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I'm curious if someone would know what kind of lozenge fabric was used on Josef Müller's Fokker D.VII (Alb) 646/18 of Jagdstaffel 23. In color profiles, I see it illustrated with 5-color lozenge fabric, but from a photo I have of it (specifically on p. 251 of Royal Bavarian Jagdstaffel 23, Aeronaut Books), I'm unable to tell if it is 4 or 5 color lozenge. All other photos are too blurry to make out the lozenge fabric. From my understanding, some early batches of Albatros built D.VII's used 5-color lozenge, but in general, most used 4-color lozenge. Perhaps someone with a better eye for lozenge fabric type, or more knowledge of the subject, could tell me. Thanks again in advance for you help!

Hi all, After the “Lessons learned Albatros DV ” I’m now showing the second of my past builds: Tokos (Eastern Express) Siemens Schuckert DIII. Tokos SSW kit offers modellers the choice to build an SSW DIII or an SSW DIV. The detail of the kit is outstanding, for 1/72. Unfortunately, the kit only contains parts for an accurately scaled SSW DIV, as the SSW DIII option is not possible to build out of the box without addressing some serious scaling/accuracy flaws, which are: The elevator is too small for a DIII The upper wing us too narrow The spinner is too small To illustrate the inaccuracies, here is a comparison of a spare kit I bought with Dick Bennets 1/72 drawings from 1991: On top of that, the Lozenge decals are not accurate at all, as they are far too bright, and the same for top and bottom surfaces. Things I wanted to try with this kit Despite the kits shortcomings for the SSW DIII option, I chose to build it, in Ernst Udets markings, because it combines a colourful paint job with a prominent ace status of its pilot. Here are some original photographs of the SSW: This was the first kit where I decided to: Make serious changes to the dimensions of major parts of the aircraft Apply Lozenge decals Use the airbrush The completed model I decided to increase the depth of both the elevator and the top wing using an unusual and very lazy method. I folded a piece of simple transparent adhesive tape around the wing and elevator, respectively, letting the folded edge of the tape stand off the original edge of the upper wing/elevator and therefore increase the depth of both parts, respectively. With the paint and lozenge decals added, this solution generated acceptable results. Regarding the bright Lozenge, I sprayed a very thin mixture of black on top of the decals for the top wings, to darken the colour. It looked less bright, but was a) still not an accurate representation of 4 colour Lozenge and b) not applied diagonally. Then, I tried to manually paint some of the hexes of the bottom wing lozenge with colours more typical for underside Lozenge, which looked quite bad in close-ups. Rib tapes were added with a black permanent marker, again out of laziness and ignorance of the true colour of rib tapes. The lessons learned whilst building this particular kit 1. I should just have bought proper Lozenge decals instead of trying to improve the ones from the kit 2. Changes to components can be achieved quite easily, and are worth the effort 3. Airbrushing is worth the effort too, even in 1/72 Best regards, Rob

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

WWI Lozenge 5-color Upper & Lower Eduard 1:48 As well as their excellent WWI kits Eduard also do decals which will work on any kit needing them. Unless you are the Zen Master of masking the only real way to do the complicated 5 colour lozenge is to use decals. Eduard have given us D48022 With the 5 colour lozenge used on the upper wings; and D48023 for the 5 colour lozenge used on lower wings. With 4 wings worth per pack. Conclusion These look to be up with the usual standard of Eduards decals and the colour printing look excellent. Overall highly recommended. Upper Lower Review samples courtesy of

Hi everyone, I'm offering a very special 50% discount on Pegasus Models items valid from now until midnight on 3rd May 2014. This applies to all Pegasus Models kits or decals (about thirty items, including lozenge sheets) on my website, except items that are already discounted in the offers section (so no further discount to what is shown on offer items, but you can stick them in the same order). Minimum order to obtain the discount is £20.00 worth of non-offer items. To access the discount simply add the coupon code 'PEG50' on the payment information page before you check out. Code will expire at midnight GMT on the 3rd. Thanks! Colin http://www.freightdogmodels.co.uk