Hi there

I'm planning an Albatros DV for the WW1 campaign. The wings are camouflaged in green and purple.

My question is, does anyone know if these colours were applied by brush or sprayed?.. i.e. should it be a hard or soft division between the colours?

Any pointers would be much appreciated... :-)

All the best

Rowan

Hard division for that particular kind of camo.
capnjock

Rowan,

Are you talking about the lozenge-shaped repeating patterns? I can't tell you anything about those from a historical standpoint, such as whether they were applied by brush or spray, but I do know that aftermarket decals for those are readily available.

If you're referring to some other type of camo, maybe a picture would help?

I think Aeromaster makes a sheet of 72 scale Lozenge Camo, and I think maybe a sheet of 48 scale.

~Chip

Found a link that says they were all soft demarcation lines. http://wwi-cookup.com/albatros/modelling_hints/kittech_camouflage.html I know you're not talking about Lozenge. There is also a great deal of debate about the correct shade of purple, my personal theory on this is that if no one knows for sure, then anything close is correct. I would imagine there was a pretty significant amount of variation between different lots of paint in that era.

Thanks everyone :-)

No, I don't mean the lozenge pattern - I know those were printed fabric (for the most part...).

Interesting to get two such conflicting views on the painting... I've tried to imagine how it was done.. I know spray painting was invented before WW1... but was it used in aircraft manufacture...?

As for what shade of purple... I'm assuming fairly muted, beacause modern pigments weren't available... any ideas?

Cheers

Rowan

Explore that link a little further Porky, look under albatross and they have a list of modeling hints. In there are several ideas for German Mauve and how to replicate it.

lozenge is hard color in many different shapes of diamonds.......large small tall fat......and the colors go in a losse pattern.

I dont know if the German camo was brushed or sprayed but it was definitely hard edged.

I was a bit surprised at the earlier post because to the best of my memory all Jerry camo was hard edged. I just dug out my Profile on the D5 and both the drawings and contemporary photos show hard edge.

I rather fancy that the info on soft edge is being promulgated by airbrush users who are obsessed with soft edges. (I keep seeing WW2 RAF models with soft edge that bears no relationship to any of the schemes in my resource of WW2 publications.)

So brush your hard edges, get a good reference photo and use a mauve that is a very dark colour, sort of like the skin of an aubergine.

Regards Dave

:-)

Cheers everyone

I've just found a reference photo which backs up capnjock and Dave's view about hard edges, so I think I'll use masks...

Many thanks :-)

Rowan