What colour MvR's 425/17?

[Scottie]

In the middle of building Manfred Von Richthofen's 425/17, to complement my Voss 103/17 in 1/28 scale....no prizes to guess what the kit is.

My question is can anyone tell me what colour of red the famous Tripe was finished in?

I have read references stating scarlet to vermillion, and the many paintings on the web are obviously subjective due to atmosphere and lighting etc.

All help, info mucho gratias

Cheers

Scottie.

This is a photo of a piece of 425/17 several of us AFC fans found in an album that belonged to a 3AFC pilot.

The photo is courtesy of Steven Drew (How are you goin' mate?)

Make your own mind up about the colour.

[StephenLawson]

Hey Scottie!
I use Testors Insignia Red ( 8 parts) with Testors Brown #1166 ( 2 parts.) *The Testors Brown is a light color with yellow/orange terra cotta color. *
More a medium brown. *This creates a very flat 'Indian Lake Red' that R. Rimell avowed in his Windsock special 1988. *Thoroughly mixed its great. *I keep a bottle of this mixture around and use it mixed with other colours to lighten or darken as needed. When you do it its the unmistakable blood red. *Also A. Toelle has seen good samples of MvR fabric (German 50 count calendared fabric) he seems to agree. *The information we have on 425/17 can be verified in 'Richthofen' by the late A.E.Ferko Albatros Pub. Ltd. * *;D

[Terry_Crisp]

I have seen the fabric sample in the imperial War Museum. It is a very dark brick red. The sample shown above looks like what I saw except that it appears that the Fokker olive brown is showing through. There is no way of knowing which part of the a/c either of the samples was cut from but the swatch I saw did not show the olive. I'd suggest that you use what you see here.
HTH,
Terry

Hello Scottie and all!

Best of luck with the tri-plane. I too am in the process of building this 1:28th scale monster! I'm modelling mine on Fok.DR1 477/17. At the end of the day, choose a red which you personally like best. I like to dirty my models down and give them a 'used', battle-worn look.

Let us know how you get on, Best Wishes, Ken. *;D

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Scotty:
The red fabric swatch posted by Gordon is exactly the color of MvR's Fok. DR.I 425/17. The piece that I had was exactly the same color. I have seen 10 bonified swatches of the Fok. DR.I 425/17 dark red fabric, aside from mine and theu all are that dark blood red.
What has darkened the vermillion red is carbon black mixed in the vermillion paint. The carbon black is not in solution that is throughly mixed with the vermillion paint, but it is in suspension. When viewed under a 100 power microscope it looks like a red field with lumps of coal scattered around at random.
There are several who still don't accept this fact
of the dark "blood" red, I think Greg Van Wyngarden is one, I say this because his illustrations of DR.I 477/17 and Dr.I 425/17 in his "FOKKER DR.I ACES OF WORLD WAR I" are bright red. It was not, bright red, It was "Blood Red". As shown in the AWM fabric swatch.
If you want to make your own sample, take a sheet of bright white paper, and prick your finger and drop several drops of blood on the paper and let them dry. That is the color!
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[Scottie]

Thank-you everyone for your comprehensive and informative replies. There has already been some tears, and plenty of sweat expended on this model- I suppose some "blood" is all that is required to complete the circle!!

Best wishes to all and thanks again for info on this fascinating subject.

Scottie

[StephenLawson]

Hey Scottie!
I use Testors Insignia Red ( 8 parts) with Testors Brown #1166 ( 2 parts.) *The Testors Brown is a light color with yellow/orange terra cotta color. *More a medium brown. *This creates a very flat 'Indian Lake Red' that R. Rimell avowed in his Windsock special 1988. *Thoroughly mixed its great. *I keep a bottle of this mixture around and use it mixed with other colours to lighten or darken as needed. When you do it its the unmistakable blood red. *Also A. Toelle has seen good samples of MvR fabric (German 50 count calendared fabric) he seems to agree. *The information we have on 425/17 can be verified in 'Richthofen' by the late A.E.Ferko Albatros Pub. Ltd. This is the 10th DML 425/17 I've built. #35 overall.

[PeterL]

The sample shown matches exactly the one I examined at Hendon. Based on that I constructed a mockup panel. I used modern paints and materials and so make no claims of any kind, but from a distance of 100 feet or more it looked much lighter and brighter than it was in reality and very much the "scarlet" of myth and legend. Just a dumb modellers sixpennyworth.

[StephenLawson]

This is the 3rd DML Triplane I built and was the 1st application of the 'Blood Red' I described above.