For those of us who love nothing better than trying to figure out where all of those flying wires go to and how to attach them, New Zealand’s Wingnut Wings has been a blessing and the best thing that has happened to our hobby in many years. 1/32^ndscale is a fantastic scale for WWI aircraft, yet they don’t take up a lot of display room. The quality of the Wingnut Wings’ releases is still hard to digest, especially at their very reasonable price and free shipping, to boot. To complement their fantastic kits, they have now started releasing some equally stunning decals, all of which are printed in Italy by Cartograf. The registry is without fault; they are thin, and Wingnut Wings even recommends that a hair dryer be used to get their decals to conform to the model’s surface, instead of setting solutions. Amazingly, it works. Why, I don’t know, but there’s no cleanup afterwards.

If that introduction sounds familiar, it’s the same as on my review of Wingnut Wings’ lozenge and rib tape decals. Hot on the heels, or maybe even at the same time, they also released six new decal sheets for the Albatros D.V and D.Va. Kinda makes you think that must be a really popular aircraft. Two of their latest issues are “Wooden Wonders” and “Black Beauties” These sheets, too, are printed in Italy by Cartograf and are fantastically done. The “Wooden Wonders” offering contains five Albatros’. The instruction sheet is actually four pages, with detailed views of each of the aircraft, including upper and lower flying surfaces, showing the direction of the lozenge pattern application. There are also photos of the actual aircraft being depicted, which is kinda neat. The placement of the decals is unmistakable, due to the detailed views of each aircraft. This sheet contains Albatros D.V 1187/17 of Vfw Bansmer, Jasta 10; Albatros D.V 2122/17, Jasta 19; Albatros D.V 2284/17 of Hans Waldhausen, Jasta 37; Ernst Udet’s Albatros D.V 4476/17, Jasta 37; and Albatros D.V of Adolf Schreder, Jasta 17. As the name implies, these are all varnished wood fuselages, with personal markings. The Jasta 17 aircraft is particularly striking, with its black and white tail plane and a red lightning bolt that stretches from the stabilizer to just behind the prop.

“Black Beauties” contains five aircraft that are all painted black, with personal markings. Like “Wooden Wonders”, the four page instruction sheet gives detailed color drawings of each aircraft and photographs taken during WWI. Four of these aircraft are from Jasta 37, including another aircraft flown by Ernst Udet. This sheet, however, is all Albatros D.Va.’s. Even though their basic color is black, they are all unique aircraft. They are White 1 (Karl Haustein), White 7 and White 9, Udet’s mount, and a Jasta 62 aircraft of Max Nather. All but the last Albatross have a black and white striped stabilizer and elevator, and a separate, smaller sheet has the decals to apply for the stripes, so you don’t have to do any masking.

The quality of the kits that Wingnut Wings is producing is out of this world, and they are complimenting them with quality decals to match.

My sincere thanks to IPMS/USA and to Wingnut Wings for the privilege of reviewing these decals.