Werner Voss' second identically marked Alb. D.III 7xx/series.
Greetings all,

In the past there has been an understandable concern about duplicating in scale the german factory sprayed camouflage from WWI. Now this changed several times during the war and different manufactures applied these directives to their contract projects at about the same time. Lets begin.

First the Schneidemuhl built "OAW Albatros D.III camouflage. . .

Idflieg ordered the first batch of 200 Alb.D.III from OAW, s/n D.1650/17 to 1849/17 in April 1917. Generally before the formal order, Idflieg would notify the manufacturer with a letter of intent to buy so many od whatever. This was done, to facilitate early deliveries of the whatever. The manufacturer would send off purchase orders for all the items he would, such as paint. And program the deliveries to meet his production schedule. Idflieg generally expected deliveries in 60 days orin the case of the April order, deliveries to commence in June.

On 12 April 1917, Idflieg sent telegrams to all the Bauaufsicht and to each aircraft factory informing them to stop using reddish brown paint in their camouflage schemes. By this time, OAW had probably ordered all the paint for the forth coming order. I would suspect on receipt of this telegram, OAW canceled the reddish brown paint and increased the light and dark green and equal amount.

Prior to this order, OAW was using a three color a Day Terrain Camouflage Scheme of light green, dark green and reddish brown on the side and top surfaces and sky blue under surfaces. It is not known if OAW purchased those colors for the first Alb.D,III (OAW) order. What is known, that only two colors were used, one dark and one light and was most probably, light and dark green on the side and top surfaces. I believe the dark color was the dark green and the light color light green.

On the subsequent orders in May-June and August 1917, the OAW D.III machine, most were covered with printed fabric and some had painted camouflage scheme, those I believe were painted dark green and Lilac as directed by Idflieg in the 12 April 1917 telegram. Lilac is not a medium or dark color, it quite light and would fit into the gray values in the photgraphs in the Albatros D.III DATAFILE Special, pages 38 to 55.

In my study of Albatros and OAW deliveries, I have the OAW D.III machine deliveries, 125 in June and 75 in May 1917 and the later August 1917 order, delivered in November and December 1917. At this time, OAW production rate was about 125 aircraft per month. This will give something to chew on awhile.
Blue skies,
Dan-San Abbott"

Also the two toned camouflage (dk grn & lt. grn) was on Johannistahl late production Alb. D. III & early production Alb. D.V types. Dan also commented here on Aeroscale.

"The Johannistahl built "The Alb.D.III was built by its parent company, Albatros Werke G.m.b.H., (Alb), Johannisthal and Ostdeutsche Werke, Schneidemuehl, (Albs or later OAW).
The machine you modeled was built by Albatros Werke. The wings, tailplane and rudder were camouflaged in three colors, light green, olive green and rust brown on the upper surfaces. The rudder was painted the same color as the center color on the tailplane. The undersides of the wings, tailplane and wheel covers were light sky blue. All 1916 Albatros built Alb.D.III machines had painted camouflage schemes and can be distinguished by straight trailing edge on the rudder.

The two orders issued to the Albatros Werke in 1917, each of fifty machines, D.600/17 - D.649/17 ordered in February 1917 and delivered in April 1917 D.750/17 - D.799/17 ordered in March 1917and delivered in May 1917. Both orders were camouflage in two colors, dark green and light green with skie blue under sides of the wings, tailplane and wheel covers.

There were at least six patterns used and all were asymetrical. Forward is /
Upper wing patterns:
1.[---------/-----/--------]
2.[ -------/------/------- ]
3.[----- / -----------------]
4.[------/---------/--------]
The pale green was most often was the dominant color covering the largest area. There were other instances where these slopes were reversed in the pattern.

Generally the slope / in the pattern was the same on the lower wing. the early schemes on the lower wings were:
[-------/-----[ body]-----/--------]
or [---/ ---------[ body ] -------------].
The areas differed from pattern to pattern, the sprayed color separation edges were diffused.
The tailplane was divided chordwise in a gentle slope [---/--/ --] or [-------] spanning one rib bays.
The rudder was painted the same color as the center color on the tailplane.

All the Albatros Built in the first order, serial numbers
D.1910/16 to D.2309/16 were painted in the three color upper camouflage of light green, dark olive green and rust brown. Albatros built Ald.D.III, serial nuimber D.600/17 to D.649/17 and D.750/17 to 799/17 were camouflaged in two colors on the upper surfaces dark green and pale green with sky blue under surfaces. Only Albatros built the Alb.D.V, serial numbers D.1000/17 to D.2224/17 were painted dark olive green and lilac/mauve. Serial numbers
D.2225/17 to D.2361/17 were covered with 5 color printed fabric. (Ed. note, See the lead image to this thread.)

Back to the Alb.D.III built by OAW were delivered in two camouflage schemes, painted or covered with printed five color fabric.
On the painted schemes the colors were divided by a hard curved line were on the upper wing (up ^):
1.Mauve / dark green / mauve or 2. dark green / mauve / dark green.
Lower wing;
3.Dark green / mauve [ body] mauve dark green or,
4.Mauve/ dark green [ body] dark green mauve.
There was also a curvy chordwise line,
[------l------l-------] pattern.

The tailplane was divided spanwise from tip to tip with a hard curvy line. The were two patterns, mauve forward and dark green aft or dark green forward and mauve aft.
The rudder was painted pale yellow ochre to match the fin.
The fuselage was shellaced anf varnished. It is my belief the schellac was tinted yellow.

D.1650 - 1849/17, two colour painted.
D.2362 - 2424/17, five colour printed.
D.2425 - 2599/17, two colour painted.
D.2600 - 2661/17, five colour printed.
D.3156 - 3199/17, two colour painted.
D.3200 - 3255/17, five colour printed.
D.5022 - 5071/17, two colour painted.
D.5072 - 5161/17, five colour printed.

Mauve is not purple, it is a pale slightly bluish pink. I refer you to Windsock Datafile, ALBATROS D.III by Peter M.Grosz. See photo bottom of page 59 for a typical OAW pattern. The light areas are mauve. I would suggest research on a specific plane before modeling.

More on Albatros D. Johannistahl & OAW builds.
1. The slope of the upper wing camouflage on Albatros built D.III was about two rib bays. The lower wing camouflage was slightly less, the slope angle was approximately the same, The slope of the camouflage on the tailplane was approximately one rib bay.
2. The rudder on Albatros built was painted the same color as the middle color, however not always. That requires checking photographs.
3. The Albatros Werke used spray guns with pressurized covered pots, Defilbis spray gun system. All camouflage schemes were assymetrical.
4. No Johannistahl built Alb.D.III was covered with printed fabric.

Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke Schneidemuhl.
A. On all OAW built Alb.D.III the had the rounded rudder.
B. The OAW built Alb.D.III that were not covered with five color intermediate pattern printed fabric, had symetrical camouflage schemes.

Printed fabrics in 1917 on other manufacturer's airframes.
I will discuss the printed fabric further. In 1917 when the printed fabric was introduced, several manufacturers used the light lower five color pattern on the upper surfaces of the wings, tailplane, rudder and wheel covers and plain unprinted fabric on the under surfaces. (Specifically Halberstadt) I don't know why this was done, I can only surmise they had not printed the top fabric pattern on hand. See the German lozenge Camouflage 101 thread.