Veltjens SSW D.iii

[Womble]

I'm just pimping my Veltjens Siemens-Schuckert D.iii and I've noticed that one side of the struts has a lozenge pattern on it. Does anyone know if this plane actually had lozenge painted struts? It seems unlikely to me but I couldn't find any pictures of this plane anywhere.

Here's the Ares model, note the struts on the far right. I can't have one side lozenge and three sides black now can I.



Thanks for any help.

Ian

[Dom S]

Can't find a photo of his offhand, but probably correct - usual practice on J15's SSWs was, for some bizarre reason, to paint the outer struts in a crude approximation of lozenge. This was sometimes done on wheel hubs too, although more usual for wheels seems to be the much better looking red.

[Guntruck]

Can't speak for Veltjens plane specifically, but D.IIIs did come with lozenge painted struts. Herris' "Germany's Fight Competition of 1918" includes 4 D.III illustrations, all with this feature.

[Dom S]

Cheers Steve - didn't realise it was a factory finish. Live and learn.

[Womble]

Thanks Dom and Steve. I'll paint the black parts with a lozenge pattern and that will fix it.

[Guntruck]

Cheers Steve - didn't realise it was a factory finish. Live and learn.

Careful Dom - I was not inferring it was a factory finish, just that the illustrations all had painted struts

[Mau Fox]

Ciao guys and gals,

it seems that, once on the front line, the interplane struts were wrapped in lozenge fabric as a sort of protection against the wood splintering.

Here are a couple of nice pics of Siemens-Schuckert D.III with the lozenge camo on the struts.




Interesting is the one with the Swiss insigna painted over its German markings.
According to Peter Grosz, early on November 1918, twelve German pilots landed their machines in Switzerland in order to avoid to hand them over to the Allies. Grosz states that this one is 8356/17 flown by Lange.

Mau

[Guntruck]

Nice pics Maurizio

[Dom S]

I Googled off the back of your post Steve - looks like it was a field mod first time out, but when the D.IIIs went back for re-engineering, and were delivered with the cut-down cowling and modified rudder (as on the Ares model) the struts were lozenge covered before being delivered, or re-delivered as it were.

[Mau Fox]

Nice pics Maurizio

Thanks Steve!

Dom,

it seems you are correct as on page 113 of Osprey - Jagdgeschwader Nr II: Geschwader Berthold, by Greg VanWyngarden (2nd edition) there is a pic of a SS D.IV where Peter M. Grosz himself is quoted to state "Brand new examples of the SSW D.IV were still being delivered (...)".
In this pic, the struts look as if they were painted with the lozenge camo.

Mau

[prymus]

This is one of my favorite planes. So with my interest piqued I had to check out my models. Do not own the Veltjen model but the Lange and vB-M models both have the lozenge pattern on the struts. Kudos to Ares for the detail, I had not noticed this when checking out the planes when I got them.
Thanks for the photos. I was going to get 2 Veltjens soon to paint one up as Udets craft. Now I may order another Lange and paint up the Swiss tail marking, which I assume was red and white(?).