Lozenge Pattern Paint

[Bedlam]

Ladies and gentlemen,

After many weeks of research and careful formulation, I can proudly unveil my latest product - authentic 1/144 WW1 German Lozenge pattern paint.

The first batch is the popular night colour scheme as I understand there may be a few people building Gothas right now. The paint has been formulated to replicate both the repeating fabric pattern on the wings and the random painted patches on the fuselage, as shown:







The paint can be applied by brush or roller, but best results are obtained by airbrushing directly over a white undercoat.

In the near future I intend to produce pots of Dark and Intermediate day 5-colour pattern with matching undersides for day bombers.

[Guntruck]

Will this work in the same way as Vallejo's tartan paint?

This is superb. How do we get hold of a 'tin'?

Sigh! If only someone did resin wings for the Skytrex Gotha .

[gregbond77]

John, that is some AWESOME work, very impressive.

[Bedlam]

Steve, as I have a distinct feeling you might be working on a suitable project, there is a 'tin' of lozenge paint on its way to you for trials. I hope you're patient and have a bottle of Klear floor polish handy.

If the beta test is successful I will upload the 'paint' for all to use.

[usmc1855]

Great looking paint job!

For those interested in investing in his amazing 'Lozenge Paint' consider my offering of a spool of shore line, or a box of grid squares, or for those in real need... a tin of frequency grease! All at a reasonable price. Place your orders soon, as the demand will certainly out pace the supply.

[Kahlerclan]

I'm willing to trade a bucket of prop wash and 50 feet of flight line

[krolik]

I'll trade you a can of squelch oil for it.

[rkhlegacy]

John, I'm a hands on kind of guy....I don't have time for cleaning paint brushes, rollers, or airbrushes. Will I get the same results if I just rub the paint onto the surfaces by hand?

What happens if I just dip the model into the paint pot and then shake it vigerously? Of course I'm talking about shaking the model not the paint pot.

Last question, will this work on any model or do I have to paint it on a German WWI plane?

[Bedlam]

I'm willing to trade a bucket of prop wash and 50 feet of flight line

Ah, those were the days. Twenty odd years ago I'd just finished my apprenticeship and been posted to my first operational unit. I worked in the engine bay, but had to go over to the rects hangar to meet the Squadron Leader for my arrival brief. On my way through, a gnarly old sergeant with a face like a welder's bench grabbed me and said, "Oi you, get your a£$e over to tool stores and get a long stand."

Not wishing to look a fool on my first day, I toddled off in the general direction, then once out of his sight carried on with my original mission. Ha. Not falling for that one - what sort of a muppet does he think I am anyway?

One brief and uninspiring chat with the Squadron Leader later, I set off back to the bay, passing back through the hangar on the way. Immediately my new friend hove into view so I adopted an expression of nonchalent smugness. He did seem quite perturbed, and yelled, "Oi, W£$%^er, where the f£"$$'s my stand?

At this point I spotted a couple of riggers struggling under the weight of the Tornado flap they had just removed...

[Guntruck]

Steve, as I have a distinct feeling you might be working on a suitable project, there is a 'tin' of lozenge paint on its way to you for trials. I hope you're patient and have a bottle of Klear floor polish handy.

If the beta test is successful I will upload the 'paint' for all to use.

You Sir, are a gentleman and a scholar! I am standing agog, paintbrush in hand

[Bedlam]

Steve, you're going to need a saucer of water, a pair of tweezers and a very small pair of scissors because the paint is, of course, a decal sheet.

The only paint on the model above is on the aircrew. The lozenge is all decal, printed on my inkjet printer onto "Crafty" clear decal sheet. I did two patterns. One is a repeating pattern in parallell strips to replicate the printed fabric on the wings and tailplane, and the other is just random shapes for the painted areas such as the fuselage and the wooden inboard section of the lower wing.

The colours were chosen by referring to as many sources as I could find, including many, many entries on The Aerodrome forum. Dan-San Abbot deserves a namecheck as a particularly knowledgeable source. Once the five Methuen colours were nailed down I had to rummage about a bit until I found another post where the Methuen codes had been converted into RGB colours. It's not going to be perfect, but it's as close as I need for a very small toy aeroplane. On my screen it looked disappointingly grey so I was pretty suprised when it came out of the printer looking blue! As it turns out, it looks the same overall colour as a couple of commercially available 1/72 Gotha decal sheets, so I'm pretty pleased. I'm not sure how it will look when printed on a different printer though.

I expected the repeating pattern to take a bit of research, but it turns out to be fairly well documented. I hadn't realised at first, but all the different 5-colour schemes use the same pattern, which makes things much easier. It took me a while to get the master right and flood fill the colours in, but once I'd done that it was easy to copy it and create the repeating pattern. Colouring in all the random shapes nearly gave me RSI though, as I had to do every one individually. In retrospect I should have done each colour as a separate layer so it would be easy to change when I do the day camo sheets.

I drew the line at adding rib tapes. At this scale they would have looked muddled, and after reading three pages of discussion about whether they were salmon pink or buff I decided life was too short.

I've done the decal as a sheet of blocks rather than shape it to the aircraft. That way it can be used for Staaken or Freidrichshafen GIII models - just cut out whatever shape you want.

I've sent a couple of people sheets to test, and if the feedback is OK, I'll post the pattern on this forum for anyone to download. One A4 sheet of decal paper will print the layout twice and I've included serial numbers for two aircraft known to have been in batches made in this colour scheme.

The crosses on my aircraft are from Dom. I can't print white on my printer. There should be crosses on the fuselage, but at the time I took the photos I'd run out.

[Strangely Brown]

Great work Bedlam.

If anyone's interested, I have some Shaw's...

[Guntruck]

Steve, you're going to need a saucer of water, a pair of tweezers and a very small pair of scissors because the paint is, of course, a decal sheet.

No s**t, Sherlock

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Steve,
I've done the decal as a sheet of blocks rather than shape it to the aircraft. That way it can be used for Staaken or Freidrichshafen GIII models - just cut out whatever shape you want.

I've sent a couple of people sheets to test, and if the feedback is OK, I'll post the pattern on this forum for anyone to download. One A4 sheet of decal paper will print the layout twice and I've included serial numbers for two aircraft known to have been in batches made in this colour scheme.

The crosses on my aircraft are from Dom. I can't print white on my printer.

So the days of having to cut out and stick on each individual lozenge as a seperate decal are over then. What ever am I going to do with my winters in future?
Kyte.
Seriously though, this is some very worthwhile research that you have undertaken and what you have produced may encourage more members to take on modelling their own planes.
Thanks. Rob.

[Boney10]

ahhh yes the long stand, I remember those being sent to the RQMS to aks. Although the funniest was stood in a NAAFI queue of aprox 20 young squaddies when the siggie at the front in a loud voice stated he wanted a NAAFI TART for his room CPL, the young lady behind the counter went red then proceded to show the young lad the door with a few well aimed slaps about the head. When she returned behind the counter the queue shortened by approx 50% as others who has been sent on a jolly by their room CPLs dissapeared. Ahhh those were the day, All these with Tartan paint, long stands, tins of elbow grease I never fell for, what I did fall for was a tin of "bulling rings" for my boots, didnt live that down for quite a while (sigh)

[Boney10]

Dave, what paper are you using for the decals? I am trying to make somebases but the stickyback paper i am using doesnot take the ink it just rubs off.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

ahhh yes the long stand, I remember those being sent to the RQMS to aks. Although the funniest was stood in a NAAFI queue of aprox 20 young squaddies when the siggie at the front in a loud voice stated he wanted a NAAFI TART for his room CPL, the young lady behind the counter went red then proceded to show the young lad the door with a few well aimed slaps about the head. When she returned behind the counter the queue shortened by approx 50% as others who has been sent on a jolly by their room CPLs dissapeared. Ahhh those were the day, All these with Tartan paint, long stands, tins of elbow grease I never fell for, what I did fall for was a tin of "bulling rings" for my boots, didnt live that down for quite a while (sigh)

Reminds me of one I heard when one of the science staff sent a chap down to the lab tech for 3 feet of Fallopian tube for the Bunsen burners.
Rob.

[Bedlam]

When I worked in the RB199 engine test bed we frequently used to get newbies to go into the running cell with the engine at idle to collect 'P6 air samples' in a poly bag. Even at idle it was pretty windy inside, and, of course, the first few samples were always 'contaminated'. It was much more effective on cold days, which at Lossiemouth was most of the time.

@Boney10 - I'm John. Although I do seem to get called Dave quite a lot for some reason. I used this paper, which although a bit expensive works brilliantly. I am a clumsy, impatient biff and I managed to get the results you see above. Nuff said. I sealed it with Halfords car lacquer, but I think I'll try the stuff they recommend next time. I printed it at 'best' quality with all the other settings at 'normal' and it worked perfectly.

The decal sticks well enough with its own adhesive. I tried Microscale Micro Set, but didn't gain anything - it's fine already. It's very fragile and a bit stretchy so you can't pull it about much, so put it on with a brush. I found a damp cotton bud ideal for rolling the bubbles out. Once it's stuck squash it down with a damp kitchen towel and being stretchy it will pick up all the detail from underneath. I just decaled straight over the control wires moulded onto the Gotha fuselage. Let it dry, then paint a thin coat of Klear floor polish on to protect it. I tried Micro Sol, but I'm not convinced it did much. Worked really well on the Eiserne Kreuz markings though.

@Rob - Damn. I never thought of doing each lozenge seperately. I could have saved hours in front of the computer and just printed five plain sheets...
Technically I didn't actually do any research. I just trawled the internet and put lots of other people's research together into one place. Hold on. That's how I'm doing my degree dissertation...

[Boney10]

John, my sincere apologies, I can only plead rampant senility and dirty glasses, honest Guv.
Thansk for the info John

[Guntruck]

Well, my 'tin of lozenge paint' arrived yesterday and it looks absolutely spot-on colour- and pattern-wise. Thanks for that John (or Dave).

Was going to pick up another Gotha at SELWEG show at Crystal Palace to try it out on, but sadly Skytrex weren't there. Order going in tomorrow. I think this pattern will also do for the AEG G.IV, so I might try it out on that in the meantime.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Well, my 'tin of lozenge paint' arrived yesterday and it looks absolutely spot-on colour- and pattern-wise. Thanks for that John (or Dave).

Was going to pick up another Gotha at SELWEG show at Crystal Palace to try it out on, but sadly Skytrex weren't there. Order going in tomorrow. I think this pattern will also do for the AEG G.IV, so I might try it out on that in the meantime.

Any more of this knocking about anywhere?
Rob.

[Boney10]

I got a Gotha and two AEG so where can I get my grubby mits on some please
Who do I have to assasinate ?

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Was going to pick up another Gotha at SELWEG show at Crystal Palace to try it out on, but sadly Skytrex weren't there. Order going in tomorrow. I think this pattern will also do for the AEG G.IV, so I might try it out on that in the meantime.

Funny that one Gunners. Now my day bomber is off the stocks, I'm looking at the Night version and the A.E.G. which I've had an eye on for a while. Only thing putting me off is the lack of a card for it.
Rob.

[IRM]

Pretty sure there's an unstatted one in the Files somewhere (AEG, that is). There was a thread discussing it's game stats ages ago as well.

EDIT: Found 'em.
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/showthread.php?t=763

http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/dow...do=file&id=355

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Pretty sure there's an unstatted one in the Files somewhere (AEG, that is). There was a thread discussing it's game stats ages ago as well.

EDIT: Found 'em.
http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/showthread.php?t=763

http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/dow...do=file&id=355

Nice find Iain, and a good memory. I was only just finding my way around the site when the last post was made on that one. Thanks.
Rob.

[Algynon]

Steve, so that was you at SELWEG. The one in the lozenge pattern shirt hanging around the central london clubs exhibition game of "Sopwith 2".

[Bedlam]

Lozenge pattern shirt? I want one!

I was chatting to a work colleague on Friday about my hours of research into lozenge patterns, and he said, "why don't you ask the guys at the museum? They are restoring some old biplane."

I mooched over in my lunch hour and knocked on the door of the restoration hangar. The guys were getting ready to lock up, but I had a quick chat with the rigger who is rebuilding the Sopwith Dolphin and he showed me a duvet-sized sheet of lozenge fabric which decorates their crewroom wall!

Turns out there is a team of experts a hundred yards from where I work. D'oh. Why didn't I think of that before? It's not like you can't spot the hangar, and we even take courses of trainees around the museum!

If anyone else is interested in seeing how progress is going with the Dolphin, the restoration hangar at the RAF Museum, Cosford will be open to the public for the week 15-20 Nov 2010. The fuselage is in the doping shop at the moment so I didn't see that, but the structure of the first wing is nearly finished. They also have the Wellington from Hendon in there at the moment, which looks a bit sorry for itself.

I've updated the photos in the first post now I've finished the Gotha.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

They look superb John.
Rob.

[tonyc206]

Very impressive piece of work John.

[bsmith13]

Could you post pictures of the decaling process? I'd like to see what's involved.

[Bedlam]

Ah. I didn't take any pictures this time around. I have to work on my models a few minutes at a time when I get the chance so I wasn't particularly bothered about taking photos. I'll document the process properly on the next one, which will probably be the Freidrichshafen GIII in Dark Day pattern. That will be a long time off as I need to manufacture the wings & tail, and produce the day pattern decal sheet. I could do another Gotha, but I rather like the look of Kitey's Sky Camouflage GIV. Two night bombers in formation would look pretty cool though...

The process went something like this:
1. Assemble the tail of the Gotha, but leave the wings off.
2. The wings were from the phantom resin wing maker, so I cleaned the mould-release off with washing-up liquid and gave them a thin coat of Halfords plastic primer.
3. Cut out and clean up all the parts - gunners, undercarriage and engines, but don't glue anything together yet.
4. Prime everything in white. I use Citadel 'skull white' primer, but others are available.
5. When dry, give the fuselage and wing surfaces to be covered in decal sheet a thin coat of thinned white acrylic paint. I use Privateer Press P3. This stage is quite important. It provides a clean, smooth surface the decal can adhere to. The primer is matt and the decal won't stick properly resulting in shiny patches.
6. When dry, give the surface a final seal with a thin coat of 'Klear' floor polish, unthinned. Use a nice, big (no.6), sable brush so you don't get brush strokes.
7. Leave the parts to dry overnight.
8. Print out the decal sheet, following the instructions for the paper you have chosen. The sheet will be uploaded to this forum soon.
9. Seal the decal sheet, again following the instructions for the paper.
10. Cut the decal sheet into the shapes required. I just drew around the model. Make sure to leave a bit extra on the wings to wrap around the leading and trailing edges.
11. Apply the decals to the top of the lower wing and the bottom of the upper wing. I used a wet cotton bud as a roller to squeeze air bubbles out. On the Gotha the inboard sections of the lower wing are solid wood, so the decal sheet includes a portion of 'painted' lozenge to use here. The outboard sections are printed to represent chordwise strips of 5' wide fabric, as are the sections for both sides of the upper wing.
12. Once the decal is in place, leave it to dry for a few minutes then firmly press it with a sheet of damp kitchen roll. This will pick up all the detail from underneath.
13. When the decal is completely dry - ideally overnight - use Microscale Micro Sol to get any stubborn bits to stick, especially around the tips of the wings.
14. Give the whole decal a coat of Klear polish, or you'll find the colour coming off as you work on the rest of the model.
15. Apply more 'fabric' pattern decal to the tailplane, following the same process as the wings. I ran the pattern spanwise, as that's how it was done on smaller aircraft, but I'm not actually sure if the Gotha was done like that. I got carried away and cut the elevators from a different strip, but that's not really necessary.
16. The fuselage was wooden on the GV, and painted to match the fabric of the wings. Technically I suppose it would have been slightly different in colour, but frankly it was all getting a bit nerdy at this stage. I put a patch of random shapes on the decal sheet to use on the fuselage and fin / rudder. I did the top and sides of the fuselage separately. Don't worry about the pattern not lining up. You won't notice at this scale, and you can always paint in a few patches afterwards. The gun tunnel was a bit tricky, and I did have to tidy it up afterwards with paint.
17. By now you should have all of the aircraft covered except for the top of the upper wing and the bottom of the lower wing. This is a good time to tidy up any bits where the white is showing through, and paint then install the crew and engines. The engines face backwards. Leave the props off for now. I didn't and they got really bent as I fought the struts through the wings.
18. Now you can install the wings attaching the fuselage to the lower first, then the upper using either the supplied struts, or 1mm styrene rod as I did. The holes supplied by Skytrex are sometimes in the wrong place, so I redrilled by eye. I used superglue to assemble the model.
19. Paint the struts, carefully so you don't paint the lozenge pattern you just spent all weekend putting on. You can hold the model by the outer surfaces of the wings as they are still in primer at this stage. For some bizarre reason the struts and engine cowlings were green on night lozenge GVs. Not even khaki - more like British Racing Green. I used GW 'Dark Angels Green'.
20. Finally you can put the decal on the top and bottom wings. You could do the top in one long strip, but it's easier and more realistic to do the left and right sides separately. Because of the sweep of the wings, the fabric didn't run exactly parallel with the fuselage, but at right angles to the leading edge.
21. Glue the undercarriage and props on.
22. Paint the undercarriage. Green again, with quite pale tyres - natural rubber isn't black.
23. Tidy up any dodgy areas with paint, and paint on the windows and any other details. Apply cross decals from your favourite supplier then spray with a coat of your preferred matt varnish. Although freshly painted dope is quite shiny it looks weird on a model this small.
24. Try and figure out how to attach it to a base.
25. Give up, and use blu-tac until the Colonel sorts us out with some proper ones.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

A very full account. It's nice to know that my assembly methods are not all that similar to your own. Yes those props can be pesky. I'm afraid I cheated on the last plane and drilled down the center of the prop shaft, then slipped a brass pin through to give it more strength.
Rob.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

I would like to record my thanks to John for the P.D.F. file of Gotha Night Cammo.
It now just remains to be seen if I can handle anything that large as the gamesmistress said to the gardener.
Rob.

[Guntruck]

As a matter of interest John, what did you use as a fixative for your lozenge decals?

By the way, my sheet is being used on my Reviresco AEG - these Gothas are as common as muck

[Flying Officer Kyte]

As a matter of interest John, what did you use as a fixative for your lozenge decals?

By the way, my sheet is being used on my Reviresco AEG

Ditto. Well one sheet is anyway. Then it will be another Gotha.
Rob.

[Bedlam]

Sorry for the delay. I've moved offices and no longer have a computer in front of me all the time. Unfortunately that means I may actually have to do some work occasionally.

Anyhoo, I used Halfords clear acrylic lacquer as fixative, sprayed in three very light coats. The people who sell the paper also sell a spray, but I haven't tried it.

Once the decal is on, I protect it with Johnson's Klear floor polish until the whole job is finished, when I spray with matt varnish (GW Purity Seal or Humbrol matt). A quick search of ASDA last night reveals that Classic Klear in the see-through bottle is no longer available. The replacement is Pledge Klear Multi-surface wax. I bought some and will try it out when the missus' friend buggers off out of my hobby room. Sorry, the spare bedroom.

For models which get handled a lot, I have in the past applied a gloss varnish, and then used a cheap spray gun to apply thinned artist's soluble matt varnish over the top. This is very matt, and can be removed easily with turpentine when it gets dirty, leaving the clear gloss underneath ready for a fresh coat of matt.

[Volant Gun]

I'm really impressed!

[Guntruck]

I've moved offices and no longer have a computer in front of me all the time. Unfortunately that means I may actually have to do some work occasionally.

John, I think you can take your employer to a tribunal over that!

Thanks for laquer info, I'm off to Halfords tomorrow then. Been using Winsor & Newton's Artists fixative for pastels, charcoal and pencil which seems to work but dries matt. Your laquer seerms to give better coverage.

[tonyc206]

Thanks for the pdf John. It printed out absolutely fine on my HP Photosmart c309g. I hope to get around to trialing it soon but there are just so many things in my projects queue.

I guess that's why it's called a que.

Excellent piece of work John and I look forward to the day camo version

[Walt Powell]

Great looking paint job!

For those interested in investing in his amazing 'Lozenge Paint' consider my offering of a spool of shore line, or a box of grid squares, or for those in real need... a tin of frequency grease! All at a reasonable price. Place your orders soon, as the demand will certainly out pace the supply.

Don't forget the squelch powder, Brian.....for those off-frequency radios!

[Bedlam]

Just a quick update. The PDF file for the lozenge camo is now available to download in the files section, under "hobby".

Next on the list is 5 colour day lozenge and some sort of Staaken camo. Probably after the Christmas holiday.

[Guntruck]

Nice one! Thanks John.

[tonyc206]

Just a quick update. The PDF file for the lozenge camo is now available to download in the files section, under "hobby".

Next on the list is 5 colour day lozenge and some sort of Staaken camo. Probably after the Christmas holiday.

Cool stuff John. Looking forward to seeing the new stuff mate.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Just a quick update. The PDF file for the lozenge camo is now available to download in the files section, under "hobby".

Next on the list is 5 colour day lozenge and some sort of Staaken camo. Probably after the Christmas holiday.

We all owe you one or three. This will fill a very badly needed gap in our hobby.
Thanks in advance John.
Rob.

[MayorJim]

John,
Great job!

[Shiraz68]

Got myself a trio of German bombers for Christmas & remembered reading about the hex camo scheme that John had spent the time putting together. Great stuff & many thanks for sharing it with us all. Now to download the file & print off a few sheets.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

That just reminded me to download the day camo. Thanks again John. More street cred to you.
Rob.