Firstly, what I learnt about lozenges as a result of building the kit:
1. Lozenges were printed on fabric in strips of the same repeating pattern, which was then cut up and generally stitched together with the strips of fabric being alternately turned180 degrees so every other strip ran in the opposite direction to the first. This is explained much better than I am able to in this thread: https://archive.aeroscale.net/forums/87962/index.htm
2. The resulting fabric was then applied to the wings & tailplanes in a number of different ways; either 'chord-wise,' 'span-wise' or 'diagonal.' From what I have read, the great majority of fabrics were applied chordwise, although 2-seater aircraft also had diagonally applied lozenge fabric to the wings. However, whilst I found quite a few references to other 2-seat aircraft adopting the diagonal pattern, I found nothing that indicated that the Hannover was lozenged with this 45 degree pattern, which could be either all running in the same direction or in opposite directions either side of the central section of the upper wing. Although my understanding is that lozenge fabric was rarely applied span-wise on the wings, ailerons and elevators were always applied in this way. Although a number of sources repeat this information, the best illustration I could find for this was the Aeromaster Decals instructions available online, which I've pasted below:
3. NB: When used on fuselage, lozenges were applied span-wise.
4. I understand from the reading I've done that the doped lozenge fabric had a gloss finish when it left the factory.
5. Rib tape in a light blue, light pink or light grey was applied over the ribs on upper and lower surfaces and to the leading edge of wings. It was rarely applied to the trailing edges. However, my googling also turned up the fact that the Hannovers were taped using cut-up strips of the same lozenge material and for that reason, at 1/72 scale, I have not picked out the tapes on this build as it would have ended up looking a mess.
There is further very useful information on the Wingnut Wings instruction sheets that can be found online.
Secondly, although I add some more details below, the process of painting & decalling lozenges - or my experience of it - is recorded in my Hannover build thread, here: https://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=19& ... d6250e25a2
Because the fuselage and upper wing centre section lozenges on the real world Hannover were painted directly onto the aircraft in an irregular pattern, there don't seem to be any after-market lozenge decals in 1/72, so I had to paint them. As mentioned above, the process is detailed in the build thread but in summary I printed the lozenge scheme from the instructions to scale, laid & secured them over some Tamiya masking tape I had stuck down to a cleaned & dried cutting board and then carefully cut through the images and the tape to create little masks for each lozenge colour. I cut each colour out only when I needed to apply the masks - I didn't cut them all out together because you need to be able to visualise what you've already masked and what is yet to come. I did one colour per night for 5 nights - it is a time consuming process that requires a lot of patience and you just need to accept that it won't be a quick paint job but I find the end result to be very satisfying.
For the wing lozenges I used Techmod decals for upper & lower surfaces. For the reason noted above, I decided to apply the decals chord-wise. Similarly, as noted above, I did not apply contrasting rib tape as there didn't seem to be any need to. You'll also notice from the build thread that because the ribs on the wings did not match up with the decal 'fabric' widths , I abandoned the idea of alternating directions for the lozenge pattern - again because it was starting to look a mess and I had a get-out in that occasionally the lozenges were applied in this way in the real world.
As for the decals themselves, the ones for the lower surfaces went on beautifully but the ones for the upper surfaces were more brittle and required a lot of patching with tiny bits of decal after the event. A lot of decal softener is required, particularly at the edges.
Three important tips are as follows:
1. Ensure that the fabric direction lines up with the ribs on the wings. This means that depending on the aircraft and the angle of its wings, you might have to cut the decal from the sheet at a slight angle, not perpendicular to the pattern.
2. Decal undersides first and oversize them to wrap around onto the upper surfaces. Then, cut the upper surface decals so they are slightly oversized so that you can bring them down and burnish them off at the halfway point of the leading & trailing edges for a neat finish. Again - a LOT of decal softener is required for this task to ensure adhesion and prevent fracturing. I had gloss coated the surfaces prior to applying the decals but it didn't seem to help that much.
3. Even more patience is required for this than for the masking and painting so be prepared for some frustration!
I think that's everything but if I remember anything else I'll add it in additional posts below.
I hope this is useful for anyone with a 1/72 Hannover or similar kit in the stash because it took me nearly 10 years to build up the courage to attempt mine!
