WWI Lozenge pattern German Camo - Why did it stop?

Musicman59 wrote the following:

I would guess that there were fewer German planes in WWI than there were in WWII, and those in WWII were sent into action as soon as possible. No time to lay out diagonal crisscrossing lines with absolute edges that had to be masked, when a spray gun in the hands of a professional painter could do a more realistic camo job in less time. Just my opinion.

...not to mention that the "age of chivalry" and finding/meeting the other guy in the air ended...it became more about killing the other guy and staying alive instead of advertising for a fight.

War machine aren't supposed to be "pretty"...they're supposed to kill.

yeah, I guess a red triplane did not really blend in....

Craig

My grandfather was a WWI vet, and was responsible for starting me getting into building models - particularly airplanes. The first kit I built on my own was a Revell Triplane...original issue.

From that I can remember grandpa saying, during WWI there was a certain element of aviators "advertising for a fight" and billboarding their airplanes because aviation was new. Part of the "glorious adventure of war". That quickly gave way to survival and destructive efficiency in/by WWII, and it's been the trend ever since.

...a "beautiful" fighter to me is overall ghost gray. And armed to the teeth.

willshak wrote in news:kYydnViqFbzgcQfWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@supernews.com:

Also mighta been that the lozenge camoflage was imprinted onto the fabric IIRC and not painted.

Frank

Well most of that lozenge pattern was directly on the fabric covering the aircraft so there was actually very little painting in the First War. That DID change in the Second, when aircraft were made primarily of metal and needed for be painted. Such a lozenge pattern would have been unnecessarily labor intensive.

The "Chivalry" period of the First war lasted about six months, about the time it took for aircraft to become armed, with only occasional incidents later on. Once a practical forward-firing machine gun was worked out and the aircraft became a mobile gun platform, the romantic period ended and the killing started in ernest. Von Richtofen wasn't chivalrous, he was a hunter and killed his prey like any deer hunter in autumn; so too did most of the others. About the only thing that remained chivalrous was the returning of personal effects under a flag of truce.

...true...but they still tended to "billboard" their aircraft with bright colors and such...even recruitment posters.

I've also heard the theory that nose art, bright colors and such act as a distraction to an adversary. If you can get your opponent to spend time gazing at that nekkid gal on your nose, maybe he won't shoot as straight, or make a mistake that will allow you to gain an advantage.

Maybe...maybe not...

A dozen or so March Madnesses back, there was a brief fad of fans holding up bikini posters behind the basket when the opposing team was trying to make a free throw. Seems to have dropped...

Rufus wrote in news:c8idnYLAApjkSgbWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@mchsi.com:

I think that things happened to quickly for any of that to really register. The whole idea of ID bands by different air forces was a reaction to the fact that even national markings may have been difficult to see. Supposedly one of the reasons we dropped the red ball in the white star in the blue circle for just white star in a blue circle is that some piltos mistook the red circle for a hinomaru. Considering that the Japanese meatball often covered a large part of the wing and that blue-grey Wildcats had considerably different profiles than any Japanese aircraft this seems incredible but apparently it happened. So I rather doubt a bathing beauty on the nose would even enter the consciousness of an attaking pilot, even were it clearly visible, which I suspect would only occur to someone taking a deflection shot from the side where it was painted. And even then focusing on the lead and getting rounds on target might take precedence.

I rather suspect the noseart was for the benefit of the pilot's, ground crew, etc morale more than anything else.

Didn't the one German ace in WWI have "Remember me?" or some such painted on the upper wing of his plane in large white block letters? I always thought that was kinda dumb 'cuz the only one seeing it would be the guy diving on him. From behind. Out off the sun. Seeing it might make the attacking pilot more bold, knowing who he was attacking.

Just my .02. And worth every penny.

Frank

Quite a few of them had their wife or girlfriend's name painted on them..."Lola", "Enola Gay", "Marge"...it's still "billboarding", for whatever reason. I suppose it's the logical extension of carrying her picture in our pocket...

We recently got a "CAG-art" jet back from PMI...now we have to get it ready for transfer, which means we have to literally sand all of our painted tail-art off the tails with die grinders as part of the transfer prep...what a PITA...

I remember in the Revell 1:72 Fokker D-VII that was done in Ernst Udet's colors, they had a decal of the words "Du Doch Nicht!" (You Shall Not! or in today's language, Don't even THINK about it!) for the upper wing. I used those on the Fokker and a secong set on an Airframe Siemens-Schuckert D.III that he flew in late 1918.

You mean, "Du doch nicht!" on the horizontal tail? Revell used to include those in the early Fokker D.VII kits. I once knew who that was but his name has slipped into the cracks in my mental filing system. Re: the red in US stars; I have heard that some Japanese sneakily painted white points on their hinomarus to simulate US insignia at a distance. For whatever reason, the Allies dropped red from every Allied insignia.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

si.com:

I'd argue if you're close enough to need national insignia , you're too close.

though the AF recognition manual from the 60s had them all. damn I wish I still had a copy of that. brown sort of plastic cover. most model catalogs have more details than it did. was a big deal at the time.

frank wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@b30g2000yqd.googlegroups.com:

By the same token, if you are close enough to clearly interpet nose art, you should probably be taking violent evasive action.