Thanks for the kind words guys. The color scheme is found in Greg VanWyngarden's Osprey titles on Jasta Boelke and Albatros Aces. Ltn. Frommhertz went on to fly an interestingly decorated Fokker DR1 in 1918, but that's another project for the future.
Chris, the striping was more difficult than I thought it would be. The slanted fuselage band looks deceptively simple, but it's actually alternating bands of white and black which progress back along a tapering oval fuselage, meaning that each mask requires a different curve over the top and bottom to keep the same width of the band. I thought I could just use thin strips of tape to make the curve, but the compound curves caused the tape to pucker. I ended up using a draftsman's French curve template to cut a parabolic mask from wider tape, for both the top and bottom, and front and back of the bands. These were joined by strips to connect the top and bottom curved masks. The entire width of the band area was airbrushed white, and after a day of drying, masks were applied to the white stripe areas and black was sprayed.
When I removed the mask, I was quite chagrined to notice that the main black band was too narrow!
I thought I might be able to convince myself that it looked okay, but after a day or two of looking at it all I could see was the uneven stripes.
I just had to fix it. Fortunately, it was the black stripe that was too narrow, so I just needed to add more width in black. After remasking, I applied more black, and it came out much better. I am pleased with the final results, but have a new appreciation for decals!
Regards,
Bob
