August Raben's Fokker Dr.I Nov 1918

[Stuart Wilson]

Hi,

I havn't built anything before 1939 for 15 years or more so I'm looking for an easy build and have thought about the above using the Eduard kit. I have a set of Superscale decals from years back that say the a/c is red with a white tail and underside to the nose. However looking on the net it seems it had a white cowl as well but some images of models, drawings etc show the underside remaining in light blue. Is there any consesus on how it would have looked? Would the underside of the fuselage and wings been painted red? Part of me thinks if you've gone to the trouble to paint the uppersurface red you would paint the underside too. Clearly camoflage wasn't uppermost in Rabens mind and as staffelkapitan he would have been able to order it.

Needless to say the only photo I could find dosen't show the underside.

Thanks in advance for any replies

Stuart Wilson

[Steve Collins]

Well, Windsock Datafile 5's interpretation says the 'underside of the wings and possibly the fuselage' retained the original light turquoise. However, Windsock Datafile Special on the Fokker Dr.I says 'it is not known whether the red was applied to the wing undersurfaces, but it is possible' with no mention of the fuselage color. Nothing else I have talks about Raben's planes except the Squadron Signal Aircraft In Action which has him flying a 'blue and white' Jasta 7 aircraft.

Steve

[Stuart Wilson]

Well, Windsock Datafile 5's interpretation says the 'underside of the wings and possibly the fuselage' retained the original light turquoise. However, Windsock Datafile Special on the Fokker Dr.I says 'it is not known whether the red was applied to the wing undersurfaces, but it is possible' with no mention of the fuselage color. Nothing else I have talks about Raben's planes except the Squadron Signal Aircraft In Action which has him flying a 'blue and white' Jasta 7 aircraft.

Steve

Thanks for the response. I guess the jury's still out on this one.

Of course that means whatever I do It can't be proved wrong...

Cheers

Stuart Wilson

[Rowan Broadbent]

Thanks for the response. I guess the jury's still out on this one.

Of course that means whatever I do It can't be proved wrong...

Cheers

Stuart Wilson

Hi Stuart, The white cowling is now accepted as fact, it's fair to say. The underside is pure conjecture as (afaik) there are no photos which show this area. It is pretty well accepted that the DVIIs had the underside of the wings and fuselage painted red/white, as appropriate and I would see no reason why the boss' personal triplane would be any different - except (isn't there always one of those?) I believe that he kept this machine (when the rest of the Jasta were equipped with Fokker DVIIs) particularly for attacks on balloons, in which case some sort of underside camouflage might have been deemed a good idea. As you say, though, nobody can prove you wrong...at the moment. I've been wrestling with the same thoughts for a future Jasta 18 decal sheet.