[WWI] 56 Sqdn. Redux

[Dave Calhoun]

We all have seen profiles or photos of the SE5's flown by 60 Sqdn. when Bishop was there - these had the intricately outlined red or blue noses and decals were featured for these on the Revell/Germany 1/48 scale SE5a a few years ago.  Sources say that these markings were only used for a short while and then the higher authority made them paint over them  (probably with a big fat pail of PC-10 that in no way matched the previous PC-10 underneath!) 
And also there are photos of McCudden's SE5a with the red spinner - captured from an LVG and attached to his prop.  this is included in the Roden 1/48 SE5a Hisso kit. But he had the same plain PC-10/cdl with white markings as every other SE5a in the squadron, although various color wheel covers were known to be used to signify flight. Also another 56 sqdn. SE5a was painted overall red, but this might have been post war? If not it sure did not last for long. 
Dave  
-----Original Message-----
From: wwi-bounces at wwi-models.org [mailto:wwi-bounces at wwi-models.org] On
Behalf Of Diego Fernetti
Sent: den 27 februari 2007 12:53
To: World War I Modeling Mailing List
Subject: Re: [WWI] 54 Sqdn. Redux

S!
> the "evidence" is really scarce, which is odd unless the decorations
were 
> scarce as well

For once, I agree with you. Very decorated or colorful British airplanes

were simply rare. Germans and French had just more penchant for
heraldics, 
and Germans used more colours for practical reasons, mostly.
Those crates had a rather short life expectancy, so they must have
thought 
that in most cases an elaborate paint scheme wasn't worth the effort.
D.