I've been building plastic model aircraft for more than 50 years, but I'm a fairly recent convert to building WWI aeroplanes, so please forgive me if this is a stupid question...
I've noticed that on aircraft such as early Moranes and Nieuports that have a clear doped linen (CDL) finish there is often a thin stripe of a darker color around the perimeter of the flying surfaces and sometimes along the fuselage longerons. In the posted color photos of models, this striping is depicted as brown, black, gray or even blue. My assumption has been that this was a strip of a heavier fabric or canvas that was either stitched or doped on over the existing fabric to add extra strength.
This weekend, I attended the Dawn Patrol Rendezvous at the NMUSAF near Dayton, Ohio, and I got to ask a few questions of the builder/pilot of a 7/8th scale Nieuport Bebe. He had painted it to represent a CDL finished aircraft with the Lafayette Escadrille, and he had painted ~1 inch wide striping as I've described. I asked him if this was intended to represent reinforcement, but he said that on the real aircraft it was simply a decoration. He further added that the CDL finish rendered the aircraft more difficult to see in the air, and that the striping was added to silhouette the aircraft to make it easier to see. (Which seems odd, given the large national insignia on the wings.) I also asked him if this was applied at the factory or at unit level, and would it always have been black. He indicated that he thought it was factory applied and that black was commonly used as it was probably the most readily available.
Thoughts on this, anyone?
Dennis
