You posted:
<<
Perhaps I am getting in on this a bit late too. The "silver" dope on
French Nieuports is a dope with bits of finely ground up aluminum metal
suspended in it, much the way one make a metalic colored paint or ink. The
idea was that the shiny metal bits would reflect the harmful rays of the
sun that tended to otherwise rot the fabric covering of aircraft. Aluminum
powder was later used in colored dopes, such as the 5-color schemes on
SPADS, for the same reason.
>>
Yup, got that. I have some very good articles by Ian D Huntley of the UK who
is quite expert in the field (an ex Fairey Aviation employee) What I didn't
know was whether the "silver" dope used on Nieuports was aluminium suspended
in clear dope (just as was done on all those lovely between the wars
aircraft like Hawker Fury and others) or whether it was actually a light
grey aluminised dope. Can't say I've researched it too far, but the pic on
the cover of the Jan 1991 Windsock sure looks like plain aluminium dope to
me.
You may have seen an earlier post from me about the 5 colour schemes. In
fact there were more than 5 colours since the fabric areas used aluminised
dopes, and metal areas did not (exception, black was never aluminised since
it provides high quality protection to fabric anyway and was never applied
to metal areas) The fabric and metal colours are quite close but NOT
identical.
Incidentally, you are welcome to a copy of the articles via snail mail if
interested. They are the basis of the model colour mixes Al has posted on
the Web server.
See you
Shane
sdw@qld.mim.com.au