aircraft paint opacity

[Steven Robson]

Thanks Bud

Your photo of the red Fokker D.VII, in full sunlight says it all.  Amazed you could stay still to take the photo.

The Red Baron's Friedrichshafen F33 is just as good as it gets, wonderful weathering and a real show stopper.

Steven   

[Carpo]

Here are my thoughts on CDL and its transclucency.
I agree that a painted upper surface will very rarely show the upper roundel but I have seen one photo of a Sopwith Strutter which did exhibit the roundel on the lower surface.
An article on how I go about it.
Clear Doped Linen

Carpo

[Ian from Doncaster]

Not quite the same, but on the Nieuport I built recently, the markings were for an Italian aircraft previously operated by France.  The French upper wing roundels had been painted over by the Italian silver dope, but were still visible.  To achieve this I applied the decals in between thin coats of aluminium (Revell aqua) hand brushed on.  This may work for CDL models where the top wing roundel is visible underneath as in Des' photo.  You'd need spare decals of the same size as the top surface, but most of us have spares somewhere.

[Steven Robson]

Thanks for sharing your tutorial Paul, it is an excellent read and very useful.

Decals on the underside of the top wing, very cool.  I think I'll try this technique and would likely have to tone it down a bit and blur the edges, thanks Ian.

Happy Landings
Steven