Hansa-Brandenburg W.29

[Zoe Brain]

A very neat little plane, and now we have a choice of manufacturers.

There isn't too much scope for variation with this one - it's just the one basic pattern. BUT there are two variants, the normal blue marine one, and one more purple.


Here's Eric Galaud's 1/72 model:





A 1/48 in the darker purple. Note that the hexes run chordwise, not diagonally, and underside is in CDL.





Other cross styles were used:







One problem is that the lozenge is so darn fine in 1/144, the effect is lost. How fine?



Not all had all the floats lozenged - we think.



There may have been more variation in the shading too:



Two of the nicest profiles are these, both of Flanders naval station aircraft.




This one's from Nordernay



This one's "conjectural"




Some may have had CDL rudders



The W,29 didn't use the 5 degree slanted standard cammo, as here, it was straight:

The document that controlled the camouflage finish of German Naval Aircraft was the Allgemeine Baubestimmungen für Seeflugzeuge der Kaiserlichen Marine, (ABB) General Construction Requirements for Seaplanes of the Imperial Navy. dated 3 April 1917. The ABB specifically detailed all aspects of the aircraft, airframe, engines, propeller, radiators, instruments, armaments, acessories, hardware, fabric, protective varnishes finish painting and marking details. This document was establish by the See-Flugzeug Versuchs Kommando, (SVK) sea Plane Testing Command. The SVK was subodinate to the Reich Marine Amt (RMA) Imperial Marine Office, Admiralty.
The ABB required:
1. Black Iron Cross surrounded by a 5cm white border.
2. Black Navy number painted on part of the aircraft. The black Iron cross painted on the upper surface of the upper wing and on the under surface of lower wing and on both sides of the fuslage and rudder.
3. All surfaces when viewed from above, including the upper surfaces of the upper and lower wings, tailplane, the tops of the fuselage and floats painted in hexagons, 15cm on the side, 30 cm in diameter in three colors, grey-blue, grey-violet and grey-brown.
4. All surfaces from the side, the fuselage, rudder, floats and all struts painted grey-blue.
5. All surfaces when viewed from below painted light grey.
6. The fabric surfaces were to remain their natural color.
The ABB was revised in April 1918 when the SVK. introduced the three color printed fabric in irregular hexagons measuring 15.5 x 20 cm skewed 5 degrees in the filling direction in three colors grey-blue, grey-violet and grey-brown. The ABB required the surfaces when viewed from above, the upper surfaces of the upper and lower wings, tailplane and the tops of the fuselage and floats to be covered with the 3 color printed fabric .
All surfaces of the fuselage, struts and floats when viewed from the side were grey-blue.
All surfaces when viewed from below were painted light blue, this included the wings and tailplane, however, it stated the fabric surfaces could remain their natuarul color.

-- http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/ca...tml#post549676

Just when everything's settled.....



Yes, zebra stripes.

most floats and struts were covered with some kind of tar protective cover (Can't recall the actual name of this covering at this moment...) A very dark, charcoal like, almost Black finish... And according to what I've seen on the pics, I must say I agree with them...

Almost all of the photos I've seen showed a very dark finish for the floats sides and upper surfaces, with a very light Blue-Grey for the under surfaces... Except for 2598, which had also dark undersurfaces... And the only photo I've seen so far which clearly shows a hexagons camouflaged top for the floats was 2516...

If you want an ace, try http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/ger...ristiansen.php

Bottom line:
Get some decals for the hexes, Try to get purplish rather than blueish ones.
Floats may be hexed, but are usually varnished wood, with black non-slip tops.
Hesex are spanwise, not angled.
Fuselage is usually grey, rudder may be CDL.


I think this one is the most accurate:



Apart from that - whatever looks good. Zebra stripes included.

[Baldrick62]

Zoe's covered the plumage pretty exhaustively: the only potential jokers I can find are post-war;
- Danish (overall light grey with white serials or alluminium with black serials)
- Hungarian Revolutionary Navy Ufag (license-built) with 'light coloured upper and under surfaces of varying hues' and red stars
- Finland, Latvia, Norway and Japan (no details).

As far as structural appearance, there are two different types of tail units ('rounded' (early) or 'angular' (late)) and the number of fixed MGs (0 to 2). Or, for a real challenge, you could try kit-bashing it back into a biplane W12!

BofB

[Guntruck]

Hobbyshop make 1/144 scale marine lozenge decals in two shades:

http://www.hobbyshop.cz/shop/1-144-d...144-decal.html
http://www.hobbyshop.cz/shop/1-144-d...144-decal.html

And here's a W.29 built under licence in Finland:

[jbmacek]

I didn't see it (and I didn't look too hard either), but where does it give the dimensions for those decals. I'm wonder just how many sheets one might need to cover a 1:144 scale plane. Just one? two?

[BobP]

Great job on the model. Have you built and RODEN models?

[Madboyo]

Real nice model. And nice reference material thanks for posting.

[Zoe Brain]

Great job on the model. Have you built and RODEN models?

No, none of those are mine. I've only recently gotten back in to aircraft modelling after a break of 40 years. It's been 10 since I did 1/300 stuff.

[Zoe Brain]

All surfaces when viewed from above, including the upper surfaces of the upper and lower wings, tailplane, the tops of the fuselage and floats painted in hexagons, 15cm on the side, 30 cm in diameter in three colors, grey-blue, grey-violet and grey-brown.

Something like this maybe?

The ABB was revised in April 1918 when the SVK. introduced the three color printed fabric in irregular hexagons measuring 15.5 x 20 cm skewed 5 degrees in the filling direction in three colors grey-blue, grey-violet and grey-brown.

[Zoe Brain]

I bet they used the same method as the Luftstreitkrafte too for putting on the fabric. They used the same 1.32m width bolts after all. That is, laying them on chordwise, alternating orientation to break up the pattern. Control surfaces spanwise. It could be that every profile is as wrong as the ones on non-marine aircraft 15 years ago.

Or maybe not....

There is one specific aspect worth noting and which is illustrated in one of the photographs with this feature, the care with which the printed fabric was applied. This is particularly true with the Brandenburg seaplanes but not necessarily true of other types. Just like a competent paper-hanger care was taken to match up the pattern when applying the various lengths. Another point of note is that on photographs, even very sharp ones, it is very difficult to discern the rib tapes on the upper wing surfaces. They existed of course, but the only explanation can be that the tapes were cut from the same stock and carefully applied so that the pattern coincided with the fabric beneath.

[Guntruck]

I didn't see it (and I didn't look too hard either), but where does it give the dimensions for those decals. I'm wonder just how many sheets one might need to cover a 1:144 scale plane. Just one? two?

The sheets are 20x10 cms, more than enough for two aircraft.

[Zoe Brain]

This appears to be the definitive hex cammo. Everything's much darker than I assumed. Hexes are definitely irregular with a 5 degree slant, on bolts 1.3m wide.



Source: http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/ca...tml#post359955

[Zoe Brain]

Here's a bolt of marine lozenge cloth I made up for my own use. Feel free to use it yourself, but YMMV with your printer.



These bolts were laid cordwise, but on the seaplanes (not the marine D.VIIs) the patterns were carefully matched up - like this:

[Baldrick62]

Zoe,
Genius bit of work!
Happy New Year,
BofB

[Bluedevil]

Very instructive Zoe! Thanks and Happy New Year!