OvS,
If I missed this I apologize. What is the plan for these?
Are you going to redo so many at a time and release them? Or is this a project just for yourself and you just enjoy painting?

The simplest way is often the most likely one: what did they have available in large amounts?
Light blue (for undersides) and the pale upper wing green (especially after they went to the
dark green-mauve camo pattern); and black and white for the crosses.
So any fuselage/body paint (also the later Jasta 5 light grey) might have been mixed from these colours?

@ Duke - yes, these will eventually be released to the public. In what form and how I do not know yet. As it stands, it will be in a larger update. I am tossing around the idea of a separate patch, with all the skins included, but it will be a decent size. Pay - free... a whole different debate. On one side I feel very dissapointed I did not give more attention and care to my originals and make put better quality... on the other side, I simply did not have the grossly expanded knowledge of technique and skill that I have now, nor the available information 10+ years ago.

@Olham - I agree. That is the one question that in my opinion would be the Holy Grail of skinning. What did they use to make the colors, and were they combined with available pigments or did they really have the shades of color handy to use at will. Some of these crates have some very unique colors, but are they combinations of the wing cammo - especially on the Albartos D.III being the first to start having more intense paint schemes on them.

OvS, I read somewhere, that the camouflage colours were industrial mixes, which were
delivered in huge cans, big as farmers' milk cans (I wish I remembered the sourse).
So the earlier olive green, brown and pale green; as well as the later dark green and mauve,
and the light blue for undersides, would have been available.
Same for the black and white for crosses.

For other colours I do not know, but I read, that MvR mobilised each and everyone to get them any
red paints for Jasta 11.

Funny, I know I read the same thing years ago. It really makes sense. I don't remember reading anything about paint shops, so to me, it was a mechanic that could paint (like me...lol) or a member of the Jasta and he just did the best he could with what he had to work with.

Don't forget the Armee-Flugparks (AFluP) = army aircraft park. Each army sector had such a big AFluP,
and I think we can be sure that these had specialised personnel. There must have been mechanics,
smiths, woodworkers etc., and certainly also men for any painting job.

So there were (at least) three places, where aircraft would be painted.

1. the producing factory
2. the Armee-Flugpark, where all aircraft were made ready for delivery to the units
3. the units themselves

I think we can assume, that the first two places did professional jobs.

Hey, guys!

Listen, let's be honest: even a chimp can paint something. I speak from experience; in my misspent youth I was a house painter for 8 years. Any personalized painting was done at the unit level and it didn't take much talent to slather up an airplane with a toilet brush. And there was a lot of paint to go around--German planes never lacked for personal colors and markings! Germany produced a lot and there were stocks captured within overrun Belgium and France. As I've learned through Bruno, German airplanes were much more colorful than the oft-seen red, white, black.

The orthochromatic film often makes it difficult to discern color, for sure. Black is probably overused as a result. As pilots told Bruno, they used letters and numbers for recognition and they could see red better than black. Unfortunately, those colors often look identical in photos so it's hard to tell them apart.

OVS, I'll send some of those shots to Bruno. BTW, change that radiator from central to offset.

Well I don't mind paying for good work especially when it comes to WOFF.

Can't. He's assigned this model. It will eventually become the D.III 170 which switches to the right-sided radiator.

Just one of those things. I'd rather have him in this skin for the duration of the 160 life-span than flying a factory looking unit.

OvS

Thanks.

Trust me on this one, it will be well worth it. I'm doing some stuff that is beyond anything I could do 10 years ago, and loading the skies with as many skins as possible. So far it looks real promising.

I would gladly pay for all the work you are putting in this OvStachel.

Well.. this looks bizarre... but I like it. I used a desaturated Dark Green with a sponge brush and cleaned it up with other eraser sponge brushes. I covered the fuselage/wheels with a light tan color to bring it all out.

Don´t know it will help...







and some pics from the sponge technique application...

B&W Photos

Jasta 5 Dilcher - speculative.

Looking good to me, OvS!
Here's a choice of mottling from Jasta 15 I used as inspiration for my skin-works.
The photos are all from the amazing archive at "Wingnut Wings".
Apart from the toilet brush Jim mentioned, they seem to have also used short-haired
blotting-brush, or rolled-up cloth balls.

Hello,

This just in from Bruno Schmaeling, about the Jasta 5 planes:

Hello Jim,

according to my information on Jasta 5.

The mottled aircraft were first painted green - a pastel-green - and than mottled with a toilet-brush in brown.

Can't wait to see how this looks!

Alright... this looks like what you described. I do have to stress though that I have to align the colors with the colors of the scenery in the game, otherwise it will look real cartoonish. So having said that, this is what I conceptualize the design to look like...



I like the colors verses the medium snow background.



OvS

Jasta 5 at Boistrancourt. Mid-March 1917

OvStachel;

Just love the results you are getting Sir! I can hardly wait to customize one for my Jasta 5 pilot Ernst Ziegler!!

Me too, gladly!