Fabric finish on the Schutte-Lanz D.III???

[ScottJ]

Best known for building airships,  Schutte Lanz entered a single seat fighter, the D.III,  in the first Adlershof fighter competition.  Descriptions of this aircraft state that it had a varnished natural ply fuselage and CDL wings and tail.  The few pictures I?ve seen that show the underside of the upper wing raises a few questions about them being CDL as no hint of the upper wing crosses or ribs/spars is visible almost suggesting that the fabric was painted?  Shadows underneath the aircraft indicate that the sun was shining when the pictures were taken so the usual insignia and rib shadows would be expected.  As this is a pretty obscure subject, only 2 were built, I?m kind of stabbing in the dark here to see if anyone knows a bit more about this aircraft and if in fact the fabric surfaces were painted (and possibly what color???   From the pictures I would think they could be white, ivory to light gray).  I?ve got a couple of pictures I?ve pulled from the web that show the wing under surfaces but I?m not really sure on what the forum policy is on posting pictures, I don?t want to run afoul of any copyright issues.
I appreciate any insight or information that can be provided, thank you in advance.
Take care
Scott

[NigelR]

Not all "CDL" finishes were transparent. Some used pigmented dopes that were "CDL" coloured but had no evidence of transparency (such as the Nieuport 11). Looking at the pictures it does look like the wings are painted or covered in a pigmented dope. Your choice based on how you interpret that picture....

[DaddyO]

Hiya Scott

Nice choice of subject and I can see what you mean looking at the available pictures, the wings do look opaque 

Probably not much different to what you've already gleaned, in truth, but I've not seen anything definitive about the colours. For what it's worth if I were making it I'd use a creamy white for the wings.

Couple of reasons - They would have suitable opaque finishes on hand from their airship work and factory photos of some other versions show a transparency to the wing covering being [presumably] without their final finish. The other reason is the usual 'sky' camouflages seen on various two seaters of similar vintage had a slightly opaque finish which I understand was due to adding a colour tint to the dope. Whether this was pale blue, off white, cream or light grey seems an area of some debate.
It doesn't look as if there are white outlines on the lower wing crosses so I'd keep it pretty light whichever way you go.

Look forward to seeing the model 
Paul

[enathan]

Hi Scott,
I agree, the wings look painted in the few photos of the Schutte-Lanz D.III.
I'm not sure this would help you decide but in the photos of the Dr.I, which was a direct derivative of the D.III, the wing ribs are clearly seen through the fabric.

[ScottJ]

Thank you Nigel, Paul and enathan for responding to this rather subjective question. I know that color and finish questions on these aircraft can be a crap shoot with probably no definitive answer but I'm glad to hear your opinions on the probability of the fabric being painted or finished with opaque dope as opposed to the clear dope description I found from the very little information available on this aircraft.  enathan, I've seen that picture of the S-L Dr.1 before but didn't think to check how their other aircraft were finished.  You can definitely see the ribs, spar and I'm thinking I can also see the upper wing crosses.  It does kind of cloud the issue but I think I've seen enough pictures of the underside of the D.III to go with a painted/pigmented dope finish rather than a true CDL... Besides, that will save me a little labor on upper surface markings for under surface masks...

Thanks again
Scott