[WWI] Hannover Cl.IIIa

[J.R. Boye]

Hi Mike;

    My understanding is that the handpainted lozenges on the fuselage were painted over in the field to make them less conspicuous. The paint used was a very dark blue-so dark it looked black in the air. It was not totally opaque, so that some lozenge outlines were very faintly visible. The overpainting usually tapered off near the tail, and the tail itself was often left without overpainting. On the plane you are depicting, the tail is painted white anyway.

     Handpainted lozenges were also found on the top wing center section and the wooden lower tailplane as well as the fuselage. Looking at the photos of your bird, I see clear lozenges, so I would go with the profile depiction. Notice how the center section has the same dark look - and that wouldn't be oversprayed. I think we are just seeing differences in surface sheen.

    By the way, the lozenges tended to shrink in size toward the tail, so I think that would start in just before the white section.

  I see blue rib tapes on the lower wing. Look at the lower photo. I see them clearly between the tip and the struts.

   I did my Airfix CL III as the plane Rickenbacker downed. I only used four colors on the handpainted sections per the DF text and profile art. I'll take some photos of it if you think you'd like to see it.

                                                                              J.R. Boye





________________________________
From: Mike Vice <jmikl2957 at comcast.net>
To: wwi at wwi-models.org
Sent: Wed, December 9, 2009 8:24:07 PM
Subject: [WWI] Hannover Cl.IIIa

 
Work has begun on the Hannover but a couple of 
questions have come up and I need the expertise of our group.
 
I want to do a Cl.IIIa that was turned over to the 
Americans at the end of the war.  Nice looking--German Balkenkreuze, a 
white tail group and a black "6" in a white diamond on the rear fuselage, plus 
an American roundel below the observer's pit.  Other colors are standard, 
evidently.
 
But here's the problem: I checked 
"Schlachtflieger!" to see about the lozenge and the fuselage painting and DSA 
and Rick Duiven say that the aircraft should have 5-color lozenge on the wings, 
with a fuselage painted in large lozenges, but NOT stippled in dark blue.  
I looked at two photos of the aircraft in the Datafile (#23, p.14) and 
they seem to show a very dark fuselage with no evident lines between 
any handpainted lozenges.  Looks like stippling to me, but Ray 
Rimell's color drawing on the rear cover DOESN'T show stippling, just very dark 
lozenges!  What say you all?
 
2nd question: the authors say that the rib tapes 
should be strips of lozenge.  But the photo of the aircraft taken from 
the rear certainly seems to show blue rib tapes on the upper 
wing.  However, the lower wing DOESN'T seem to have blue rib tapes, 
unless they're hidden by shadow.  A replacement wing for one or the 
other?  What to do?!
 
        
                
                
        Mike
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