One of the main reasons I joined this forum was to learn new things… and it appears I'm off to a great start. First of all, I learned that everything I thought I knew about French propellers was wrong, thanks in part to a reply PrezmoL made to a comment of mine on his Caudron build log RE: the fact that they were painted. That sent me back to look at my two dozen or so period photo references on the Levasseur props for the Nieuport 16, including this one, which is from the actual aircraft I'm modeling:
I'd been assuming it was simply a clear-varnished walnut prop (hence the dark finish), but then, researching further, found that the Levasseur props were actually mahogany, as can be clearly seen in this modern photo of one which was sold on the Plane Pieces Ltd (
www.aviationart.com) site some time ago:
(photo used by permission)
Searching further, I posted a request for info on a wooden prop forum, and got a pair of answers in short order, one from David, the admin, who's collected antique propellers for years, and a second from Pierre-Michel, a gentleman who's regarded as perhaps
the authority on early French propellers. After sorting out a slight misunderstanding about terminology, they agreed on the following: all French props passed by
Aéronautique Militaire inspectors after 1915, and before some point in late 1918 were indeed "painted", but, not with paint
per se… rather, with shellac containing an iron oxide pigment.
As an artist I've worked with synthetic iron oxide oil paints for about fifty years, all the red "earth" colors produced since the late 19th century contain it—Burnt Sienna, English Red, Indian Red, Venetian Red, and so on. Mixed with shellac it would make a semi-opaque varnish that will conceal the grain, but which
might not cover 100% of the laminations… and I'm going to have fun experimenting with it. It would also explain the dark finish on all the Great War photos that I took to be walnut stain, the red-brown would render as near-black on orthochromatic film.
Of course, it basically makes all the test props I've carved over the past three weeks obsolete. I've done four so far, gradually dialing in the distinctive Levasseur shape with the near-straight leading edge and curved back edge: 1) is a blank of solid Honduran mahogany; 2) is a laminated blank of cocobolo (too red); 3) is solid mahogany (or was, until the cat knocked it off the table and I stepped on it, good color and scale grain; 4&5) are solid black walnut (wrong color, and way out-of-scale grain); and 6) is a blank in laminated Macassar ebony, which would have been a dead-ringer for walnut in 1:32, even the grain was in scale. Hellishly difficult stuff to carve, though.
So now we're back to solid mahogany, although I may get some 1/16" mahogany veneer and fool around with that next weekend.
Per ardua ad astra,
Dave V.
(Rick, I hope I posted the photos correctly this time. What's that saying about old dogs...?)
