Albatros D.III

[BLOWHARD]

Sure, but I want to run through a few more, I'm still finding little things that are off.

[elephant]

I was commenting on a RoF skin the other day and dived into some details of Jasta 5 machines...
I may have made a discovery about a paint scheme that I would like to share with you, Dave.
Check out this thread in RoF Forums...
and see how I gradually came up with that idea of reperesentation.
If you find my explanation plausible or if you're having any ideas on top, I would like to see them realised in your profiling art.

riseofflight.com • View topic - D.III Jasta 5 Unknown pilot Summer 1917

[BLOWHARD]

OOOH OOOH, I have a few J5 planes I'd still like to do!!!
I'll take a look, thanks!

[BLOWHARD]

Interesting stuff Elephant. Can you get a good version of the one photo of Bussing's plane with the mechanics? I don't think I'd want to look to closely at a copy of a dot matrix printed photo, it's just too degraded to see clearly. I can't even tell if that's plywood or paint, or even if that bullet patch is overpainted or just not clear in the print. Does Jim or Greg have a better copy?
The demarcation thing is interesting! I take it you've seen the Pearson profile of Konnecke's plane in Vol.1 of the Windsock J5 book? It shows blue undersides. Also it almost looks like the metal cowling panels are a lighter color in both the front and back view photos. That's worth noting! Something Pearson missed along with the extra louvers.
I want to do 2225/16 and it's very similar in appearance to Bussing's and Berr/Mai's plane. Do take a look at the other D.IIIs in the line up, I suspect they are all very similar, they do share the same louver configuration. The wood appears dark on 2225/16, and that plane looks very similar to Bussing's plane and the Berr/Mai 2217/16. I think all these planes show the natural plywood, all three appear dark but they all show the metal inspection hatches and louvers as standard gray(?) metal primer as from the factory. If Bussing's plane is overpainted, why not the louvers and hatches? Just some more to think on.

Now if I could only get a clear photo of Wolf's plane!!!!

What is your take on J5's fuselage color?

And...is Colslaw saying he's Bob Pearson??? That's interesting...

[JMSmith]

hey dave,

there are a lot of historian/artists out there with strange user names, a lot of them i know, but not all

[elephant]

I'm afraid I don't have a better photo...the one I posted is scanned from the Winshock book on Jasta 5.
You have to apply to Jim or Greg for better pics...
Your assumptions are of course logical but, check out this pic again:



At D.III 2225/16 (bavarian pattern) and D.V 2093/17 next to it, although in the background, the weights tables are still visible!
That's not happening at the three machine in the foreground, with the plane in question being the closest to the camera...

[BLOWHARD]

Hey Elephant, sorry I missed this one. You're probably right though. I'd still try and find a better version of that front view with the mechanics.

Some new ones;
A classic, Hermann Frommherz, Jasta Boelcke, der Blaue Maus-

And an interesting one from Jasta 46, yet another blitz Albatros.

In the photo you can find floating around it looks like the plywood is overpainted the same color as the metal. But I got a hold of another photo, which unfortunately I can't share, that shows this plane from another angle and it definitely had a regularly varnished plywood fuselage.
I think that rigging diagram needs to be a little darker and perhaps yellowed?

The D series Albatros DEFINITELY has LONG legs where paint schemes are concerned!!!

[daliborsky]

your work is surreal....

[BLOWHARD]

Another one, von Richthofen's.

A BIG credit goes to Jim Miller who literally "wrote the book" on Richthofen!

[Baron]

outstanding! nothing more to say! :-)