I like the combination of Deck Tan and the slightly darker centers between the ribs, George (@gblair). Looks like a good start on what I assume is going to be a multi level paint job.

This painting looks really good, George @gblair

That rib shading should blend nicely with the streaky camo George, I think it will make an excellent subtle effect.

I have had an amazing amount of real life stuff stealing my modeling time for the last week or so, but I have managed to find a few minutes here and there to get things moving forward. It took some time to get the spray painting done. First, Tamiya Light Blue on all the undersurfaces, then Tamiya Deck Tan on all the upper surfaces. When all of this was dry, I masked off the white panels for the insignia on the upper and lower wings, as well as the fuselage. While I had the white out, I painted the rudder. The rudder was originally molded as one piece with one of the fuselage halves, but it fell off after a great deal of handling when adding the cockpit to the fuselage. No damage to the rudder or fuselage, so all is well.

When all of this was dry, I masked the white panels in preparation for creating the streaky camo. I wasn't completely sure how to do this, so I created a test panel using some sheet plastic. I sprayed the panel with Tamiya Desert Tan, which I had handy at the time, and then started experimenting. I planned to use artist oils to create the camo, but there is a lot of possible variation of technique. Half of the panels I left as bare flat paint, and the other half had a clear gloss sprayed on. I tried a variety of brushes, both large and small, to create the camo. I also experimented with allowing the oils to partially dry before I started creating the pattern. To create the pattern, I tried using brushes to remove the excess oil paint and create the pattern, as well as use brushes damp with Turpenoid. After all of this experimentation, it didn't really seem to matter which method to use. They all worked and looked similar. I finally settled on applying the oil paint with a stiff artist brush, followed by a 3/4 inch flat, very soft brush to smooth the oils and get them moving in the right direction. Finally, I used a soft, flat 1/4 inch brush damp with Turpenoid to create the final camo. The cool thing about using oils is that if you don't like how it has come out, you can always add more and repeat the process.

I won't vouch for the correct angles of application for the camo, or precise colors, etc. All of my camo goes in the same direction as the camo in the photos I had, so that's close enough for me. There is a lot of variation in darkness and streakiness, but I figure the real plane had similar variation.

I managed to get everything done except the fuselage side. The model was getting a little fiddly to hold and I kept dragging my finger through areas that had just been painted. I decided to finalize everything and leave the rest for another day. Once all the camo is done, I plan to let the oils dry for at least 48 hours. I have read that the planes had a unusual color, especially the blue, which has been described as more of a turquoise than a light blue. One of the articles that I read said this was because the painted linen was waterproofed using a coat of shellac. I am old enough to remember that shellac has an amber color, so it might account for a color shift from light blue to turquoise. I plan to do some experimentation later to see if I can replicate this using an oil wash of amber-colored paint. More experiments!

12 attached images. Click to enlarge.

This looks really good, George @gblair
Thanks for sharing how you achieved these results.
Modelling time is indeed hard to find, with other house constructions in progress I'm limited as well for the moment.

Thanks for stopping in, Spiros (@fiveten), John (@johnb), and Carl (@clipper). I have to admit, I am shooting in the dark on a lot of the things I am doing on this triplane, mainly because this is my first WW1 plane. I think it looks OK, but that assessment could come from my lack of knowledge. The cool thing about oils is that they stay workable for a long time and tend to be very forgiving. I promised myself I wouldn't touch the plane for 48 hours to let everything dry. The oils are easy to damage until they are dry, and I plan to spray a protective clear over the oils before I do anything else. Retirement is really weird. I really thought I would have all of this free time, but there are times I am busier now than when I was working. My wife worked for 5 years after I retired, so we were still tied to a work schedule for a while. Now it is all unscheduled time that get full of scheduled things really quickly. And we don't have young kids like you do, Spiros. Youngsters tend to keep the schedule busy all by themselves.

George @gblair , it’s brilliant to see you develop your processes. One of the best WIPs/build logs I’ve seen. Great to see you experimenting and getting great results!

I wish I had more to report, but the oils I used to create the green streaked camo is still rather wet. I thought it would be dry by now, but it has been really humid here. It crossed my mind that I could simply spray clear flat over the camo and seal it in, but I finally decided that it wasn't a good idea.

In the meantime, I took a shot at painting the prop. I used tube acrylics to create the basic brown color. I then used a pencil laid flat on the workbench to trace the layers on the prop. I freehanded the contrasting layer. When all that was dry, I applied a wash using dark brown artist oils. I'm not totally happy with it, but it may be OK. I also reprinted the cowling to obtain a better print. The original print is very thin, and took a lot of damage just trying to remove the printing supports. In addition, there is a lot of fill and sand due to the way the print files created the round cowling. For this second printing, I was a little smarter about setting things up so that the supports didn't attach on the edges of the cowling. This made it much easier to remove from the supports. I feel like the rest of the plane will go fairly quickly once the camo gets dry. Cheers.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.