albatros replica paint job?

sheppo · 27 September 2009, 07:05 PM

Ok fellas.
Im rapidly approaching having the last of the skins on the Albatros. In about 1 months time I WILL be painting her (or by god someone is going to get it in the neck!!).
I dont have any particular favourite paints cheme, jasta, pilot etc to sway my decision and as a result cannot actually make a decision...
I am open to all suggestions as to a paintjob with the following caveats.
1. Must be for a dva if historical based (photo, known colours)
2. Im too cheap for lozenge fabric , so if historically based it would need to be green/mauve on the wings
3. Not bloody MVRs colours!!! ... not that he flew a Dva mind you.
4. Tail must be painted & the colours must be High Vis as opposed to camoflage. I dont want to be plowed into by someone who couldnt see me on the air and ...on the runway!
5.Id like to have some of the fuselage timber visible, I spent too much time getting the nails right to cover all of them.
6. Anything else that i think up later...

If I find a design that really gets me going, I will paint my plane those colours.
Attached is a rough outline if you need to get the crayons out...

Chris

Chock · 27 September 2009, 08:25 PM

Easy choice: Paul Baumer...

Good choice for a lot of reasons...

First it's a relatively easy paint scheme, but still colourful enough to get you spotted, with a nice Edelweiss motif too, as well as the forward fuselage being unpainted and the tail is painted. Then you've got the conversational point that Paul Baumer was apparently treating Erich Remarque after the war when working as a dentist, who subsequently used his name for the character in the classic Great War novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which is a good one to placate anyone who says you are celebrating warfare. Then there's the fact that Baumer also had a cool nickname - The Iron Eagle. You also have the fact that he was awarded a Pour Le Merite, with a total of 43 victories, ranking him number 9 out of the German aces, so still a top ten of the aces, but less cliche than the normal aces everyone knows. Finally you have the fact that he died in 1927, so there is no 'Nazi controversy' about him for anyone to give you a lot of bother about. If you want to talk about good omens too, he is one of the few pilots to successfully bail out in WW1 as well!

Ticks a lot of boxes does that one.

Al

sheppo · 27 September 2009, 08:36 PM

Gday chock
but still colourful enough to get you spotted
yes +1 point
, with a nice Edelweiss motif too, as well as the forward fuselage being unpainted and the tail is painted.
Tricky to paint but, Points +2
working as a dentist,
Dont like dentists...-2

All Quiet on the Western Front,
Good book too...+1
- The Iron Eagle.
Awful movie...1/2 point only 'cos it involves an eagle
Pour Le Merite,
That would look good on my "uniform"...2 points
no 'Nazi controversy' about him
Post war exploits....no points awarded...

4.5 points...
Thanks for that.
Keep em coming.

Chris

Patrick · 27 September 2009, 08:37 PM

Hi Chris, here are my picks --

1. S/N Unknown, Ltn. d R Walter Böning, CO Jasta 76b, Habsheim c. February 1918. Two narrow bands, white-then-blue, directly behind the cockpit, then the Barvarian Wappenschild motif of blue and white diamonds wrapping around the fuselage & back to the tail, rudder & vertical stabilizer the same pattern, horizontal stabilizer and elevators dark blue with a single wide chordwise white stripe on either side. Iron cross markings with white outlines. Spinner is white, fuselage nose has two narrow blue-then-white stripes, then natural wood all the way back to the cockpit. Metal cowling panels, struts, wheels are light gray, wings are two-color mauve-green camo tops, light blue bottoms, with large iron cross markings edged in white. See Osprey Albatros Aces of WWI, Part 1, page 83 (picture), and Part 2, pages 56 and 25 (profiles). One of my favorite Alb schemes, you can also add the coat of arms of Würzburg to the sides if you want to show it as flown later by Uffz Karl Hopf (same unit). Not a chance somebody can't see you

.

2. S/N D.5815/18,

Gerhard Hubrich, Seefrosta 1, summer 1918. Varnished natural wood fuselage with mottled camo applied in dark olive green -- heavier at the top and tapering off down the sides until unpainted underneath. Mottled camo carried out over the gray-painted metal cowling covers, and wing and wheel struts. Chrome yellow tail -- fuselage from the leading edge of the stabilizers back, both stabilizers and elevator and the tail skid fairing. Rudder is white with a chrome yellow balance. Wheel covers are chrome yellow. Spinner is chrome yellow, fuselage nose has a wide chrome yellow band directly behind the spinner. Fuselage and tail markings are narrow Balkan Kreuz, fuselage has a personal marking of a chick hatching from an egg (in yellow-white-red-black) on a dark blue rectangular background. Wings are two-color mauve-green camo tops, light blue bottoms, with (probably) large iron cross markings edged in white. See Osprey Albatros Aces of WWI, Part 1, page 85 (picture), and page 76 (profile).

sheppo · 27 September 2009, 08:49 PM

1. S/N Unknown, Ltn. d R Walter Böning, CO Jasta 76b,

I do like this bird a lot (Its mongrel of a paint-job to do though), the upper wings have often been displayed as lozenge which crossed it off my running list. If it can be shown otherwise in green and mauve its in the running.
Visibility wise, blind freddy could pick it in a dark room. Nice.

2. S/N D.5815/18,

Gerhard Hubrich
This one I have been musing over as well, theres a lot going for it. Dunno about the chicken egg though...

My favourite scheme is definately

Kurt Monnington but...wrong model and lozenge.

Patrick · 27 September 2009, 09:17 PM

Quote:

1. S/N Unknown, Ltn. d R Walter Böning, CO Jasta 76b,

I do like this bird a lot (Its mongrel of a paint-job to do though)

No doubt, it'd take a real artist to get it wrapped on right -- but it'd turn heads anywhere you showed it. And plenty of natural wood showing too -- plus the iron cross markings look great (bet when the order came down to change to straight-sided he took one look at the beautiful paint and said no way is anybody messing with that).

Quote:

the upper wings have often been displayed as lozenge which crossed it off my running list. If it can be shown otherwise in green and mauve its in the running.

It's definitely mauve-green. The picture in the Osprey book (I've seen it in the Data Files too) shows the plane with it's tail up in a gun pit, getting the MGs aligned. You can see the wing tops clearly, especially the lower wing, and they're not lozenge -- the two-tone bands show really well.

Quote:

Dunno about the chicken egg though...

Not my favorite either, it's a play on his nick-name. But he shot down 12, mostly Sopwith Camels, soooooo, anybody wanna crack wise about my chick?

Ltn zur See

Gotthard Sachsenberg from MFJ I has a similar scheme & I would have picked his instead, but the wings are lozenge. Instead of the chick, a wide two-band black-&-white checkerboard edged in yellow behind the cockpit and iron cross markings over the whole plane. Very sharp.

WolfOfBadenoch · 28 September 2009, 05:50 AM

Hey Chris, are we expected to come and do the painting as well ? Back to your point 1 on your original post - does this mean that you are prepared to accept NON historical paintschemes ? Or to put it another way, are you up for original designs as well ?

Al

rexee · 28 September 2009, 06:23 AM

Hi Chris

Simple,yet elegant.

'14-'18aviationcollector · 28 September 2009, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chock

Easy choice: Paul Baumer...

Good choice for a lot of reasons...

First it's a relatively easy paint scheme, but still colourful enough to get you spotted, with a nice Edelweiss motif too, as well as the forward fuselage being unpainted and the tail is painted. Then you've got the conversational point that Paul Baumer was apparently treating Erich Remarque after the war when working as a dentist, who subsequently used his name for the character in the classic Great War novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which is a good one to placate anyone who says you are celebrating warfare. Then there's the fact that Baumer also had a cool nickname - The Iron Eagle. You also have the fact that he was awarded a Pour Le Merite, with a total of 43 victories, ranking him number 9 out of the German aces, so still a top ten of the aces, but less cliche than the normal aces everyone knows. Finally you have the fact that he died in 1927, so there is no 'Nazi controversy' about him for anyone to give you a lot of bother about. If you want to talk about good omens too, he is one of the few pilots to successfully bail out in WW1 as well!

Ticks a lot of boxes does that one.

Al

Hi Al and Chris,

Wasn't that one a D.V? I have the Osprey book handy and haven't had a good look through it yet but the art work shows it as a D.V. .... actually I have just found a photo of it and it is a D.V. It is not impossible to imagine that he might have also flown a D.Va with the same or very similar markings, but the Osprey book suggests it was a D.V.

sorry!

There are very many very very nice schemes available for the D.V. .... relaively few for the D.Va but still I will keep looking and I know that everyone else will too!

I like just about any machine from Jasta 5, but I will let you know if I find something.

On the subject of lozenge, if I could have some produced cheaply would that change your mind? I am still having trouble matching the colours of course, they are very difficult to match, and there is a lot of research and development that goes into it of course. I have some Ceconite lozenge offcuts, and I have to say it is reasonably convincing, but I will also have it printed in linen of course as an option.

Cheers,

David.

'14-'18aviationcollector · 28 September 2009, 07:33 AM

Hey how about D.Va D.5815/'18, flown by

Gerhard Hubrich, Seefrosta 1? It has a lot more paint covering those nail heads than would probably be ideal, but the entire underside of the fuselage is left in clear varnish, and the camouflage scheme seems - by looking at the art work depicting it - seems to blend gradually, so that the mottling is only solid on the top half of the fuselage. From half way down the mottling becomes gradually more thinly applied, and eventually is just clear varnished plywood, with no mottling at all on the underside of the fuselage. It also seems to have blue undersides and mauve and green patch camouflage on the upper surfaces of the wings, which fit your criteria.