Dr.1 425/17 markings

[Dan_San_Abbott]

RagsIII;
In all the photographs taken, the first all red Fok.DR.I(including the rudder) with iron crosses was taken on 26 March 1918. All the photographs taken up to MvR's last known flight on 11 April 1918 were on Dr.I 477/17 or163/17 and or 127/17. There is no established record that MvR ever flew Fok.DR.I 425/17 before 19 April 1918. So all those photos attributed to Dr.I 425/17 are in reality Fok.DR.I 477/17 with the "V" defect on the right side of the fuselage, near the cockpit.
What is of interest, up until Ray Rimell came up with his hypothesis about the "V" clitch, believed the photograph taken at Le Chelle Airfield on 26 March was Fok.DR.I 477/17. Ray's analsys is flawed, he ignores the that the only Fok.DR.I that MvR regularily flew was Fok.DR.I 477/17. Also If Fok.DR.I 425/17 was available from 26 March 1918, why did MvR not fly it instead of Dr.I 127/17 and 163/17 and 477/17. These questions are never answered by those who believe the "V" clitch Triplane was Dr.425/17. The only logical answer is Fok. Dr.I 477/17!
Blue skies,
Dan-San

Dan and Rick,

Thank you both very much for all of the information! It sounds like I can simply use the insignia decals provided with my Dragon kit(Jacob's Markings) with a couple of minor trimmings and have it reasonably accurate. I understand the plane was pretty freshly painted so there would not have been much colour bleeding or peeling or weathering for that matter. I suspect that the "Dr.1 425/17" also did not show much if at all under the red. No need for complicated pre-shading etc of the markings.
A couple of other questions though. Rick makes a comment on the plane being factory painted red, based I believe on the lack of olive or turquoise undercoating on Dan's sample fabric. However, from what I understand the cross fields on the wing underside where the sample came from were often simply natural linen. What do you think?
Another question is what was the scheme of 477/17? I have seen a reference to this plane but I have only seen any colour profiles of 152/17, F.1 102/17 and 425/17.
I am doing one of von R's planes because I have always been fascinated with the legend and also because my son and Richthofen share the same birthday, about 101 years apart! My wife would not let me call him Manfred though....

Thanks again!

Chris

[StephenLawson]

Following Dan San and Rick's advice is always a good move

Stephen,

I suspect that you are right! I have the pleasure of knowing Rick from another site and Dan certainly seems to know his stuff. I have also saved an earlier posting of this picture from the thread on the colour of 425/17 from a week or so back. Nice model! I hope that mine turns out as well.

thanks,

Chris

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Rick:
Fok.DR.425/15 was delivered in the standard Fokker military finish of olive brown streaking on the upper and side surfaces and sky blue varnished > turquoise and all standard makings as required by Idflieg and contractual order from Idflieg. The dark red paint was applied by the mechanics who took care of his plane. The red paint is poorly mixed, the carbon black is not in solution and crudely applied. The paint is thinnly applied and is somewhat transparent. There is only one coat of red paint, it lacks a vehicle to give it good coverage.
The thickness of the paint film on the piece I had was .004" thick. The finishing requirements were two coats of dope, one coat of camouflage color, and one coat of varnish to waterproof the fabric surfaces. In 1918 in order to conserve dope ( was in critical shortage)on the Fok.D.VII, the the wings and tails were given two coats of dope and the fuselage one coat of dope and a coat of varnish to waterproof the fabric surfaces.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

Dan,

Thank you again for the information. It is information like this that both adds realism to a model and is interesting to the historian. Much appreciated!

Chris

[StephenLawson]

Here is another view posted by request. Sorry it took so long. The disk was mixedx in with my daughters stack of puter games.