Lozenge Camo question.

[GHunter 0]

Greetings all! Since I got the game up and running I haven't been here much. I had a question though that I thought people here might have the answer to. I have several WWI aircraft kits and some of the German craft require lozenge camo on the wing and other surfaces. Shopping for decals, I find both 4 color and 5 color patterns. What is the reason? Is it date, like 4 color was early variant and 5 later? I have an early series FokkerD7 kit that I may do in almost complete lozenge camo. 4 color or 5? What would go on a Hanover, and what on a Fokker D6?

 

Thanks G.

 

On another note, since I started playing OFF, I have "met" several famous people. Today, while flying for RNAS 10, I was on the tail of an Albatros DIII when suddenly my plane is hit from behind. I got my tail fethers shot up by Ramond Collishaw who was trying to steal my kill. A few days ago, I got shot down by Raoul Lufberry. I had a rather decent career going with that pilot in late 1916 flying an Albatros DII for Jasta 2. Now he's a POW for the duration. During a scrammble mission, that pilot also assited MVR by shooting a Dh2 of his six. I have only one pilot so far that has made it to 17 hrs. flying time.

[Olham 164]

Such questions may find their best answers over at the "Aerodrome" website.

 

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/camouflage-markings/50081-4-vs-5-color-lozenge.html

 

Just type into the search window there: Lozenge - and you will get more about this.

As far as I know, both 4-colour and 5-colour were used at the same time.

The main reason for Lozenge screen-printed fabric was saving weight - the camo sheme

didn't have to get attached with the heavier paint.

[Burning Beard 14]

That doesn't really work Al, the lozenge camo was a fabric, they have samples of it at the Smithsonian. So if you were to change it from Summer to Winter you would have to recover the surfaces, of course that would probably been faster than trying to paint them by hand.

 

Beard

[Bullethead 12]

Greetings all! Since I got the game up and running I haven't been here much. I had a question though that I thought people here might have the answer to. I have several WWI aircraft kits and some of the German craft require lozenge camo on the wing and other surfaces. Shopping for decals, I find both 4 color and 5 color patterns. What is the reason? Is it date, like 4 color was early variant and 5 later? I have an early series FokkerD7 kit that I may do in almost complete lozenge camo. 4 color or 5? What would go on a Hanover, and what on a Fokker D6?

 

As Olham says, go to The Aerodrome for more detailed info (more than you can probably stand even ) .

 

If you're looking for decals, the easy part is getting some of the right scale to match your model. The pre-printed lozenge pattern came in long rolls of cloth of a known, fixed width. Thus, if the decal is the correct scale, this fixed width of cloth will be the right size on the model. This is important because the lozenge pattern did NOT match up from side to side of the roll, only along the length of the roll. As such, where strips of fabric were laid side-by-side, there were lines of pattern discontinuity along the seams where the strips were sewn together. You want these the right distance apart on your model; hence, the importance of getting decals of the correct scale.

 

Beyond this, however, things get complicated very quickly. The only answer is to research the particular plane you're building to the limit of your endurance. I'm no expert on the subject, but I do know in general the sorts of things you need to be on the lookout for in your research.

 

1. 4-Color or 5-Color?

As Olham says, both were used contemporaneously. The choice seems to have been up to the factory that built the airplane in question. For instance, Fokker-built D.VIIs seem to have mostly used 4-color, whereas Albatros-built D.VIIs seem mostly to have used 5-color.

 

2. Which Colors?

Both 4- and 5-color preprinted lozenge came in several versions, with the lozenges in the same pattern but using different combinations of colors. This was largely a function of the airplane's role. For daylight operations, the lozenge pattern was typically darker on top (emphasis on green and brown) and lighter on the bottom (emphasis on pink and gray). These are the colors most commonly seen when folks think of lozenge camo. However, airplanes operating at night used an entirely different set of colors (emphasis on black and dark blue), and seem mostly to have used the same colors on upper and lower surfaces.

 

3. Pattern Orientation

Regardless of whether the fabric was pre-printed camo or not, there were 2 standard ways of applying it to airplane wings, the choice of which was the preferrence of the airplane designer. These ways were with the fabric seams parallel with or at about a 45^ angle to the wing ribs. See, wing were covered by sewing together a tube of fabric made from strips cut from rolls of cloth, sliding this over the structure, then sewing and shrinking it down. Thus, there were always seams spaced out along the wing at the width of the rolls of cloth the overall tube was made from. With unprinted cloth, this doesn't matter on the finished model (or game skin) but with the pre-printed stuff, because the pattern doesn't match up across seams, you can really see which way the fabric strips ran. So find out which way they ran on the airplane you're making. In general, it seems that nearly all fighters had the seams parallel to the ribs, while many 2-seaters had them at an angle.

 

4. Color of Rib Tapes

In case you didn't know, the tube of fabric covering the wing was sewn to the ribs. This stitching was protected from the elements (and the holes it made in the fabric sealed) by gluing very narrow strips of fabric (the rib tapes) down on top of the exposed part of the stitching. For normal planes, this doesn't matter because these the rib tapes were painted (or not) just like the rest of the wing. But with the pre-printed lozenge fabric, the rib tapes will naturally make a discontinuity in the underlying pattern so will be quite noticeable.

 

The most common method for rib tapes was to use strips of a single color. This is also the most practical if you're talking about decals--just apply the decal and then carefully paint over it along the top of the molded rib in the desired color. For day aircraft, the upper surface rib tapes seem most often to have been a dark blue-gray approximately (but usually not quite the same as) the similar color in the pre-printed pattern. On the lower surfaces, the usual rib tape color seems to have been a magenta-ish shade, again not quite matching the closest similar color on the fabric. On night aircraft, black rib tapes seem to have been most common. HOWEVER, in both cases, sometimes the rib tapes were made from scrap bits of the pre-printed fabric. And naturally, these were cut from parts of the roll that didn't match the pattern of the underlying main fabric. But this option is generally only really practical for skinners, not model-makers.

 

5. What About the Fuselage?

Most German airplanes had plywood fuselages, and AFAIK none of them preprinted fabric glued over the solid wood. On these planes, the fuselage camo was always hand-painted, and only rarely did it try to match the pre-printed fabric on the wings. Usually, it either made no attempt at camo, or had irregular blotches, or a Monet-esque impressionistic rendering of the preprinted fabric often using fewer color. But a few German planes (mostly Fokkers and large bombers) had rear fuselages covered in fabric. In general, these seem to have used the upper surface colors and to have had the seams running vertically. But you really need to research your particular plane to be sure.

[GHunter 0]

Bullethead,

 

 

 

Thanks for the info. I was worried the decal provided with a 1/72nd scale kit wasn't big enough to cover the upper wing in one "large" piece. The decal provided isn't wide enough to span from leading edge to trailing of the upper wing so I was going to purchase a decal sheet and cut one piece to fit. It sounds like I can cut and patch the decals included...if I want that king of project... got a Gotha that came with enough lozenge decal to cover the whole plane in night cammo. That may be a pain in the ass........

 

 

 

G

[Speedski 0]

I researched and built a Fokker DVII years ago and seem to remember that the 4 colour Lozenge was used for Fighter scouts and 5 colour for Navel aircraft. A third more uniform hexagonal print was used for bombers.

 

There then was a different colour used on the top and underside.

 

I have all the patterns and have supplied the ones for the Fokker DVII

 

This was all done some time ago and my research and memory could be wrong but I did devote quite some time to it.

 

I hope this helps The Down bright pinkish pattern is the underside.

 

Speedski

[Speedski 0]

My Fokker is still flying after 8 years and I am amazed at that as I have replaced the electric engine several times. It now runs a brushless motor which I expect to last a long time.

 

Good luck with yours.

 

Cheers,

Speedski

[Olham 164]

That Fokker D VII is an amazing model you built there, Speedski!

 

The Lozenge fabric was printed in more than one colour combination, as Bullethead said already.

 

Here are versions of 4-colour and 5-colour fabric, which I made after Dan-San's researches over

at "The Aerodrome" website.

 

 

 

 

[Speedski 0]

Hi Olham,

Thankyou for the reply and the complement. There really is a great wealth of knowlege around here. Now we have plenty of Lozenge colours for a Fokker DVII. You really are very active in ths forum helping everyone out and comming up with interesting ideas. You are a big asset to this close community. Keep up the good work.

 

That model really is a pleasure to fly. If the real one flies anything like it, I can see why it was so successful.

 

Thanks again,

Speedski