Fokker DR.I streaked camouflage and interior colour questions

[Eivind Lunde]

I'm looking to start the Eduard DR.I kit, and I have a few things I need to find out.

 

Eduard states the interior colour of the inside linen should be olive drab. Shouldn't it just be linen, as that was the basic outside colour? 

But... if you painted the infamous streaked camouflage, would that colour leak through the linen and be faintly visible from the inside?

The wood should be a light wood, right?

[jimmaas]

Yes, it should be linen fabric.  Aviattic Decals shows it as light gray with no streaking.  The wooden triangle is shown as light wood but they advise a base coat to darken it.  Reproduction aircraft conform to this concept.  Wasn't there in 1917 so your mileage may vary.....

[Roger Holden]

10 hours ago, Eivind Lunde said:

 

But... if you painted the infamous streaked camouflage, would that colour leak through the linen and be faintly visible from the inside?

No, because the fabric was clear doped on the outside, before the green was painted, which would have sealed it and prevented the green seeping through....

[Black Knight]

I thought the area from the cowling back to the rear edge of the cockpit was covered in plywood thus it would be varnished wood in colour

I must check my books again

[Dogtail2]

1 hour ago, Roger Holden said:

No, because the fabric was clear doped on the outside, before the green was painted, which would have sealed it and prevented the green seeping through....

 

 

It depends on the strength of light shining through from outside.

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by Dogtail2

[Eivind Lunde]

11 hours ago, jimmaas said:

Yes, it should be linen fabric.  Aviattic Decals shows it as light gray with no streaking.  The wooden triangle is shown as light wood but they advise a base coat to darken it.  Reproduction aircraft conform to this concept.  Wasn't there in 1917 so your mileage may vary.....

Thanks, but why would the linen be light grey and not linen, i.e. beige-ish, in colour? Would the same colour, grey, then also be the base colour for the wings when using the Fokker streaked camouflage? 

[wmcgill]

55 minutes ago, Eivind Lunde said:

Thanks, but why would the linen be light grey and not linen, i.e. beige-ish, in colour? Would the same colour, grey, then also be the base colour for the wings when using the Fokker streaked camouflage? 

It was a very pale linen. Like a bleached linen bed sheet. Photos of damaged Dr.I with exposed interior fabric show it to be very very pale, or white. The interior linen would be white linen, but in shadow. Sort of light grey. 

[DaddyO]

Just been re-reading some of the old Windsock articles about Fokker's infamous streaking camouflage there seem to have been several ways of producing it dependent on procedure at the time or phase of the moon or just the mood of the workers doing the job.

On Fokker DV's and some DR1's it appears the effect was produced as shown ie 'green' over doped linen colour. On some aircraft was the blueish shade may have been added before the green streaking was applied after this was dry and finally there are some samples/examples where the green and blue/grey appear intermixed as the streaking takes place by using two different brushes/colours at the same time. Clear as mud as they say 🫣

 

I'd suggest (And it's what I did on mine) linen interior with the plywood triangular area and metalwork in the greyish green primer colour (As jimmaas already suggested) Truth is we cannot be absolutely certain unless you have a sample fabric from the particular aircraft you are representing. Interesting subject though 👍

 

Paul 

[wmcgill]

12 hours ago, DaddyO said:

Just been re-reading some of the old Windsock articles about Fokker's infamous streaking camouflage there seem to have been several ways of producing it dependent on procedure at the time or phase of the moon or just the mood of the workers doing the job.

On Fokker DV's and some DR1's it appears the effect was produced as shown ie 'green' over doped linen colour. On some aircraft was the blueish shade may have been added before the green streaking was applied after this was dry and finally there are some samples/examples where the green and blue/grey appear intermixed as the streaking takes place by using two different brushes/colours at the same time. Clear as mud as they say 🫣

 

I'd suggest (And it's what I did on mine) linen interior with the plywood triangular area and metalwork in the greyish green primer colour (As jimmaas already suggested) Truth is we cannot be absolutely certain unless you have a sample fabric from the particular aircraft you are representing. Interesting subject though 👍

 

Paul 

I really do recommend you read the newest Windsock for the most up to date take on the finish of the Dr.I.

 

https://www.windsockdatafilespecials.co.uk/fokker-fidri-1441-p.asp

[Eivind Lunde]

10 hours ago, wmcgill said:

I really do recommend you read the newest Windsock for the most up to date take on the finish of the Dr.I.

 

https://www.windsockdatafilespecials.co.uk/fokker-fidri-1441-p.asp

Thanks for the tip. I'm sure that would answer all my questions, but I think 28 Pound is too much to pay, especially with how expensive the Pound is in relation to the very weak Krone now. 

[Eivind Lunde]

22 hours ago, DaddyO said:

Just been re-reading some of the old Windsock articles about Fokker's infamous streaking camouflage there seem to have been several ways of producing it dependent on procedure at the time or phase of the moon or just the mood of the workers doing the job.

On Fokker DV's and some DR1's it appears the effect was produced as shown ie 'green' over doped linen colour. On some aircraft was the blueish shade may have been added before the green streaking was applied after this was dry and finally there are some samples/examples where the green and blue/grey appear intermixed as the streaking takes place by using two different brushes/colours at the same time. Clear as mud as they say 🫣

 

I'd suggest (And it's what I did on mine) linen interior with the plywood triangular area and metalwork in the greyish green primer colour (As jimmaas already suggested) Truth is we cannot be absolutely certain unless you have a sample fabric from the particular aircraft you are representing. Interesting subject though 👍

 

Paul 

Yeah, I know this is a very messy area. But I did quite a lot of reading about it on the aerodrome site, and the expert there, one Dan San, was very clear on that the streaking was done over CDL, and had a olive brown colour.  Undersides was a slightly turquoise blue. So since I have struggled to get an approximate olive brown oil paint, that is what I'm going for. 

 

[Eivind Lunde]

But, for the CDL colour I will go with the light grey suggested both here and in the teaser picture in the Windsock file. Werner Voss' DR.I was supposedly described as "silvery" at the time, I guess that could be because it was actually light grey.

[DaddyO]

43 minutes ago, Eivind Lunde said:

Yeah, I know this is a very messy area. But I did quite a lot of reading about it on the aerodrome site, and the expert there, one Dan San, was very clear on that the streaking was done over CDL, and had a olive brown colour.  Undersides was a slightly turquoise blue. So since I have struggled to get an approximate olive brown oil paint, that is what I'm going for. 

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my original post for 'green' I mean the darker shade sometimes shown as green or darker greeny brown/olive drab (I found Raw Umber with a touch of green works well) 🙂

 

The turquoise colour is usually wrapped around the lower longerons and is quite apparent in some images.

(One of the suggested reasons I read that the mix of greeny/brown and turquoise (blue/grey in my original post) are mixed together on some aircraft when streaking is that this hard line of underside colour on the longeron isn't easily seen)

 

FWIW I went olive colour over linen with turquoise undersides on the recent one I built 😃 (1/72 scale Eduard with a few mods and a carved wooden propellor))

Paul

 

[Eivind Lunde]

But a few more questions...
What were the colours of the compass and other instrument bodies? I see Eduard says grey, but Von Richthofens preserved one is black. 

And the metal footrests on the floor, grey or bare metal?

 

[Eivind Lunde]

Lovely kit btw DaddyO. I am scared of the Fokker streaking, guess I need to practise it a lot before having a go at the model itself. 

[Dogtail2]

3 hours ago, Eivind Lunde said:

But a few more questions...
What were the colours of the compass and other instrument bodies? I see Eduard says grey, but Von Richthofens preserved one is black. 

And the metal footrests on the floor, grey or bare metal?

 

Compass & compass mount, rudder pedals, joystick black.  Heel boards on the floor bare aluminium.

[Eivind Lunde]

2 hours ago, Dogtail2 said:

Compass & compass mount, rudder pedals, joystick black.  Heel boards on the floor bare aluminium.

Excellent, thanks. Eduard have certainly gotten a lot wrong with the colours. 

I read somewhere (got totally lost with all my research) that the inside plywood triangles were in fact covered with a wine red primer and not natural wood at all. It seems that way in the Windsock teaser, as they just suggest Tamiya XF 9. 

Not sure if that's true, but I guess it is, even if that makes me a bit disappointed since I like trying to replicate wood.

But the floor was wood, right?

[Dogtail2]

20 hours ago, Eivind Lunde said:

Excellent, thanks. Eduard have certainly gotten a lot wrong with the colours. 

I read somewhere (got totally lost with all my research) that the inside plywood triangles were in fact covered with a wine red primer and not natural wood at all. It seems that way in the Windsock teaser, as they just suggest Tamiya XF 9. 

Not sure if that's true, but I guess it is, even if that makes me a bit disappointed since I like trying to replicate wood.

But the floor was wood, right?

The floor is varnished plywood.

I have not heard of the inside of the side plywood triangles being coated in red primer,  What evidence for this did Windsock use I wonder?

[Eivind Lunde]

6 hours ago, Dogtail2 said:

The floor is varnished plywood.

I have not heard of the inside of the side plywood triangles being coated in red primer,  What evidence for this did Windsock use I wonder?

I don't know as it is not explained in the short preview I'm using for all it's worth. 

But I read it somewhere else, maybe in one of the many threads about the DR.I on Aerodrome.com. Maybe it is very new info? 

I have an account there, so I guess I can just ask them directly.