Cooper's Kosciuszko DIII OEF - Sworl?

Did Merian Cooper's Kosciuszko Squadron Albatros DIII OEF (#5) have printed sworl fabric, painted fabric, or CDL? *I have the books White Eagles and Flight of Eagles, but can't make out the detail sufficiently. *TIA

[leo]

I honestly don't know, but it would seem to me that the sworling would have been due to a printed fabric with that design. There would be too much labor involved in painting.

[Cliff]

I haven't been able to find a photo of the aircraft but HitKit do the scheme in one of their kits.
They list it as aircraft no. 253.218 with the upper surfaces in dark green, lower left plain and a red nose.
They also mention that Cooper flew an identically marked white 5 a/c no. 253.222
I also found the 'same' aircraft in Blue Rider's Insignia Colour Guide on the Albatros D.III (OEF) which shows a/c no. 5 with a plain finish overall ??

Cliff

[GrzeM]

I can't find any photo of it.
There are 2 colour profiles of D.III with 5 and "Kosciuszko" sign, one CDL, and one dark green. They looks like 2 different planes, because shapes of '5' are different. Both have red noses.
On CDL plane '5' is tall and thin, on green one is rounded.
Green is from Goworek book, and CDL from "Barwa w lotnictwie polskim"
G.

The "sworled" fabric pattern was a printed fabric. It appeared on several late version 253 Oeffag Albatros D.III aircraft. Depending on whether any of these airframes with the printed fabric were sold to Poland post war, OR, existing stocks of the printed fabric ended up in Polish repair facilities, it might be possible that Cooper may have flown one. I have seen photographs of a sworled Albatros D.III series 253 with the elevator covered in that fabric. I can't recall the Kociuscko emblem being on it at that point. I'll double-check.

Av

[Mark_Miller]

I think this page might be of interest:
http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Rychlewsk...lish/index.html

If you have more questions, Karen might be able to help.

Mark

[GrzeM]

For sure there were 'sworled' Oeffags in Poland, for example Karen's '8', also '2' and two others, one without any numbers, and one 217/18 (this is Polish, not German serial, its AH serial was probably 253.217).
AH fabric printed in sworls appeared for the first time on 4 planes from 153. serie (263, 264, 265 nad 267) (source: Martin O'Connor's article)
G.

Alan Durkota, in Peter Grosz' massive Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft book, did a rendering of one of Friedrich Hefty's Alb. D.III (Oef) aircraft that was crash landed by another pilot after a scrap. The color rendering also includes a color rendering of the pattern and 3 color that were used. Very attractive pattern.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Mark Miller:
* * * In a word, marvelous! beautiful model. The sworl pattern decal is perfect! *I had worked with Marty O'Connor on this question of the colors in the sworl pattern. He had in his collection, a photograph of the printed fabric draped on a wing. *I offered my suggestions to Marty as what the colors might be. *Because of the lack of collaborating data, he was reluctant to guess and did not include a drawing with the sworl pattern in his book, "Air Aces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1914-1918. *A beautiful book!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Blue skies,
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Dan-San
P.S. Barrett, we lost a very good friend when Marty went to the big hangar in the sky..
* * * * * * * * *

[Mark_Miller]

Mark Miller:
* * * In a word, marvelous! beautiful model. The sworl pattern decal is perfect! *

Dan-San
I'm not sure, but it sort of sounds like you think this is my work. .... it is not.

These models were made by Karen Rychlewski. Here's a link to a page which will direct you to more of her work.
http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Rychlewski/index.html
And I totaly agree with you.. her work is beautiful *
Mark Miller