Lozenge fabric & DVIIs: how was it attached ?

[Romani]

Ok, the instruction sheet of MicroScale decals offer the following info

The cloth was applied to the wings in three basic ways.

1.- SPANWISE- Here one piece of fabric was streteched from tip to. Usually a small additional strip was needed at the trailing edge.

2.- CHORDWISE - In this application several pieces of fabric were laid on fore and aft.

3.- DIAGONAL - When this was done the pattern could go either way, or both ways. Sometimes the diagonal pattern went opposite directions on either wing.

In all cases the ailerons were done separately and the pattern seldom matched the rest of the wing.

Wheel spreader bars and stabilizers were treated in the same manner as the wings.

After the fabric was attached to the wings, a light -blue rib tape was stitched to each rib.

The fuselage was usually covered length-wise , from nose to tail, but sometimes the top decking was covered at right angles to the sides.

Comments.

1.- SPANWISE

was really the fabric done in one piece , presumably cut following a template with the shape of the wing? Did the fabric overhang at the wing tips like a table cloth laid on a table? Or did they cuta long rectangle to cover most of the wing, and then separate pieces to cover the curved wing tips-

What I mean is where was the seam of union of the upper and lower colors, I suppose aft the seam would be at the trailing edge , but front, did the seam run along the attack edge? or would the top color "overhang a little?

Also, I seem to have read in this forum that the fuselage cloth was sewn together and slid onto the frame like a pillow case. Did this happen with the wings too?
What I meant is that on a wing there are two separate pieces of fabric, did the upper color overhang over the lowe wing

How common was this method?

2.- CHORDWISE
Was there any standardized method of this application? I'm thinking on Fokker DVIIs here, I suppose each factory had it's own way of doing it, but I have the nagging suspicion that there was a lot of variation depending on the size of the pieces of fabric.

What I mean is that it seems sometimes there's a single seam down the center rib (in a Fokker DVII, page 60 Osprey AoA 63 ) showing that the wing was done in 2 pieces, and sometimes it seems several pieces were done (the example on the decals sheet shows half a dozen strips, each about he width of 5 ribs.


3.- DIAGONAL

No comment here, seems a rather complicated way of doing things, though I do concede that the camouflage effect would be heightened since it contributes to breaking up the silhouette


4.- APPLICATION OF THE PATTERN

(to be continued)

Off to dinner , will post more questions later

[StephenLawson]

Romani; Forgive me here but this reference to models should wind this up under the models title. As a way of helping you become more familiar with this subject here are a list of references.

Combat Colours #14 The Fokker D,VII by P. Cooksley, Airfix Magazine. Date unknown.
Fliegertruppen #2 by A.Ferko, Privately Published, Salem Ohio, 1987.
Fokker D.VII by Egon Kreuger, Profile Pub. Ltd. 1962.
Fokker D.VII by P. Grosz, Albatros Pub. Ltd, Datafile #9. 1989.
Fokker D.VII Anthology 1 by R.Rimell, Albatros Pub. Ltd. 1997.
Fokker D.VII Kit Survey by R.Rimell, Albatros Ltd. Windsock Vol 13, #4 1997.
Fokker D.VII Anthology 2 by R.Rimell, Albatros Pub. Ltd. 2000.
Fokker D.VII Covering Practices by Dan-San Abbott, WWI Aero #102, Pp.22-28. 1984.
Fokker D.VII Detail Marking and Finish of Fokker-built D.VII Aircraft. WWI Aero #107 , 1985.
Fokker Fighters of WWI by A. Imrie, Osprey, Vintage Warbirds #6 Pp.41-64 1986..
Fokker’s Last Deadly Scourge by M. O’Leary, Air Combat,Pp. 18-26. 1975.
Forgotten Fokker by P Cooksley, Cross & Cockade GB Vol.4, #2,Pp.84-86. 1973.
That Fokker’s an Albatros! By Wally Tripp, WWI Aero, #102 , Pp.14-21. 1984.

There is plenty of information here but for further reading here are the results of a search here at the Aerodrome...Good Luck

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/index.ph...ighlite=lozenge

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Romani:
The wings on ALL Fok.D.VII aircraft were covered chordwise. I have never seen a photograph of any Fok.D.VII covered in any other way.
The printed linen fabric was 1345 ± 10 mm wide. The seams on each side use 10 mm so the seam center-lines were 1325 mm ±apart. On the upper wing the base seam is on the aircraft center-line. In the covers, the seams cannot be closer to a rib than 50 mm. The selvage edge cannot be cut off the wing covers. On the upper wing the first seam is 50 mm from the 5th rib, the second seam 50 mm passed the 9th rib, the third seam is 150 mm past the 13th rib. On the lower wing the first seam was 50 mm past the 5th rib, the second seam is abut midway between the 9th and 10th ribs.
If you look at photographs you will find all the seams on the Fok.D.VII.wings. Fokker supplied drawings to Albatros and OAW. They covered the wings in accordance with the Fokker wing cover drawings.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[Romani]

Thank you both for the answers, apologies if I ask questions that are covered in reference sources, but the only way of finding out the sources is asking!
How can I find out where I should be looking this stuff up if you experts didn't tell me?
And Mr Lawson, I really don't know where this post should go. I wanted to understand how the fabric was applied out of curiosity and as a reference for modelling.

Anyway, I did some web searching, and I found the answers I was looking for in this link, seeing your name on them, Mr Lawson, I've decided on them as the decals to buy!

http://www.best1hobby.com/image/eagl...e/eg72-035.jpg

I have one last comment about the pattern application. The lozenges are not regular polygons, being larger on one axis (to understand what I meant we will refer to this one as "length" and the shorter distance as "width", I probably got it backwards, oh well )

I have noticed that the way the polygons are pointing their long sides is dependent of the method of attaching the fabric to the frame, wich is based solely on factory technique, and the size of the fabric pieces, it has in principle nothing to do with the mimetic effect.

The size of the fabric pieces and the alignment of the polygons would be in turn dependent on the way they are printed. From observation, it would be easier to make the roller with the long sides aligned along the rotation axe of the roller, so the fabric strip coming out of the roller would be like in this sketch


R------------------------------
O /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\
L | |L |o|z |e|n|g|e | | |
L \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/
E
R -----------------------------


After realizing this I understand there's a method to the madness of lozenge application. For example, on a wing , the lozenges are alinged that way with their long sides "sideways", pointing spanwise instead of chordwise because the way the fabric is printed on a cloth of a certain width wich in turns condition the way it can be attached to the frame, dictating the final orientation of the polygons.

This too explains why spanwise application is the least common , unless the chord of the wing matches closely the width of the fabric coming out of the roller, it would be the most wasteful method, (it also, IMHO spoils the mimetic effect, more on this below) In contrast, chordwise application is the most efficient method of application. Thanks to Dan San, we know the width of the print coming out of the roller, rounding up, that's 1.5 meter, average span of German fighters 9 meters, so that makes up 6 pieces for the wing.

Maybe there's also a structural factor into this. If there's a tear in the wing fabric, wouldn't be a several piece cover be more resistant than a single piece one?
I mean, I've the feeling that one long piece of stretched fabric is more stressed than a short one. And if a tear developed, in a single piece it could extend all along the wing, while in a multiple component one , the rip would follow the line of least resistance by ripping out at the seam, you would lose one section, but not the entire wing. But that's speculation on my part

Ailerons and elevators are covered spanwise because they are done in one piece, thus it's only logical that the fabric is cut paralell to the long edge of the piece.

And finally, diagonal application, this, to my understanding doesn't involve cutting the fabric out of the roller in diagonal, but applying the full width strip of fabric at an angle to the frame.

I think that maybe the reason for this is that it cuts down (pun) on cutting and sewing operations. Maybe you can cover a wing with 2 diagonal cut pieces instead of covering it with 3 chordwise pieces.

Perhaps this would be used on Albatros lower wings, for example.

Now this is odd

3.- DIAGONAL - When this was done the pattern could go either way, or both ways. Sometimes the diagonal pattern went opposite directions on either wing.

I think he means the way the diagonal sewn lines go, with 4-half wings, that offers 8 possible combinations (on top surfaces, I would assume the lower surfaces were the same slant as on top)

slanted right / slanted left &#092; arrow left < arrow right > inverted vee ^
vee V, diamond, and X

I&#39;d eliminate the last three as implausibe, if all the pieces have the same inclination, then it heightens the mimetic effect because the lozenges are aligned in a direction that breaks the outline of the plane. Having the long sides of the lozenge aligned with the flight direction of the plane as in the spanwise method spoils the effect, specially in motion.

On the other hand, the chordwise application method on the wings, and the fuselage covering have the lozenges with their widest/longest dimension perpendicular to the direction of flight. I believe this result to be intentional, and fills oneself with awe at the genius of the designer of the pattern.


And finally

The fuselage was usually covered lenghtwise, from nose to tail, but sometimes the top decking was covered at right angles to the sides

I take that this means that instead of having a single strip applied lengthwise, several shorter pieces were used with the lozenge alignment perpendicular to the fuselage sides. right?

Maybe all this is absolutely obvious and self evident to the wise men in this forum, but for a profane in the subject it comes as a revelation&#33;

Comments wellcomment &#33;

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Romani:
The length of the fabric is in the direction of the peats of the printed lozenges. The width of the fabric is the is from selvage (finished woven edge) to selvage edge. In this case 1345mm ±10mm..
Chord wise. The edges of the seams are parallel to the wing ribs. | | |
Diagonal. The seams are 45° to the line of flight. The seams are / &#092; . On the SSW.D.III the upper wing is /, the lower wings are / &#092;.
Spanwise. The only one that shows a seam the the Alb.D.Va spanwise seam was about 150mm from the and parallel to the trailing edge. This only applies to a production lot of about D.5375 to 5399/17. The others were chordwise. Fok.DR.I aircraft were covered chordwise without seams.
All Fokker Fighters fuselages on all sides were cover parallel to the fuselage center-line. The only aicraft that I know of that the fuselage was covered crosswise was the AEG.G.IV.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[Romani]

*APPLAUSE*
And once again, Dan San knows it all&#33;
(The Shadow knows, too, but that&#39;s another matter )

This one is for the files, your help is priceless and my interest has been piqued on that book you wrote. A model gives an intimate satisfaction when you know it looks like the real thing looked. Thank you very very much for sharing your research and your time with us.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Romani:
You are quite welcome, I&#39;m glad to be of help. I have amended my last post in regard to the fuselage covering.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[Romani]

One last detail, your honor.. err, I mean, Dan San

When lozenge fabric was used for wheel covers, I&#39;m correct in assuming a disck of cloth would be cut and attached like the skin on a drum?

Once more, thanks.