Pfalz D.IIIa Jasta4 Paintsheme question

Helmut_AUT · 2 February 2011, 04:39 AM

Hi all, first post here.

And I must say: I'm not worthy

seeing the detail you guys put in your models.

My GF gifted me the Revell 1:48 Fokker Dr1 kit for Christmas and thus brought me back to model building after ten years absence. I was never very good to start with

Didn't take long to find Wingnutwings and of course I was blown away by what's available these days, with the internet and all those goodies now in production.

So, after practicing on the Fokker and maybe two other kits, I'll get to the WNW Pfalz D.III. I would like to use my favorite paintsheme from Rise of Flight for that model, which can be seen in the attachement.

Now, I guess I could try to transfer the measurements for those black bands from screenshots, but chances are someone here knows a more precise measurement? Was this likely a "standardized" sheme or did they paint "by eye" with varying width and placement of those lines?

Thanks for your most appreciated help

Helmut

albatros1234 · 2 February 2011, 07:35 AM

i seem to remeber someone doing a build of this bird online somewhere i looked but cant seem to find it. so i looked up this on wingspalette for you maybe you can derive spacing from this?

WINGS PALETTE - Pfalz D.III - Germany (WWI)

Helmut_AUT · 2 February 2011, 07:41 AM

Thanks, that will help! I wasn't aware of that website.

The sheme there is a tad different than the screenshot, so maybe there simple was no standard way of doing it. I was thinking that maybe someone had seen a historical specification giving measurements, but I'm not even sure these paints were so detailed standardized back then.

BTW, seeing your flag... I'm from Austria

sean69 · 2 February 2011, 07:43 AM

Hi Helmut;

Welcome to the drome....

"Rise of Flight" is, a video game? that image looks computer generated.
A couple of things you can do, asking here is a good start!
- you can take a peek here and see if your machine turns up: WINGS PALETTE - Pfalz D.III - Germany (WWI)

if it is a video game there will be a 'skin' somewhere in the program files that you may be able to take measurements from...

or probably best bet & my personal favorite: "Eyeball & Extrapolate" - it's your model, who's to say what is correct. The computer image hould be fine, but if you can find an archive image would be better, you have the known dimensions of access hatches etc, compare them and make a best guess.... although just looking at that images the bands do not appear to be a uniform width.

hope it helps....

-sean

Helmut_AUT · 2 February 2011, 07:49 AM

Thanks for the welcome.

The skin is in a computer file format I can't readily open, and likely "warped". But I should be able to easily get 90° straight side shots...

I'm surprised that Rise of Flight is not a household name here, it's currently the most modern and detailed WW1 sim on the market.

I guess like you say the best way will be to do it by eye. If there are no historical documents detailing how these markings had to be applied there's no "right and wrong" I suppose.

sean69 · 2 February 2011, 07:59 AM

Hi Helmut;

The name sounds familiar, but it's been a while since I looked at any flight sims.... maybe I'll take a poke at it... mods & skins are generally pretty easy to find. The skin for the actual model is going to be a bitmap of some sort - though it may be compressed into an archive of some sort, as most video games do....

As to the markings, I would generally assume that personal markings on any craft were applied by either the pilot - or more likely the ground crews [guessing] and would vary between damage, replacement machines, etc... so unless you are modeling a specific craft at a specific point, you have a good deal of latitude..... of course, it's your model, do whatever makes you happy.

-sean

albatros1234 · 2 February 2011, 08:00 AM

wings palette is good for seeing different schemes for most planes. some say they are not always accurate. i checked already and this is the only pfalz with the black stripe wrapping around. but check out this site for ww1 and other wars aircraft. salut

sean69 · 2 February 2011, 08:06 AM

Hi Helmut;

ok - that was really quick - I got this from the community section of the skins packages ....

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96...usthoffpho.jpg

the forums are here riseofflight.com • View forum - Albatros D. III - though I don't see the specific bird you are after...

Good hunting!

[did you try windsock datafiles/worldwide??]
-sean

Helmut_AUT · 2 February 2011, 08:26 AM

I'm admittely a total noob when it comes to this kind of research - when last I was building models I did not have internet, only some books and the box/instruction to guide me.

There's been so much good advice in this thread that I think I can get it done now - please don't waste your time further when clearly I should be doing more homework myself, seeing that this stuff is in the web to find. Apologies for my "uninformedness" and I appreciate the time spent looking those things up.

sean69 · 2 February 2011, 08:55 AM

no worries - most of us find research fun!

time invested? about 3 minutes - ain't technology great?

if you have a serial &/or pilot for that craft, I can take a look at my Windsock & squadron stuff and see if any of it is in there...

-sean