Wood and Wire 1:32 Lozenge, faded and overprinted, and Naval lozenge

[James H]

1:32 Lozenge, faded and overprinted, and Naval lozenge

Wood and Wire
Catalogue #: see article for #, links and price
Available from Nordland Models

 

 

We recently took a look at the Fokker D.VII lozenge sets from Old Propeller. These sets are what is described as cookie-cut, meaning the shapes are pre-printed, and just need removing from the decal sheet. If you want to approach your model in the traditional lozenge manner, and lay strips of decal instead of whole pieces, then this is the decal type you've been after.

The sets we're looking at today are:

• D32001, 5 colour upper lozenge with rib tapes (faded and overprint effect), £9.12
• D32002, 5 colour lower lozenge with rib tapes (faded and overprint effect), £9.12
• D32041, German Naval Lozenge (Brown version), £8.25

These Wood and Wire decal sets are packaged into a resilient clear, re-sealable wallet, and come with a sheet of stiffening card within, and a high quality colour instructions insert to the rear. The 4 and five colour lozenge sheets are NOT base-white, but instead are printed directly to the decal paper, without the while silk-screen inking layer. If you are ordering decals from Old Propeller, this is a highly important factor in your purchase. The base-white decals, having a solid white ink layer underneath the laser printed fabric, means that what you see on the decal sheet is actually what you get in terms of the applied look. From there, you will need to add any shading etc over the top of them. These transparent decals are a different animal.

 

D32001, 5 colour upper lozenge with rib tapes (faded and overprint effect), £9.12

 

 

With transparent decals, the laser printer(which cannot print white) has simply printed the fabric pattern to the decal paper. Beyond this pattern, everything else which you will see on your model, pre-decaling, will be seen through the decal itself. Transparent decals mean you need to thoroughly prepare your model for its eventual appearance, BEFORE you decal. This actually has many possibilities that base-white decals don't. After painting your model white, you may decide to add some shading to the wing rib areas, or the fabric edges in between the fuselage formers. You may also decide to add the oil and burnt castor stains to the model before you apply the decal.

 

 

When the decal is applied over these, these stains will appear more ingrained, organic and very natural. Of course, test your depth of pre-shade and pre-weathering on a scrap piece of plastic first, with a sample of the decal sheet.

 

D32002, 5 colour lower lozenge with rib tapes (faded and overprint effect), £9.12

 

 

Each of the lozenge sheets is printed with an exquisite fabric texture, which may or may not be slightly over-stated. Either way, there's no doubt that this looks like a woven and printed fabric cloth, so in that respect, it's mission complete. Compared to the Wingnut Wings lozenge decal, this makes the latter look very drab and monotone indeed. The actual finish too is that of an aged/faded fabric, where the colours have lost a little of their initial vibrancy, and the actual fabric effect is more clearly seen in this respect. The 'overprinted' effect referred to on the description relates to the way that some lozenge panels slightly overlap the next colour. This is exactly how the real fabric was, with the slight tolerances in the printing process causing this same effect. The effect is infinitesimally subtle, but can be seen in you stare for long enough!

 

 

Each A4 sheet is divided into 4 longwise strips of lozenge fabric, as you would see if unreeled from their spool (bolt). As these were slightly doubled at the joints, before stitching, you might want to check the width if you are a scale freak. You may or may not need to reduce the width by a millimeter either side to represent that surface loss.

 

Naval Lozenge

 

 

We revert back to base-white for this particular set, with the laser-printed decals being laid over a base of screen-printed white ink. This means that the finish you see on the decal sheet is exactly what you will see after decal application. The lozenge isn't the strange pattern used on standard Idflieg aircraft either, but instead is a more regular, slightly stretched hexagonal shape. The fabric weave seen on this is again excellent, and a little more understated than the regular lozenge sheets. The sheet is also printed as one solid 'mass' of lozenge, with feint horizontal bars which may or may not indicate the edge of that particular fabric roll. Check your reference as I'm not very clued up on Naval lozenge.

 

 

This set is also described as 'brown version'. This basically means that the colours used seem to have a brownish tint/filter applied to the standard colour. Again, I'm not certain if this is how the material was printed, or perhaps how it eventually looked after exposure to light/salt air etc. Either way, it does look quite superb.

 

Conclusion
I wanted to show you something from Old Propeller which was a little more generic for WW1 builder, and this was the result, with the exception of the Naval lozenge which is aimed at a fairly narrow market now. The possibilities with transparent decals are far greater than using base-white ones, but of course, need more discipline in preparation. The overall quality of these sets is everything that we now expect from this relatively new manufacturer, and I don't doubt we'll start to see more models on display stands, finished with this quite extraordinary product.

 

Highly recommended

 

Our sincere thanks to Old Propeller for the review samples used here. To purchase directly, click THIS link.

 

James H.

 

[Fran]

Another great review Jim.. Man just your new signature....