MISTER KIT ACRYLIC COLORS FRANCIA W.W. I

Series 5 – WW1 French colours

French colors of WW I have been studied thoroughly by several renowned experts but several problems remain to be positively resolved. 

We can identify at least 5 main color schemes: a natural finish, the three-tone camouflage, aluminum overall, the "yellow" scheme and the most famous of all, the 5-tone camouflage.

Let's start with the three-tone camouflage scheme, which was applied, for example, to several Nieuport 11s and 16s.The absence of any surviving original samples forces the enthusiast to base his deductions on contemporary documents, reports and paintings.

What can be reasonably deducted from them is that both brown and green are usually depicted by currently available references as overly dark, while their true shades were most probably those of a medium-yellowish brown and of a light greyish green.

Undersurface fabric areas were usually painted light blue.

 
In 1916 French producers began adding aluminum powder to their paints. It must be observed that, contrary to common belief, such an addition did not give any metallic sheen to the camouflage paints but simply made them more solid in appearance.

An overall aluminum scheme was sported by one of the best fighters of the war, the Nieuport 17, as well as by some of its direct descendants, such as the NI .21, 24, 24-bis, and 25.  It may be useful to remember that WWI aluminum finishes, also adopted by many other nations such as Italy and Russia for some of their aeroplane's, were not as bright and silvery as those of less than 10 years later.

The so called "yellow scheme" consisted of clear doped fabric surfaces and light yellow metal and wood panels and was applied, amongst others, to a large number of Spad 7 fighters.

The famous 5-color scheme was carried by several type of aircraft, most notable by Spad 13's and Nieuport 28's, both also flown by the American Expeditionary Force.

(Many thanks to: Matt Bittner, Bernard Klaeyl and Alan Toelle)