PrintScale Austro-Hungarian lozenges Pt 1

[AMStreet]

I am slowly working my way through all the varieties of A-H aircraft camouflage schemes and have now reached the hexagonal lozenge scheme.  It's one that I find attractive and eye catching so was really looking forward to using it on my Aeroclub Brandenburg Berg D1. 

 

On the paper backing it does not look too bad though the light portion seems very pale but when I started applying it to the model I had a nasty shock.  I have to say that these transfers are the most difficult that I have ever worked with.  They are thin, too thin in my opinion being translucent and really needing a white primer coat, curl under at the earliest opportunity. and stick almost immediately on application making placement hard to get right. 

 

Having said that, they would be acceptable if I felt that the colours on the lighter section was correct.  I do not feel that they are.  On applying the light section up against the dark the contrast was stark.  It looked more like a barber's pole than any kind of camouflage scheme. 

 

Reading through Dr. Martin O'Connor's book Air Aces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1914-1918 I found references to the colour scheme of Bela Macourek and cross referencing them against my Methuen Handbook of Colour found that the colours given by O'Connor are wildly different to the ones on the transfer sheet.

 

Given the marked contrast between the colours provided on the sheet and those from O'Connor I decided to repaint the lightest of the hexagons on the light sheet to those more in keeping with O'Connor's.  My efforts have not satisfied me as trying to paint regular hexagons appears to be beyond me but I will persevere as I could not have lived with the colours as originally given.

 

Does anyone have thoughts about these transfers as I am reluctant to try the part 2 set without other opinions as I cannot find references to the colours of the smaller oblique lozenges on the second part of PrintScales set.

 

Thank you.

[JackG]

Aerodrome forums discussion here, includes mention of publications by O'Conner, Peter Grosz, and a third book dedicated to the Aviatik D.I & II as published by Japo.

https://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35183

 

The two things I see different compared to Printscale lozenge decals are:

 - colours not as vibrant

- schemes seem to incorporate the application of at least two types of lozenge colour patterns. 

 

Some examples:

From a book review of Aviatik (Berg) D.I At War by Paolo Varriale

https://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/review.php?rid=1818

 

  

 

 

 

regards,

Jack

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by JackG

[bentwaters81tfw]

Print Scale are decals of last  resort in my book for all the reasons you have stated. If there are any alternatives, go there first. It's not unknown for their stuff to be out of scale too.

It's a shame as they have some interesting subjects.

[davidl]

The subject of A/H lozenge invites controversy

IMHO it's very difficult to be absolute about KuK colours and strict colour matching to Standards such as the Methuen Handbook should be guarded .

With so few surviving examples of complete air-frames, or even fabric pieces, and the fact that a wide variety of patterns and variations (the well known large format, equilateral hex Tarnstoff and sloping, smaller, angled and elongated hexs being two examples) were used it's hard to be critical about colour choices except where a known, well documented machine is not represented correctly. There were certainly some very parti-coloured versions A/H lozenge. There is no doubt that Backhausen manufactured "sworl" was an exception as printed fabric applied to Albatros OEF aircraft wings

When its recalled that as the war progressed and the Central Powers became starved of resources it would be unrealistic to suggest strict compliance with such colours as may have been specified could be maintained

Another level of difficulty is introduced when it is recalled that unlike Germany the KuK did not produce all its camouflage as printed fabric -many air-frames were hand-painted - Even  "sworl " was sometimes hand painted the sworl photographed on Godwin Brumowski's H-B D 1 being just one example ( see the Japo monograph on this type  )   

I don't think any of what I have just said contradicts the very thorough, scholarly research work of Dr O'Connor.  

I seems that so long as the modeller keeps the colours they choose within shades that are compatible with a range of tones that are accepted so the whole "looks" right, it would be a very brave critic or judge to say the representation presented by the careful modeller was wrong or even flawed.

The Aerodrome forum has some lively discussion of this subject with insightful contributions from people far more knowledgeable than me. https://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36036 see also here https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12581.0

[dragonlanceHR]

On 7/28/2022 at 4:32 PM, JackG said:

The two things I see different compared to Printscale lozenge decals are:

 - colours not as vibrant

- schemes seem to incorporate the application of at least two types of lozenge colour patterns. 

 

Some examples:

 

Late to the party, has anyone here used the Handl decals? Their website says they are digitaly printed, and the only online reviews I have found are for their stencils (which look good) and the early Mi-2 set (which look really bad).

 

Cheers,

Vedran

[SprueMan]

Speaking of Austro-Hungarian canvas and Printscale, I just ordered their Oeffag D.III set with the sworl/swirl camo.

Do you think it is OK?

It is for a 1/48 scale Eduard Oeffag kit

[JackG]

Concerning the sworl prints available in decal form, not sure a particular brand can be chosen as the best replica as no surviving examples exist?  They all seem, for the most part, to follow the same pattern, just some minor differences in the ratio of green, ochre, and brown.   Good write up here with period photos:

https://www.aviattic.co.uk/132-austro-hungarian-sworl.html

 

Looking at the various brands, it is interesting Pheon did not attempt  this one, but do have the hand painted style in their Oeffag series.

[hsr]

On 7/28/2022 at 8:55 AM, AMStreet said:

On the paper backing it does not look too bad though the light portion seems very pale but when I started applying it to the model I had a nasty shock.  I have to say that these transfers are the most difficult that I have ever worked with.  They are thin, too thin in my opinion being translucent and really needing a white primer coat, curl under at the earliest opportunity. and stick almost immediately on application making placement hard to get right. 

This has been my experience with Printscale decals. However I found that giving them a coat of Microscale decal film solved the problem of them being  almost impossible to move around.