Another great sheet for the Eduard Albatros kit. This one will be a pleasure to many WWI modelers. WWI aircraft have always been colorful, but finding good quality decals has been a pain in the past. Lifelike has helped fix that with their latest two sheets.

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, like 48-039 Albatros Part 1, has a sheet of the major propeller types used on German fighters in WWI. This is a very valuable asset and shows the difference to the props and the manufacturers.

The decals are designed specifically to fit the Eduard kit and its shape. There are three sheets of decals. The larger sheet has light blue, white, grey, and black markings. The biggest thrill on this sheet is the Bavarian checkers. This sheet is printed by Microscale, so just use their products and you should have no problems whatsoever. The second sheet is printed in Japan and is slightly smaller, with the other colors and personal markings. There is a third sheet which is a correction sheet for the flag on the one aircraft. This shows the level of dedication that Lifelike puts into the decals they put out.

The first aircraft is a D.Va which features wood grain front fuselage, and the whole aft section sports the white and blue checkers of the Bavarian flag. The wings are grey-green and purple with light blue undersides. A coat of arms of Wurzburg is on both sides of the fuselage.

The Albatros D.V of Lt. d.R Josef Veltjens of Jasta 18 is plainly colorful. Its fuselage is blue from forward of the cockpit to the tail. The nose area is red and the lower portion is light blue. The upper wings are typical green-grey and purple with light blue lower surfaces. A very stylized arrow is displayed on both sides of the fuselage.

Black and red always look good on an aircraft. The third Albatros’ fuselage is mostly black with a red engine cowling area. The side has painted German flags on both sides. There is an errata sheet included with the decals as the flags were not opaque enough. Again, this shows the level of professionalism that Lifelike exhibits in all their releases. The wings are the standard grey-green and purple with light blue undersides.

The final aircraft is a D.III of Werner Voss. The fuselage is mostly wood grain finish with a white tail and hearts around the fuselage and a green wreath. The upper wing has light brown and grey-green camouflage pattern. It is a very nice looking aircraft of a historically significant pilot.

Colorful, quality decals and full color instructions. There is not a whole lot more you can do to make these decals any better.

Highly recommended

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