History of the original fabrics

WWI initial efforts to conceal aircraft from the enemy involved painting camouflage patterns by hand on the airframes. But this was time consuming, and the dope paints used added additional weight.

To help streamline aircraft production, the Idflieg (the bureau of the German War Office that oversaw Military Aviation) developed Flugstoff — aircraft linen with a dye printed camouflage pattern. This reduced the man-hours and materials otherwise used painting the camouflage patterns. And, because the dyes used to print the fabric weighed less than paint, Flugstoff had the added benefit of reducing weight — thereby contributing to improved aircraft performance.

a word on the decal type

These decals simulate the camouflage fabric applied to German aircraft during the First World War. While usually referred to as "lozenge" by modelers today, this term was infact coined in British reports on captured German aircraft. The repeated patterns in these patterns are not lozenges (having four to five sides), but rather polygons (having six sides). The German term for the material was "Flugzeugstoff" or literally aircraft covering stock. However, for marketing purposes many manufacturers have decided to use the more familiar term "lozenge" simply for ease of recognition by the general public.

Wood & Wires German Lozenge decals

Their first interior 1:48 releases depict 5 colour (set #D48011 set contains upper & lower colours) lozenge. Each package comes with one (7 7/8" X 5 7/8") sheet containing 4 strips / bolts, 2 strips upper, 2 strips lower surface colors. Wood & Wires has tried to represent the decal strips as bolts of printed polygon fabric as it would appear with the edges un-modified as if it came straight off the factory floor. The five color pattern factory edge to factory edge width, I find these appear to be closer to 4' 10" than the generally accepted 4' 6".

But this is a small issue over all as it is a difference of about 1/8” in 1:48. Also there are several older studies on this subject that have slightly different over all conclusions. The recent restorations and studies fostered by them lead us to the standard of 4’6” bolt width. These are designed for interior use in the areas of the open cockpits of the day.

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