Ola Guys and gals.

I have another question that I'm kinda tried to find an answer for myself but so far haven't figured it out.

I'm trying to figure out how the early fighters were painted. Did the factories use sprayguns to paint the aircraft or were they all handpainted. I read somewhere that Fokker standard painted the aircraft in the streaked handpainted olive drab/green over a light olive base.
Did the factories apply the Lozenge camo as well? Or was it even preprinted fabric that was stretched over the wings

Mainly my focus lies with the Flying Circus since I love the look of those aircraft. In the book I have about the Flying circus there are several mentions of aircraft flown by von Richthofen that gradually got painted red. Sometimes partially and sometimes all over. Some mentions of a partly translucent coat showing the markings underneath. Were aircraft in the field handpainted or was compressor and spraygun available to the maintenance crews? Most of the designs I have seen show hard edge lines which I think was probably easier to apply by brush. But when I look at models I see online it seems everybody does it differently and it shows hardedge and softedge even with aircraft that are the same type with the same camo and markings.

I would love to hear your views on this matter.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Hi Robert,
- Lozenge was printed, not painted, fabric. That´s why you will not find any Albatros D.Va, for instance, with lozenge fuselage - only wings and empennage were fabric covered in this plane. If I remember correctly, it was known as Flugzeugstoff or something like that, and there was a big deal of theory behind it.
- I have read the same about Fokker´s streaky camouflage; apparently done with rollers not fully soaked in paint.
- About Von Richthofen´s translucent markings,as far as I know it is the same if a plane is brush-painted or sprayed; if one layer of paint is not enough, then the bottom colour shows through. The factors would be the contrast betweeen the colours involved, layer thickness, and opacity - not the way the paint was applied.

David is predominately right. Usually the Binks sprayguns were set up at factories. If you look in the lozenge 101 thread you will see that some Gotha bombers had lozenge painted on their hard surfaces to mimick the lozenge printed fabric on their wings. I have seen only two Alb. D.V aircraft completely covered in lozenge. So it was not the standard.

As to the methods used in Jasta 11 or JG I I suggest to get hold of the monograph "RICHTHOFEN" by A.E. Ferko through Albatros Publishing Ltd. It talks specifically how they got hold of supplies.

To simplify it for you hand painting by brush was standard in all Jastas.

As a general rule for most airframes.
Hard edge = in the field application or factory (especially when they got behind in contract orders).

Soft edge = Binks spray gun in the factory.

Ola Guys

Thanks for the replies

@David
Thanks for clearing up the lozenge pattern process. That makes a lot of sense that they printed fabric with that pattern. A lot less work.
I mentioned von Richthofen's plane as an example. and not the best example for my question at that. being in the design business I know all about paint not covering so that I kinda figured out myself but my question was would that paint be applied by brush or spraygun. An answer that was given by Stephen.

@ Stephen
Thanks for your reply as well. That must have been quite a job to handpaint the lozenge pattern on the fuselages of those Gotha's They are not small aircraft.
And thanks for the book tip I will try to get a hold of that.
As I said before for my question Richthofen's aircraft and livery really is not a good example. So I am going to use another aircraft for that.
The Albatros D.II. There is one that is painted with the upperwing surfaces in 2 tones. brown, green brown. The Roden box shows that aircraft with hard edge lines suggesting handpainting. But I have seen models and I believe even box tops of other brands showing it also in soft edge suggesting spraygun.
The same goes for the Green purple Pfalz of Alois Heldmann. Again there is the softedge vs hard edge issue. And I'm wondering which is the most realistic.