Greetings,

I am working on the Eduard Weekend edition of the DV for an interclub competition to take place in September.
The instructions would have me paint the pilots throne a "red-brown" colour. Since these parts were fabricated aluminium plate and then painted, I would assume that the colour might vary according to what sort of primer or paint happened to be in excess at the time?
Should I stick to the "red-brown" or can I go for a grey?
Oh, I am intending to finish the machine as one of MvR's partially red ones. 4693/17 is looking good.

Cheers,

Hugh

Greetings Hugh;
The pilot's chair was a wooden base with a metal or wood ply backing and was infact a stuffed and covered in a black leather / cow hide? The one at the Aero conservancy owned by Charles Gosse is from a late model Alb. D.V he says. Think he even has an image of it posted there.

Also there is some confusion due to out-dated material. D.4693/17 was not the machine he crashed in July 1917. It was flown in November 1917 and had a red nose to the cockpit , red tail unit and 5 colour lozenge wings. I think Dwaynewilly did one and its very close to spot on.

,

Upper and Lower?




Hmmm. I'm not sure that replication of that falls within the bounds of IPMS OOB Rules.
Any Ideas?

Thanks for the clarification Stephen.

Cheers,

Hugh

Yes sir.




No worries just paint it semi gloss slate grey with a black wash. The kit item appears physically as a good representation of a scaled down original item. I'll see if I can find an image for you.

Here it is. From the WWI modelers page. My mistake is says its from an Alb. D.III but should be right for the D.V as well.

Damn! I swapped a set of Pegasus 1/48 5 colour Lozenge for a Hitech Sopwith Snipe! Shoulda hunged on to them... Maybe I can print my own...

Thanks Stephen.

Cheers,

Hugh

Stephen, thanks for posting that pic! I wish I had it sooner but it will help on my "Next" Albatros build!
RAGIII

Stephen, Please clarify in more detail the Scheme of 4693/17.
thanks.

Hugh

This is a tale that reaches back in antiquity for me.

Years ago two noted historians thought that the Alb. D.V that MvR crashed in on 6 July 1917 was the best identifier for the the serial number you seek. It was my shining moment when I went from nerdowell WWI aviation junkie to a bonafied source when I proved to both of them it was not possible. D. 4693/17 arrived at the front in the fall 1917. In the current source on the subject of photos concerning JG I we see a line up of an image I have had for years. It shows Jasta 11 in a line up circa Oct. - Nov. 1917. See GvW's "Von Richthofen's Flying Circus", photo 128, page 47 -48.

The lozenge comes from the description of other documented Albatros D.V in this serial range have 5 colour lozenge. In the Bodenshatz photo album there is a line up of Jasta 11, Albatros D. V types (with Bodenshatz playing with a pup in the foreground). All noses in this line up are painted (black & white photo of course) dark. As Jasta 11 we see this as being red. The red is as you described from spinner to just ahead of the cockpit. MvR was photographed in one of these as well. We see the red stop short of the cockpit vertically. Like many images we have of the subject of our interest we have to understand that was how it looked at one point in time. Was it ever painted more down the fuselage? We don't Know. A red forward area and tail is reasonable in the light of his past practices. At least a red forward fuselage and tail in evidence due to the Jasta 11 image.

Remember the premier issues of Eduard's Fokker Dr.I and Alb. D.V? A D.V from Jasta 11 from this time was one of the profiles. Albatros D.V Summer - Fall 1917 as flown by Oblt. Franz Muller. The description of summer is in error. Ltn.d.R. Franz Müller came from AFP 4 on 19July 1917 and on 27 Oct. 1917 KIA. It was this machine that MvR was probably photographed in during Oct. 1917. At least according to Alex Imrie.

So we are looking at the bottom most profile here?
OK. I can go for that.
Serial number on Vertical Stabiliser?

Here is one of Mark Millers Renderings. Is this the same machine do you think?

http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Miller/render/Albatros/j11scene.jpg

Cheers,

Hugh

Probably not the same machine but definately a Jasta 11 bird from Oct. - Nov. 1917. By the way I have Mark's permission to disply his images as refderences. So I kicked up your url to a display image.

Thanks Stephen,
You would not believe the difficulty I am having sourcing a sheet of 1/48 5 colour lozenge decal.
None of my regular online shops seem to have any.
I called and spoke to Steve at Snowymountains Models (Here in Melbourne, they have pretty much anything that is available anywhere in the world)... He said that it is at least twelve months since anybody has even asked for any! I'd better check out our Lozenge thread.

Cheers,

Hugh