30021 4 Colour Upper and Lower Lozenge Decals - 1:32 Wingnut Wings

[Viking]

30021 4 Colour Upper Lozenge Decals & 30022 4 Colour Lower Lozenge Decals
1:32 Wingnut Wings

Despite early propaganda the Great War was not ‘over by Christmas’ and instead the months passed and turned into years.  Aviation was in its infancy, yet underwent rapid change and development during the four years of active conflict. After two years, by 1916 it was realised that some form of concealment for the aircraft was desirable; both while in flight and parked on the ground. Often this was achieved with paints or coloured dopes, but these carried the penalty of adding extra weight.  The Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte (German air force) developed pre-printed fabrics that provided the colours without adding the weight. These were based on the polygonal patterns that had often been hand painted onto various aircraft, in an effort to visually break up their lines. Initially the ‘five colour’ fabric began to appear in 1917, followed later by a ‘four colour’ version. Both types had a ‘lower’ version consisting of light colours, and an ‘upper’ version with darker colours.  Both types were in extensive use right up until the end of the war, one did not replace the other or supercede it.

While the patterns are not in doubt, the actual colours have been discussed exhaustively over the last hundred years. With no contemporary colour photography, plus the effects of fading, oil, varnish, staining, and a whole host of other influences, it can be pretty difficult to come to absolute certainties. Wingnut wings have gone back to primary sources, I.e. surviving fabric samples, and done their own analysis.  In their own words;
“Wingnut Wings lozenge decals have been meticulously researched, the intricate patterns were traced from original lozenge fabric material we have examined in person. These same lozenge samples were used to colour match our decals under natural daylight conditions. We were very fortunate to have enough sample material to be able to match the colours to the un-doped and un-faded areas from where the edges had been folded over to sew the panels together. In conjunction with our decal printers, Cartograf, we printed multiple samples of each lozenge decal before we were completely happy that the colours matched or research findings. All of this ensures that our decals match the original colours of our samples as they looked in natural daylight conditions as they were applied to aircraft in the Great War.”

The decals are printed on A4 sized sheets with seven ‘bolts’ of fabric on each, to the scale width they would have been. There is a very subtle ‘fabric’ look to them, the printing is razor sharp and the pattern repeats precisely .

The colours look very impressive, they do actually start to blend together when viewed from a distance. There should be enough on the sheets to cover at least two Albatros sized aircraft, probably more if only the wings need covering. Plenty of useful information is contained within the instruction sheets, pointing out how aircraft were covered, use of rib tapes, and various anomalies that occurred. In the usual Wingnut Wings style, these are backed up with original photographs from the era.

Comparison with an earlier Wingnut Wings decal from my stash (a Pfalz D.XII) in pre-shped format, shows the improvement that this latest research has produced. The earlier decal is a little harsher in the way the colours relate to each other, is probably too bright, and it doesn’t ‘blend’ as well as the newer sets.

Lozenge camouflage is such a distinctive and noticeable feature on aircraft in this scale, that these sheets will be great to upgrade your unbuilt Wingnut Wings kits (they do a five colour set as well).  And if you have any other manufacturers 1:32 WW1 German aircraft kits, they often have much poorer quality lozenge decals, you’ll definitely need a set of these.

 

Highly reccomended.

Review sample courtesy of