Lifelike Decals continues to produce some of the finest, most colorful decals out there. In this release they have turned their attention to the Eduard Albatros. There are four colorful aircraft depicted.

There are two decal sheets with this release. One decal sheet is printed by Microscale, so if you use their decal products you should have no problem. All the decals are printed in register with good color opacity. The other, slightly smaller sheet is printed in Japan and contains the gorgeous markings for the aircraft, such as the coat of arms.

The instructions are printed on two single-sided A4 sheets in full color. The one thing I like is that Lifelike isn’t afraid to offer an educated guess when some marking is in question. They let you know what is speculative and how they came to their conclusions, a very professional and non-pompous way to do business.

This particular release has a sheet of the major propeller types used by German fighters in WWI. This is very valuable asset and shows the difference to the props and the manufacturers.

The first subject is one of the most beautiful looking Albatros I’ve ever seen. Flown by Lt. d.R. Wolf of Jasta 5 in 1917, this D.V has the white and light blue checkers of Bavaria wrapped around the fuselage. This aircraft has very speculative markings, but they are based on fact. There is a grey band just aft of the cockpit with Lions and a coat of arms on both sides. Very nice. The spinner is red, with a little bit of the forward cowling in the same color. The tail is a beautiful green with red outine. The upper wings have the purple and grey-green on them while the lower have light blue. The decals themselves will ONLY fit the Eduard kit. They are indexed especially for this kit.

The next aircraft is a personal favorite of mine. This is a D.V of Lt. Ernst Udet When this aircraft was released as a Wingnut Wings kit, I wanted one really bad – but in my scale of choice, 1/48th. Well, now, thanks to Lifelike, I have it. Painted in overall silver/grey, this aircraft exhibits a square windshield with a cutout for a telescope, along with a large U under the wings. It would have been nice to include the leader streamers, but they are easy enough to make.

The next aircraft is a D.V flown by Vfw. Georg Strasser with Jasta 17. This aircraft has the plywood siding but a stylized white band behind the cockpit that reaches to the tail. The tail assembly itself is black. The red heart and wheels, along with the lozenge upper and lower wings, makes for a quite attractive aircraft.

The last aircraft on the sheet is an Albatros D.Va. flown by Lt. Wilhelm Gurke of Jasta 5. This one is nice, with overall red fuselage and green tail with red outline. The upper and lower wings have lozenge markings and large “G”s on the both lower wings. The fuselage also features a white star outline.

Lifelike continues to provide some colorful markings that other manufacturers are afraid to touch. Printed on high quality decals, well researched and with full color instructions, there isn’t much more that you can add to a decal sheet. Great job, Lifelike.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Lifelike for the review copy and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.