Roland C.II strange camouflage?

[Cigogne]

Rudolf Windisch and Maximillian von Cossel's Walfisch had this same demarkation on the top rear of the fuselage. I have often wondered if this is the same aircraft of Feldfliegerabteilung 62 at an earlier stage before the jagged shark mouth and eye was painted on.

[josef scott]

This is actually Johann (Hans) Czermak's Walfisch while in FFlAbt 2b. They are from his personal photo albums which were recently sold on eBay. It is definitely him sitting in the pilot's seat. Czermak was in FFlAbt 2b, Jasta 6, Jasta 77 and finally Staffelführer of Jasta 32. He was never in Schusta 28.

[GrzeM]

Dear Dan-San!
Many thanks you for your comments, I agree that the wings are most probably white. Very interesting, what about some kind of special marking of the squadron commander or similar thing? Did Schusta operated in formations? Maybe keeping formation was element of the tactic during escort flight?

I don't fully understand what do you mean when you write "streaked" - I belive that diagonal "strokes" are in fact elements of construction, stripes of the plywood, seen through the semi-translucent paint, as the Roland fuselage was made of the laminated diagonal stripes of the thin plywood. They are too even for strokes of paint (a la Fokker). Layer of the darker paint is rather uniform on both planes, only the stripes are still visible. Also these stripes continue on both, lighter and darker fuselage areas.

Do you think the fusealge was light grey (or greyish blue) on the top surfaces, but what was the lower surface then? Lighter blue? Kind of Spanish Civil War German camouflage.

All that is very intriguing...

Cheers!
G.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

GrzeM:
I believe there were two finishes done on the Rol.C.II. when the fabric surfaces were translucent, the finish was whitish yellow. When the finish on the fabric surfaces were opaque, the aircraft was painted a very pale greyish sky blue.
Blue skies,
Dan-San
P.S. I always enjoy our conversations.

[GrzeM]

Dan-San!
Yes, I now remember that light yellow! So there is possibility that it had whitish yellow lower and greyish blue upper surfaces I think. And these white wings!
All that makes that plane finish very intersting, and if you add that overwing Lewis... - very cool model subject!
I must say that I like those small two-seaters. In fact Roland C.II was something like "prototype" of the whole CL kind!
Thanks again!
:-)

G.

[GrzeM]

What about the light blue lower and light green (same as in the three colour Albatros D.II camouflage) top, with the tops of the wings white?
IIRC there was light green Albatros D.I flown by Prinz Karl Friedrich von Hohenzollern, shade was similar.
G.

Fascinating debate and comments. However something does not make sense to me. Weren't the Schustas ground attack or close air support aircraft? (If not ignore the rest of this.) Now if I had to get down and dirty just over the trenches every day I would not want to advertise my presence to higher flying enemy fighter aircraft. Thus I would want upper surfaces that would be hard to see against the ground. I certainly would not be happy to fly in an aircraft with light grey or white uppers. I agree that the aircraft photos do appear very light to white but could someone explain why anyone would use such a marked aircraft for ground attack?

[Ocsi]

color have the window frames?

Picked up a old kit and started....(camouflage and additional equipment is a dream for every modeler!)

I think it is a field repair and the crew were to lacy to fix national markings new. So the "white" new color appears lighter due to new gloss varnish especially at the wings. With some color they fixed parts of the fuselage too, mayby after a forced landing on the belly.

They used colors they had in field. So mayby a very light grey (the white on the fuselage is still whiter than the additions) or the same origial color from the company. (I will chose the very light grey for my model, it looks better and who knows better?

I have seen the whole collection on eBay and there are some pictures similar to the Datafile (Schleichs Roland). Cannot get this together.

Regards Öcsi

[GrzeM]

Originally Posted by GPCharlwood

Fascinating debate and comments. However something does not make sense to me. Weren't the Schustas ground attack or close air support aircraft?

Schusta was Schutzstaffel (exactly like later Nazi SS!!!) which means escort (or: protection) squadron. Initially the units were intended for protection and escort of the other two seaters, and the planes were intended to use as two seater fighters (like Brisfit), even for the top cover for the single seaters. But that idea was rather failure (I think mostly because of weak engines) and planes were relegated to the ground attack sorties, and squadrons renamed to Schlachsta (Schlachstaffel - attack squadron).

Cheers!
G.

Ahh! Thanks for clearing that up.