme has been represented as having all upper surfaces painted in "dark earth" brown and grayish - green segments. The undersurfaces have been depicted as clear doped linen. Wheel covers were represented in a similar dark earth brown but was probably altered somwhat by the castor oil exhaust of the LeRhône power plant. It also was fitted with a large type windscreen and only a Lewis gun mounted on the top wing. The white #12 was Dorme's personal assignment and at first was only carried on the fuselage sides near the horizontal tail unit. The Stork emblem was probably white even to the wing feathers. On the pilot's left it probably carried the moniker "Pere Dorme II". The "N" from the serial was absent and "may" refer to the rudder being a replacement.
What we know of this machine comes from;
Air Enthusiast quarterly #2 P.137 "Those Fabulous Nieuports".
But mostly from
"La Guerre Aerianne Illustree (various issues) 1915 -1916."
Nothing in any of the photo images I have seen confirms the undersurfaces. as being CDL, lt. blue or aluminum painted. BUT! Since lt. blue was introduced with some type 11, 16 and this is an early 17. I could see either CDL or lt. blue being used in 1916. Also there is some speculation that the two toned camouflage was actually two browns and two greens (light and dark) as was used on the Nieuport 16. This must be investigated further. What we do know is that the aluminum powder was not present in these types of camouflage for 1916.
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