Lozenge camouflage aircraft fabric : 1914 - 1918 : GERMANY

Piece of 5 colour doped lozenge fabric from German aircraft approx. 380mm x 305 mm. The dope on the top surface is flaking off on the edges and where the piece had been folded. There remains stiching along a rib location. The thread crosses the rib at right angles. The rib tape has been removed.
The colours are difficult to objectively describe, as the individual threads within a square centimeter vary in colour from light to dark, and the addition of a doped layer adds a slightly gloss, milky dull appearance. Colours under the dope (where the dope has been lost) are quite saturated, and are observed to be:
1. Royal Blue, Possibly Munsell 2.5PB 4/6 but ranging to Munsell 5PB 4/4
2. Green/grey, Munsell 10G 4/2, Munsell 7.5G 4/2, but also Munsell 2.5B 4/2
3. Sandy yellow, Munsell 10YR 5/4
4. Mauve. Cloth under the dope is Munsell 10P 5/2 but possibly 7.5RP 4.5/2. The doped surface gives it a washed out apearance similar to Munsell 5RP 5/2
5. Light red/purple. Cloth under the dope is Munsell 2.5R 4/4, but possibly Munsell 5RP 4/4. The doped surface gives it a washed out apearance similar to Munsell 10RP 5/4

Towards the middle 1916, Germany started to adopt pre-printed colour fabric for their aircraft, making use of repeating patterns of coloured polygons. Modern researchers have termed the material 'lozenge fabric'. By April 1917 the new fabric was in general use and the Siemens Schuckert Werke was instructed in its use.

Two main schemes schemes appear to have been adopted: a daylight and a night scheme. The daylight scheme made use of a dark cloour pattern for upper surfaces and the sides of fuselages, and a light pattern, to be used on the lower surfaces of wings and the bottom of fuselages. Despite this, there were deviations. The Albatros D.Va in the AWM collection, for instance, had the lower wings covered with plain and lozenge fabric, the wings being then painted in the previous camouflage pattern for plain covered aircraft, while the under surface of the upper wing was covered in light coloured five colour lozenge fabric. The AWM’s Pfalz D.XII had the light coloured pattern fabric on both the top and bottom surfaces of the lower wings. Other captured aircraft are reported having similar use of the fabric.

Within the daylight scheme, there are two lozenge patterns known for pre-printed colour cloth: a four colour and a five colour pattern of polygons. Both patterns appear on the two original German aircraft in the AWM’s collection.

The five colour system contained 27 polygons that repeated laterally along the bolt of fabric. The four colour system used 21 polygons. Most of the polygons are hexagonal in shape but each pattern contains a four sided polygon and the edges of the bolt have small cut-off polygons.

The use of pre-printed fabric was introduced to reduce the use of dopes, both as a means of circumventing restrictions imposed by the Allied blockade, and to reduce the weight of doped wings.