Re: Lozenge Colours
Guy Fawcett (gfawcett@am.nofc.forestry.ca)
Thu, 01 Dec 1994 07:56:56 -0600 (MDT)
I am not a neophyte builder of WWI aircrfat as I have been building and
competing with WWI flying scale models for the last 5 years and my interest in
WWI aircraft goes back to my early childhood. I raised the question simply
because there is a lack of concrete FS information. People with access to
Munsell and Methuen systems can simply refer to any Windsock German Datafile
and refer to the colour grid developed by the curators of several major
museums. What I would like to see the group maybe develop is a list of
accetable FS colour combinations to be useable in colour documentation packages
or purely as reference for noncompetitive modellers. I have the IPMS Colour
Guide and it is woefully deficent in the area of WWI German colours. If a
range of colours is not an acceptable then maybe a series of altenate fabric
number sets is possible. From reading your posts it would appear that your
have access to data relating to several fabric runs, could you not match
colours to an FS fan. Another approach would be to take samples of various
comercial decal sets that appear to be realistic and have members who own them
post their FS matches and thereby build up a library of possible fabric colour
combinations. I volunteer to match a set of lozenge four colour patterns that
came with Koster DVIII and SSW DIII.
>Secondly, just because surviving fabric samples of the pea green
(for instance) vary between Methuen 29 D 5 to 30 D 5 (to quote one
reference) *doesn't* mean that there wasn't a 28 D 5 or a 29 E 5 or
a 30 D 7. In other words, most lozenge colors were probably reasonably close
to the surviving samples but there is no assurance that they were actually
*within* the limits of the surviving samples
Agreed but it may be the best we can do 75 years after the fact. BTW how many
people know that in a small town in Quebec called Knowlton there is a Fokker D
VII still in its original fabric and paint (aircraft appears to be extremely
brown but that may be as a result of its clear varnish/dope sealer aging)
So, for you folks that are used to doing WWII and modern aircraft
where there are lots of paint chips and government specifications
available, welcome to the wonderful world of WWI where a whole
different set of rules apply. This is either a blessing or a
curse, depending on your personality. I find this quite refreshing,
knowing that "close is good enough" but if you're a perfectionist
(or anal retentive <gr>) you're going to find WWI colors quite
frustrating. (And, we haven't even discussed the fact that
WWI colors were much less color-fast and fade-resistant than
modern paints so .........)
What I am asking for is a group (the WWI net in this case) to come up with some
FS references that would allow a modeller to say this is the guidline I used to
paint my aircraft.
>And, am I taking up excessive bandwidth on this? Should I
climb down from my soapbox and confine my responses to e-mail?
Know I think it is a valid discussion and the end result maybe of benefit to
WWI modellers in general.
Well that's my 2 cents worth for today :-). Somebody else can have the soapbox
now :-).
Tally ho and good hunting
Guy