Lozenge 101

[Lyle]

Greetings fellow R/C modelers,
Today I am going to begin my method for painting your own lozenge camouflage, guaranteed to give excellent results. The method presented here will be for the ever-popular 4-color, but this can be adapted for 5-color quite easily (with different colors, of course). The colors used are entirely approximations of what was probably used, and being that the paint causes a greater density of color than what was originally found in the printed fabric, it's best to use an airbrush to try to achieve a light application of color. I have found that these colors, when mixed, are a fair match to the Eagle Strike 4-color decals; these decals have had a lot of thought and eyeballing done to get them as close to exact as possible. However, if it is your intention to match it EXACTLY, then I suggest making color chips for each color, go to your local home improvement store's paint department, and get the paint matching computer to spit out the right formulae. But you might find this method a lot simpler and definitely adequate for most modelers.

The method in a nutshell: each polygon of a specific color is cut from a stencil, then aligned on a roll of fabric of your choice which is laid out flat on a large table, and then the color is shot and allowed to dry before proceeding with the next color. Drying can be accelerated with a heat gun if in a rush or if excess humidity is hampering your progress.

Note: I must give credit to Guy Fawcett's excellent article in the June 1997 issue of Model Airplane News on the methods and color selection. I am only presenting my results based on his own work...thanks Guy!

STEP 1: COLLECTING YOUR COLORS

The paints I have been using for my lozenge fabric are acrylic paints available at any good art store. They are non-toxic, clean up with water and come in a great variety of colors. The Americana brand of paint has been my standard, so I'll be using these for color references.

The uppersurface colors are:
Williamsburg Blue DA40
Teal Green DA107
Antique Green DA147
Dried Basil Green DA198
Olive Green DA56
Green Mist DA177

And the bottomsurface colors:
Williamsburg Blue
Green Mist
Golden Straw DA168
Antique Rose DA156
Lamp Black

Here are the ratios for mixing the four colors--the names in bold are the typical descriptions of each color found in many references.

UPPERSURFACE

DULL BLUE Willamsburg Blue
DEEP TURQUOISE Teal Green
OLIVE BROWN 2 parts Antique Green; 1 part Dried Basil Green
PEA GREEN 1 part Olive Green; 1 part Green Mist

BOTTOMSURFACE

DULL CHINA BLUE Williamsburg Blue plus Lamp Black (4:1)
DULL GRAY GREEN Green Mist
BRAZEN YELLOW Golden Straw
GRAYISH ROSE Antique Rose

Some 'tweaking' may be necessary to get it to match your references, but this will certainly do as a start.

[jumpinjan]

Lyle,
What would be the reason behind using the acrylic craft paints? From my experience with automotive base coat/clear coat paint systems, that these would be the paint of choice. The urethane base color dries as fast as nitrate dope, has excellent color coverage and to some extent, is economical. The clear, top coating is a bit touchy because it's designed to flow to achieve very high gloss, but some clear top coats are available (Glasurit) for satin finish. It should be fuel proof too.
Here is how I made my Lozenge covering back in 1968, I made 4 silkscreens to print the 4-color lozenge on to Jap tissue for my 37" span, Fok D.VIII free flight scale model. I used the enamel screening inks and then topcoated it with nitrate then butyrate dope (sprayed). It held up pretty well enough for me to get 1st place at the '68 AMA Nats.
Where could one find the Fawcett article? I would would like to compare notes with him?

[Lyle]

What would be the reason behind using the acrylic craft paints? From my experience with automotive base coat/clear coat paint systems, that these would be the paint of choice.

Jan,
There are a number of reasons to go with acrylic.
1) Non-toxic
2) Wide range of colors
3) Water clean-up
4) Thinners non-toxic as well (water)
Sure, the automotive system you mention will work with great results, but the environmental factors might be a factor in inhibiting modelers from working with the stuff. Also, fuelproofing is not a problem with acrylic paints when a clear coat of polyurethane is used. If flying gasoline then it's not an issue at all.

Where could one find the Fawcett article? I would would like to compare notes with him?

I believe you can still get this issue from Model Airplane News.
Regards, Lyle

[Lyle]

THE STENCILS

the lozenge polygons

First off, it's necessary to get the right pattern for your particular lozenge. This can come from a variety of sources, namely Windsock Datafiles, specialty publications or even decal sheets. Enlarge it to your particular scale either by using the Xerox method or by the tried and true method of drafting. After copying your patterns, lay it out on your drafting table and start tracing. Try to use a good quality vellum, since most bumwad is too frail to get good lineweights.
Option: For those of you versed in AutoCad, get your pattern on the computer and then plot it out in the right scale. In fact this option might prove to be the most versatile.

the stencil material

I used ordinary poster board available from any drugstore or office supply center. The idea is to replicate what was the average size of the bolts of fabric, which was 4 feet 3.25 inches in width for the four-color pattern. This results in a scale pattern of 12 13/16" for quarter scale. Since most aircraft had bolts of fabric sewn together at 90 degrees perpendicular to the LE to create the length necessary to cover a wing, it's only necessary to find board that will equal the chord of your specific aircraft. For something like the Siemens Schuckerts or Halberstadts, the fabric went on at 45 degrees, so a longer length will be necessary. Draw guide lines indicating the bolt width on the stencil to give you some idea where to glue the patterns.

let the cutting begin

Make copies of your patterns and fill up your stencil sheet with the correct pattern for a bolt of fabric. Do this on all four sheets. For each color mark on each polygon which colors will go where. This could spell trouble later on if you mark a pea green polygon as a blue, or vice versa. So check your references and start marking. When this is done, get your #11 blade and cut all the specific colors for that one stencil. Make sure you cut about 1/32 of an inch larger to ensure a good overlap so that no bare fabric is seen when the job is done.

the fabric

In my experience, white Solartex has given me excellent results. You can get a 5-meter roll of Solartex for a reasonable price. Also Super Coverite would work fine since it's a fabric that's basically pre-filled. Calculate how much you are going to need to paint and then get the fabric. Material like Sig Koverall or silk or any other material that's not pre-finished will not work, owing to bleeding problems.

let us spray

So after unrolling the fabric on a nice long and wide table (no balsa shavings left around, please) with the topside up, get the stencil with your lightest color and align it at 90 degrees to the edge of the fabric. Make sure it is fixed by putting weights down or even taping it to the fabric if in a rush. Get your airbrush out and with the paint mixed up shoot the first color. You want a fairly light application, nothing too heavy and yet with enough color density. This sounds like an oxymoron but simply requires a feel for it. You will find that you might have to hold the stencil down around the opening to keep it in place but here's another advantage of acrylics: even if your hand gets painted after a session, simple soap and water will clean you up easily--no toxic solvents to worry about.

Do this with the other three colors and afterwards admire your handiwork! It can go very fast, especially on a hot, dry day but using a hair dryer will make your work go very quickly. I recommend filling up one panel with all the colors first instead of painting all the blues or greens at one time. On Fokker D.VIIs the bolts alternated in direction. In this photo I try to show this effect, although it might not have been so obvious on the actual fabric. The Anthology series on the D.VII from Albatros Productions details this nicely, so use them as a guide for your model. I believe the Fokker D.VI and D.VII were the only ones to use 4-color on its wings, but I'll leave that detail to other discussions.


Next installment will talk about the installation on the wing and why a hot iron is a bad thing.

[Lyle]

preparation

Sand down your surfaces to be covered and give a coat of Sig's Stix-It or Balsarite. This will allow for a lower setting on your iron, which is desireable since the iron will melt the paint if at too high a temperature.

installation

Proceed to install the fabric following the manufacturer's recommendations or by your own technique. Your iron temperature should be at the lowest possible setting to activate the adhesive. Rather than moving the iron back and forth as you do with Monokote, just place it down on the area and hold it for a moment or two and then move along. Use a heat gun to shrink the fabric when it is attached to the frame. Once the fabric is applied and trimmed, you can apply rib tapes. These can be ripped from blue or pink iron-on fabric or cut from cloth and attached with Stix-It. If using lozenge tapes, just follow my recommendations to avoid melting paint. Cotton cloth can give you more selection in the color, but frayed edges can be a problem until the varnishing stage.

finishing

Give a coat of satin polyurethane varnish over your work. This will seal it all nicely and give a good sheen, as well as make it look less like paint and more like the printed fabric. It also provides good fuel-proofing for those of you who are using a glow engine in your model.
This method provided a quick and easy alternative to the traditional method of masking and painting, which not only consumes vast lengths of tape but is also quite slow. Give it a shot, you'll appreciate its ease and the results are entirely worth it.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Gentlemen:
The specification width of 4 color lozenge fabric was 1300 ± 10mm.
( 51.18" ± .4")
The base seam on the upper wing was the aircraft center-line. Thar applies to Fokker, Albatros and OAW.
Rib tapes. All three used cut strips of the lozenge printed. Fokker on all their D.VII, Albatros salmon pink, OAW, light blue.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[Lyle]

Dan-San Abbott stated:

The specification width of 4 color lozenge fabric was 1300 ± 10mm.
( 51.18" ± .4")

Right! I rounded the number off for simplicity, but if one wanted to do it all in metric, then it would be a width of 325mm.

The base seam on the upper wing was the aircraft center-line. Thar applies to Fokker, Albatros and OAW.

I got my information from Fokker Anthology #1, which showed a panel straddling the center section. However, this is incorrect for an OAW D.VII, which should have the C/L as the beginning of the fabric panels.

[Lyle]

Mark Miller presents his color results from original samples.

4-color Lozenge