[WWI] Bruno Loerzer's Fokker D.VII

[Dave Calhoun]

Hi Lance,
I respectfully have to disagree with you about the Jasta 26 axle fairings being unpainted.  I looked at the photos in Anthology 2 also, and was unable to get a good view of any of the axle fairings except for the one aircraft marked Z.  This one appears to be 2 colored, almost as if one of the colors has worn off in spots, looks like white and a darker color, maybe just shadows or reflections.  But if you think of all of the stripes of black & white applied to each Jasta 26 aircraft, especially loerzer's, which had the black & white stripes on all sides of the fuselage, both sides of the tailplane and upper and lower wing.  Also in the profiles the wheel covers were painted black, and the struts were painted white.  Even the inside wheel covers appear to be black.  this probably means that the axles were jacked up to take off the wheels in order to paint the inside, a perfect time to paint the fairing either black or white!  As the Jasta leader I'm sure that Loerzer would want his axle wing painted to match the rest of the aircraft.  Also on the front cover of the same book, all of the Jasta 26 aircraft appear to have black axle fairings.  
Also it is known that part of the standard Jasta 4 markings were a black nose, wheels and axle fairing, so it must not have been too hard to paint.
As always, just my humble oppinion, but when I build my kit I am doing the axle fairing overall black.
Thanks,
Dave

I reconfirmed my research from Tuesday; the page numbers I cited
Khan-Dam were from the Osprey book on D.VII aces.  The photo of
Loerzer's plane is the same as in the Anthology, Part II, so the only
reason to look in Osprey is for the profile.

In studying the various D.VIIs of Jasta 26, it is evident that the axle
wing is unpainted, and in considering the practical matter of painting
it, I would guess that it would be too much trouble to bother with. 
Getting at the underside of the axle would be a major pain in the butt
unless the fairing were removed, and from a visibility standpoint, the
striped wings would give all the recognition needed.

Lance