Color questions on Campell's Ni 28

[melsharkskin]

I have this gripping fear that in the months I've been away from the 'Drome that this question has been kicked around ad nauseam and I'm screwing around with old news. But here goes:

After I got my copy of Theodore Hamady's exquisite book on the Nieuport 28 in US Service (Schiffer, 2008), I just had to grab me that 1/32 Roden kit, restock the Strutz stack and get me some brass parts. Well, before starting I've run into color questions.

First, the so-called "orange slice" cowling on the machine appears is always depicted with orange triangles (called "peels" in the book), but contrasting triangular "peels" for the other color. In the book, the "peels" are orange with, as is explained in the text with the profile, an unfinished paint job on the other "peels" of the orange, which are shown in factory green, to be "painted black later."

The question I have is, were these painted black with the orange, or brown? I have seen them referred to both ways. In fact, there is an aftermarket decal sheet that calls for orange and brown on the cowling.

Which is correct? For that matter, was the cowl orange or red on the bright-colored "peels"?

Also, the Hamady book says that the fuselage aft of the right side of the cockpit has extra "green" paint extending forward to cover repairs to damage from a hangar fire. In the book' profile the extra color doesn't match any of the camo colors and is something like PC10. To confound things further, the kit instructions call for this extra section of color to be painted "flat black."

So what color was it? The section involved was quite large, covering almost the entire side of the mid-aft fuselage, over the top, and all the way forward to just past the rear of the fuselage.

[ONEALM]

Melsharkskin -

I am nearly positive Ted got most of the markings information for the Campbell Nieuport from Alan Toelle so I'm sure it's as accurate as can be.

The ex-works N.28 has the cowl split in Brown and Green so the red "peels" - and I think they were red, not orange - were first painted over the green/brown cowl. So it would have been alternating red/green on one side, red/brown on the other. If you notice the airplane is still in French markings at the time of his first victory on 14 April, it's pretty clear they were more concerned with operational readiness than the markings.

I would suspect the black petal were all filled in at the same time to complete the look.

The overpainted/repaired section was not, in my opinion, black. You can disregard that note from the manufacturer of the kit. Firstly, it makes no sense to think they would use a color dope not regularly available to cover the repair. Secondly, they'd want it to match if possible the other colors so it's likely a closer match to one of the ground colors. If Ted has it as a PC10-ish color, it was probably PC10-ish.

Probably someone better versed in the typical squadrons stores of dope would be better able to answer this particular point.

So the answer to your question is - it depends. What markings (i.e. what date) do you want to depict ? If you are going for the 14 April look - red peels without the black, PC-10 and French Cockades.

[melsharkskin]

Thanks for the reply. Frankly, I'd like to complete the model in the later scheme, where the cowling had been painted red and black (I believe it was red too). So, what the Mamady book doesn't answer (and there's no real reason it should), is whether the proper French camo was painted back on later after the patch job following the fire. I wonder if there is a late- or immediate-post-war photo of this machine somewhere.
TOM