Albatros C.V natural and stained wood on one AC?

apauling · 1 January 2010, 12:02 PM

Hi folks, I'm thinking of building an Albatros C.V model. Windsock datafile 81 photos 28,31,43, and 44 seem to show aircraft that had dark stain applied on the upper fuselage around the cockpit and natural wood on the fuselage sides. Does anyone know if the darker stain was ever applied to the whole upper fuselage while leaving the sides and bottom unstained?

Dan_San_Abbott · 1 January 2010, 02:30 PM

Hello apauling:
The fuselage and fin were shellacked with a yellow tinted shellac. Panchromatic were not sensitive yellow, orange and red. the film registered these colors a grey to dark grey, in some instances almost black.
All Alb.C.V 16 and 17 models were shellacked with yellow shellac.
Happy New Year,
Dan-San

apauling · 1 January 2010, 05:03 PM

Thanks Dan-San! that explains a lot of confusing pictures I've seen.

Cigogne · 6 January 2010, 07:04 PM

Regarding the shellac... it is interesting to study film footage from the Albatros factory and notice how in the same film clip that shows two different aircraft at the factory (A D.II being taxied and test flown, and D.IIIs on the start line in the same frame.), can show the D.II as very light in color, and the D.IIIs being much darker... and very shiny. I'm thinking this points to more than one type of finish being used. The D.II was in ex-works finish w/ the late 1916 style crosses in white boxes with the ends of the crosses going right to the edge of the white boxes, while the D.IIIs, also in ex-works finish, had the 1917 style w/ white surrounds on all of the visible crosses. The tonal values show a marked difference. The location, lighting, etc. are the same for all of the aircraft in the frame. If they are the same finish... why would there be such a drastic difference? I think the film footage points to more than one type of finish being used.