Belgian cammo colors for Hanriot/Spad/Neiuport aircraft

[Lloydthegamer]

I'm in need of some help since I'm soon going to be doing some Belgian Hanriots, Spads, etc in the near future. Did the French made planes in Belgian service carry French colors, or were they repainted in Belgian paints? Thanks

[Naharaht]

In all the pictures I have seen, the Belgian planes carried Belgian roundels and tail stripes.

[Zoe Brain]

Nieuport 11s were usually in French Green/Brown


A few were in silver dope, with bright medium green wings, tail, fuselage top - see Belgian RE8 for colour.


Silver with green top surfaces was standard for Nieuport 17/23s






Hanriot HD1 used standard French 5-colour




Some had minor variations or emblems



Some were a bit more colourful



And this one used the N17 scheme, modified.




SUMMARY:

All had Belgian roundels on top and bottom wing (on N17/23, both upper and lower wing had roundels on under surface). All had Belgian tail flash.

N11/16s - usually French green/brown
N17/23s - usually silver, bright medium green upper surfaces
HD1 - usually French 5-colour

[jbmacek]

All had Belgian roundels on top and bottom wing (on N17/23, both upper and lower wing had roundels on under surface). All had Belgian tail flash.

And there is always the oddball exception.



Which reminds me, I have some Fox-Trot decals and a blank plane in need of painting!

[Lloydthegamer]

Thanks for the help! I'm off to the paint shop.

[Rummelsdorf]

A bit late, but this album might be interesting too:

http://s696.beta.photobucket.com/use...brary/Finished

About 70 very nice profiles of Belgian WWI birds.

[Guntruck]

A bit late, but this album might be interesting too:

http://s696.beta.photobucket.com/use...brary/Finished

About 70 very nice profiles of Belgian WWI birds.

Hi Thomas, welcome to the Aerodrome from England

[Zoe Brain]

A bit late, but this album might be interesting too:

http://s696.beta.photobucket.com/use...brary/Finished

About 70 very nice profiles of Belgian WWI birds.

Lovely find!

[grumpybear]

Thank you all for the info.

[Angiolillo]

That's pretty curious, Zoe.



Caption says "Pilot Ernest Mantel in front of Sopwith Camel Sc35 at the end of World War I."

http://www.belgian-wings.be/webpages...th%20Camel.htm

[Zoe Brain]

I suppose when you're the CO of the squadron, you can get away with that. I'm not sure hot pink co-ordinates well with SC10, but it certainly stands out.

Captain Ernest Mantel flew 164 sorties near the end of the war, all of them escort missions supporting Breguets of the 2nd Squadron of which he was Commanding Officer. Many of these missions he flew in his personal plane; Sc35. As far as I can tell, Sc35 is the only plane in the entire Belgian Army to have been painted so, ahum, extravagantly.

I wish there was more of a backstory, but I couldn't find any. The man must have genuinely liked the colour and since he was CO, I'm sure no one disagreed.

-- http://riseofflight.com/forum/viewto...?f=203&t=22434

Colour profile by James F. Miller as found on page 687 in The Belgian Air Service in the First World War by Walter Pieters, 2010 Aeronaut Books.

[RJG173]

I'm a bit late to this conversation, but I don't believe the color profile for Willy Coppens' HD.1. His autobiography says the HD.1 was blue all over, not blue/silver(white) bands as shown in the profile. Nor like the miniature the Ares makes.

[Angiolillo]

Never trust memories too much. There are deep studies after these color schemes, cross-checking several sources besides diaries. This one comes from this picture, among the rest:



It is in The Belgian Air Service in the First World War by Walter Pieters, a 722 pages book by Aeronaut Books, ISBN 978-1-935881-01-8. 1000+ photos, 81 color profiles.

For the profile that the same book derives from the photo, look at the last page of the preview here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ima...e=UTF8&s=books

So that's why we made it this way:



A dedicated thread about this plane is there:
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sho...oppens-Hanriot

[john snelling]

A bit late, but this album might be interesting too:

http://s696.beta.photobucket.com/use...brary/Finished

About 70 very nice profiles of Belgian WWI birds.

That was great.

[fast.git]

A bit late, but this album might be interesting too:

http://s696.beta.photobucket.com/use...brary/Finished

About 70 very nice profiles of Belgian WWI birds.

That was great.

Agreed. Hadn't seen this before... Thank you.