Wet Blending of 3 Colors on Fokker Dr.1's

[sobrien]

I ran across an article by a modeler on line that talks about Dr.1's being painted in light green, dark green, and dark brown wet blended. He said he got the idea from an article in W.W.1 Aero in the 80's. This is the first I've heard of this and have searched this forum but can't find a thread about it. In all of the color plates in books on the triplane, I have never seen this scheme portrayed.

this tells me that it is not a popular view. Anyone have any info on this theory or its basis?

Sean OB

[jumpinjan]

I have never heard that before. The Triplanes didn't have any green. It was a brown in different thinned batches applied over a clear dope linen (which looked beige). If you apply a beige basecoat, it could reliquefy when the brown topcoats are applied (if solvent based). When that happens, you could possibly have a mess. Apply brush strokes in one direction and not back and forth, that would make a huge mess.

[Tim West]

I dont think that would have been practical either. I have not seen any photos that support this either. I think there would be a distinct pattern in the streaks if they did this.

Also is you look closely at some of the photos of the cockpit areas, the streaks are thin wispy/wirey strokes....that appear to have been dragged across the linen.......until they ran out of dope and had to reload the brush. Its does look like they maintained top to bottom direction in the technique. Probably some standard they had for putting on the streaks.

It makes sense, the best way to mass produce something is to keep it easy.......3 coats of wet paints sounds like too much work.

just my 2 bits

[Dan_San_Abbott]

sobrien:
This is plain and simple b-s.
There is one coat of color (olive brown) applied in one coat on top of two coats of clear dope on top[ of the wings and tailplane and one coat on the fuselage over one coat of clear dope. On the under side of the wings and tailplane was on coat of sky blue over two coat of clear dope. On the bottom of the fuselage was one coat of sky blue over one coat of clear dope. All fabric surfaces were given one coat of varnish to water-proof the fabric.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[FOKKERJ]

Originally Posted by Dan_San_Abbott

sobrien:
This is plain and simple b-s.
There is one coat of color (olive brown) applied in one coat on top of two coats of clear dope on top[ of the wings and tailplane and one coat on the fuselage over one coat of clear dope. On the under side of the wings and tailplane was on coat of sky blue over two coat of clear dope. On the bottom of the fuselage was one coat of sky blue over one coat of clear dope. All fabric surfaces were given one coat of varnish to water-proof the fabric.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

Hi Dan-San,

I've often wondered, did the varnish darken the colors that it was applied over?

When they applied varnish over a pre-dyed linen, would it not make the linen's colors darker?

Would different varnishes effect the final product of the original fabric differently?

This makes me wonder if that could cause different surviving samples to differ, along with dye lots, care and aging, among other variables.

Thank you in advance, FOKKERJ

[Sreiko]

Maybe this could help:

Let Let let Warplanes

Let Let let Warplanes

But note that on this forum have much more post related to the painting of the Fokker Dr.I

[Dan_San_Abbott]

FokkerJ:
Varnish has a natural yellow cast to it. For example when the fabric under surfaces were varnished, the sky blue got a yellow shift to the color and it appears to be turquoise. The upper olive surface would also get the yellow shift and it would appear more olive green.
Idflieg specified a specific matt lacquer made by Cohn in Berlin-Neukolln, be used to coat the printed fabric. I assume regular varnish was then brushed over the matt lacquer.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[RAGIII]

Try this thread for fun: There are plenty more where this one came from,
RAGIII

Fokker olive brown streaky and aniline: A new hypothesis

PS: Go to the Camouflage and markings forum, click on search this forum , and type in fokker camo. This pulled up a bunch of threads involving many of the top researchers on the Drome, and a few rank amateurs like myself :-)
IHTH

[StephenLawson]

Greetings all;

This wet blending is the production of model builder and Aerodrome member Marlon Schultz (Call sign = "Intrepid"). See his Fokker Dr.I build s at,

Marlon Schultz : Fokker Dr.I Model Images

Scroll down almost to the bottom to his Roden 1/32 build.

[sobrien]

These are the models that made me start this thread in the first place. What is the basis of the schemes that are represented? All I've read on the streaky threads or in books are olive-brown or olive-green over CDL or blue, or Achim's tests using olive-green and grey-blue over CDL.
His models are beautiful but what is the theory behind this scheme that Malon Schultz is using?

Sobrien