CDL

Clear Doped Linen

The Humbrol mixes look like my writing from about a year or two ago. The French/British mixes are grounded in a article by Neil Robinson in Scale Models from the early '80's. The German set is based on comments from others on the list and trying to show a different tone as was mentioned in the other post that was quoted together with mine. I just brought these mixes up in terms of my views on what "CDL" should look like from experience with linen and dopes. Unbleached linen looks fairly yellow to tan in color, with a wide range of colors depending on quality or regional source, and varnishes/dope tend to have a yellow to brown cast to them. Sunlight on linen bleaches the yellow and greys the tones.

Post by Mark Shannon. Excerpt from the WWI Modeling List Archives.

Someone recently asked about previous posts concerning CDL. Here's a couple I saved away for a rainy day - didn't save who the original poster was, so apologies for no attribution......

"the colour depends at least in part on which country the aircraft belongs to or was built/covered by. from what I have read these are the impression I get as to what the colours might have been:

British CDL was a pale off white (tinge of beige)
French was initially any of: slightly light yellow similar to British, slightly yellower colour than the british (also on British). Later it got darker and became ecru - a light orange brown
Russian was grey with a hint perhaps of yellow
Early German was like French
Late German was like Russian but slighly less grey
Austro-Hungarian used a very translucent fabric probably like French yellowish beige off white colour

For CDL, well, you're going to find many variations. I like using Humbrol, and I usually start with #76 Linen and #103 Cream as the mixing base colors. From there I add differing amounts of #72 Khaki Drill, #159 Khaki Drab, #92 Iron Grey, and #34 White to give variations.

My basic British/French fresh CDL is 3 parts #76 + 1 part #34. Slightly aged British/French its more complex, roughly 45 % #76, 40% #103, 10% #34, and adjust the other three as whim leads.

My basic German CDL is based on #103/#34 roughly 2:1 -- it gives a more caramel look to the CDL, effects may also use Humbrol 84, 94, 95, and 97 (I mean some of the yellow-tans -- Afrika Korps, British 8th Army, Middlestone, etc. --I'm not sure I have the numbers right.)

CDL should be subtle. Very small variations in the paint mixture can lead to very noticable shifts in the color or effect, giving something that looks like an unpainted cloth."

If the above is *your* work, you can justifiably feel proud it's been saved away and referred to more than once!

Post by Nigel Rayner. Excerpt from the WWI Modeling List Archives.

I don't use Humbrols, but the basic shade variations are a nice quick guide, except... the French 'clear thru 1917, has been described as a yellow fatty varnish, which would 'yellow' the CDL considerably

Post by Merrill Anderson. Excerpt from the WWI Modeling List Archives.

Thanks to Nigel and the anonymous originator; the national variations are helpful and I will start to tint my CDLs accordingly. Is there a provenance to the recipe?

My own CDL is much less scientific, and in fact works on the bodega system: a basic pot of (mostly) Floquil paints, sort of a generic tan. With the start of each new project, the pot gets topped off, skewing the color in one direction or another, as the references or spirits move me.

Whatever is left over at the end becomes the starting point for the next model.

I do the same thing with PC10.

Post by Lance Krieg. Excerpt from the WWI Modeling List Archives.