Finally...the story can be told

[Otterkins2]

BH, my guess is that those vertical things are latches but the photos are so bad we can't make out any details. The forward cowls is metal, but the remainder of the fuselage appears to be plywood. The spinner rivets were a guess. We had to piece this together from pretty bad photos.

[Jesters-Ink]

I'll post some thumbs as soon as I get the "go ahead" Otter, they have gone to press, but not published yet.

[BLOWHARD]

No guess, those are definitely latches and as I was saying, nine times out of ten they are spring latches. I don't have any info on Sablating aircraft but many companies used the same hardware. I've got a few photos on my computer that might help you to come up with a more detailed "generic" latch for your plane.
If you want more I could go through my books and find more pictures. You say this is an LVG built plane?

Anyway, here are a few of the kind of latches that I'm pretty sure are the right kind-



This style of spring latch was used on early war B series planes all the way through the war on later aircraft. And almost unanimously on top/bottom cowlings like what you have on your plane.

Here are some from an LVG C.VI but it's later war than your plane and I don't recall seeing these types on any other plane.




Another BTW, the fasteners used on your plane's cowling are probably the kind used by almost every German manufacturer and many Austrian palnes as well. You can see them in every photo above. The only thing different about them is the mounting system. Sometimes the receptacle is stamped into the metal, sometimes it's on a separate piece and sometimes it's mounted on another piece of hardware attached to the cowling.
Some companies, including Fokker mostly, used a tube/ball type of fastener but I would rule those out in this case unless you can see the tube ends protruding.
You can see both types on this Fokker panel-


Maybe those details will help some

[Jesters-Ink]

My copy of this quarters Cross and Cockade arrived this morning, many thanks to Roger and Colin for giving Phoenix the opportunity to work with them on this.
If you get the chance, give it a shot, both Colin and Roger are great guys to work with and they have a massive resource at their fingertips for WW1 subjects.

This project was not for the faint hearted, due to the nature of the subjects Cross and Cockade like to cover. (Subjects that have very little photographic reference and or line art available).

It was a long hard road I can tell you and not being able to post on simmers until the project was published was like having our hands tied. You don’t realise how much help and advice the simmers community offers you until you don’t have it available.
This speaks volumes about the simmers community.

BH is spot on about the spring latches, but we received photographs too late to really do much about it. We were tied into fixing more important problems by this stage, so they went unchanged. I don’t think this detracts from the final piece, as the scale of the drawing hides the error quite well.

I am looking forward to some interesting feedback about the colours we used on the two SF-5 drawings. The two colour sets depict the older and the newer colours used for this aircraft.

My thanks to the guys at Phoenix, Otter and Mjag, teamwork at its best guys, even when the going got tough, I think we pulled a rabbit out of the hat on this one.

And so, to the artwork.

http://premium1.uploadit.org/JeSTeRs//SF-2-10.jpg

http://premium1.uploadit.org/JeSTeRs//SF-5-10.jpg

And 50% thumb of the engine . . .

[mjag]

It came out real nice Kel. Great work as always

[BLOWHARD]

That Merc looks SO much better than mine Does that mean I need to go back to the drawing board?
Really nice work you guys!!!

we received photographs too late to really do much about it

You shoulda asked me

Tell me about the split versions of the navel hex camouflage? I take it you mined the Aerodrome's extensive navel pattern color research?

BTW, if you ever do a really large super detailed version, make sure you get the weep holes in the lower trailing edge if the wings.

Again, EXCELLENT work. I'm envious!

[Clint Mitchell]

Kel, great work and that engine is F@(k!ng awesome mate. welldone to all of you.

[GiantFlyingRobots]

Beautiful engine.

I'd like to see a grab of those springs at the top of the engine, if you don't mind, they look fantastic even at the currently viewable size.

[BLOWHARD]

I'll show mine if Jester will show his

[mjag]

Nice engine work .BH and Kel . Hey Blowhard ya have any pics of what the cockpits may have looked like . And maybe some scale drawings of the engine.