> > Now, the REAL question: Why would the artist depict the forward rudder
> >stripe as black, as well as the outside concentric circle of the roundel on
> >the fuselage side (the roundels on the upper surface of the top wing contain
> >a blue circle)? According to the text, this particular aircraft had been
> >captured by the Germans, following which Iron Crosses were painted on the
> >wheels. A photo of the captured plane shows this, but the rudder stripe is
> >clearly not black, nor is the roundel.
> >
> > I have to question the artist's depiction on the cover, however it seems
> >that he took a lot of trouble to get every other detail correct. Any guesses
> >out there as to what the REAL story is?
>
> IMHO - the top wing is portrayed in bright light, while the side is in
> shadow. The artist's portrayal probably was V.dark blue, but the printer
> "darkened" it some more (unintentionally - see previous thread on the shade
> of mauve/lilac.)
Although I don't have the Datafile here: this sounds like one of the
"night fighting" machines. During Zeppelin and Gotha raids, there
were a few planes "converted" for the night fighting role. One of
these "conversions" included painting over the "white" (and maybe one
of the other colors?) of the roundel and fin flash with either black,
or PC-10, to tone down the colors, and make it "harder" to see than a
"standard" machine.
Matt
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Matthew Bittner WW1 Modeler, ecto subscriber, semi-new dad,
meba@cso.com PowerBuilder developer; Omaha, Nebraska
Disclaimer: opinions expressed by me are my responsibility only.
"Villians I say to you now: knock off all that evil!"
- The Tick
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