Hantelmann's 382/18, "Totenkopf" icon

[jumpinjan]

Here's a project that I am working on to provide all correct color & marking information to paint up an 80% Fok D7 replica in Hantelmann's 382/18 markings, and that includes the Totenkopf icon on the fuselage.
I am to do the following:
- Provide color samples to have the subsequent aircraft paint mixed and that includes the 4-color Lozenge (upper & undersides), the vermilion red & Prussian blue fuselage and the olive-green undercarriage wing.
- Provide a scaled outline of the 4-color lozenge cell
- Provide a scaled outline of the totenkopf (Dead Head) icon

In observing what printed material is available on the subject, I found the best outline of the totenkopf was the "original" as seen in vintage photos. I scanned the icon & processed the image and its overlaid on the D7 profile below. Some examples of other icons are given. I noticed the original has shadows & highlights on the skull & bones.


To match the colors, I'm using my new cross referrencing process (Methuen to Dupont Spectramaster) to have the color scanned and new fomulas made (if needed, otherwise I could order paint using the Dupont color code).
As you can see, I can get a perfect match most of the time.


Here's are the 80% outlines of the totenkopf icon & lozenge cell. I did this rendering on my graphics computer and output to a DesignJet plotter

[Gregvan]

Very nice work, Jumpinjan!

Greg

[jumpinjan]

Greg,
The schedule is to have the aircraft flying at the '08 GWA fall event, Newville PA. This is the National WWI reenactment event and we have had WWI aircraft flying there since '06.
Jan

[Laserlloyd]

Hi Jan:

Looking good...

I have been waiting to see how long it was going to take you to update your banner. Well, here you go...



Hope you like it

Lloyd...

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Jan:
I am glad to see that you are using the Four color pattern for Fok.D.VII 382/18, Dave Roberts, in Fokker D.VII Anthology 1 was in correct when he stated it was covered with 5 color fabric. Check Photo bottom of page 57 inboard of left lower wing. On the upper wing, the base seam is on the aircraft center-line. Check the photo on the Photo 22 on page 21. Blow up this photo and you will see the seam clearly betwee the two middle ribs(Nr.1).
Good luck on the project.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[jumpinjan]

Mr Abbott,
I used your 3-view drawing, on this effort, and immediatly observed the 4-color fabric in your rendering. I read Mr Roberts article and tried to put myself in his shoes and tried to observe what he observed, but I could not see any evidence for either 4 or 5 color fabric. I can't agree with lozenge on the stab & elevator either, so my recommendations to the builder are all based on your work. I am very pleased that my color cross referencing process is working pretty well (color matches are very, very close) and is not too time consuming.

Mr Lloyd,
Thanks for the inspiration to get me going on my sig-banner. I used the triplane, I'm sure you & Mr Taz would like it.

[Welsh Dave]

Attached is the drawing I had always intended to produce, based on the faint tracing (not a sketch) I posted in another thread a few days ago.

The fabric in question is held at the Imperial War Museum, where any member of the public may make an appointment to examine it. We are talking about a real, physical museum exhibit, not some assumption made by extrapolating from photographs. It is part of what was originally a large book, but is now a collection of loose leaves carrying the mounted samples.

The accession description appears to be a mistaken combination of a wing number, 1445, taken from the wreck and the aircraft's Werke Nummer, 2469. The Bestellnummer, the military serial/order number 382/18, was not known to the RAF examiners at the time. The pilot, Lt Wuesthoff, is correctly attributed, he having borrowed the aircraft from Hantelmann on the day it was brought down.

The colours, particularly the yellow, are remarkably intense compared with the more greyish tones in 4-colour fabric, and the difference in angle between the yellow/green borders is much too great at approx. 22 degrees for accidental error to be a factor.

With the mainplane underside fabric is a sample from the top of the tailplane, which is blackish Prussian blue over 4-colour lozenge fabric.

No mainplane uppersurface fabric for this machine was present when I examined the collection, but there was a piece from Hans Schultz's D.VII 368/18, which is 4-colour fabric. This serves to convince me that the uppersurface fabric of 382/18 was indeed 4-colour. Re-examination of photographs reinforces this conviction.

The image was not appearing when I previewed this post. If it doesn't appear this time, I'll try posting it separately.

[Welsh Dave]

Trying again...

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Dave Welsh:
The angles on your improved sketch are almost 90 to 90 plus degrees between the lines. The sum of the four angles = 360 degrees. I checked the angles on the diamond in the five color pattern. The angle od the diamond pointing toward the outer edge is 76 degrees included, and the inboard more pointed end of the diamond, the angle is 63 degrees included. Dave you are looking at a piece of four color fabric from the area on the pattern as I posted earlier.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[Welsh Dave]

Dan,

Using a drawing of the 5-colour pattern in WW1 Aero, based I believe on your own measuring of a piece of fabric in your possession, I get an included angle of 76.5 degrees for the outer apex of the green diamond. Close to 76, yes.

If you look at the bright violet tracing from your drawing (or Wally Batter's) superimposed on my original tracing from the Hantelmann fabric, you will see that they match very closely. The borders going to the bottom corners are slightly skewed, as is to be expected of fabric applied to a Fokker wing and doped. The dope preserves the distortion. If they match, it must be 5-colour fabric, surely.

For comparison, I've put a coloured version of the same drawing alongside my tracing of 4-colour fabric from a section of a photograph mapped onto a D.VII fuselage drawing as part of an ongoing project. I think the border angles are more accurate than those in the Datafile drawings, which appear to come originally from Peter Gray's efforts in the late 50s. Subsequent redrawings have exacerbated their errors.

I originally estimated the difference in angle between the green and yellow polygon borders in the two patterns as 22 degrees, but I now think it was closer to 35.