Decal Review - Vintage Eagle Publishing – Captured Eagles German WWII Aircraft Captured By the Allies in 1/48th and 1/32 scales

Vintage Eagle Publishing Have hit the ground running with their first publication “Vintage Eagle Publishing – Captured Eagles German WWII Aircraft Captured By the Allies Vol.I” and as well at the same time have brought out a decal set in both 1/48th and 1/32(yay!) scales to match this book release. Vintage have picked four of the best covered pictorially and at the same time a varied and interesting foursome of aircraft to cover in their first decal sheet release.

Product-Stock-No.: VE001D

Instruction Pages: 12

Instruction Language: English

Format: 210x148 mm

Decal schemes: 4

Decal scales 1/48 & 1/32

Decal sheet printed by Cartograf

Dry transfer decal sheet from Hobbydecal

Available from: Vintage Eagle Publishing’s website

1/32: €16.90 1/48:  €14.90

1/48^th set

And the dry transfers..

This decal sheet to match the aircraft profiles in the first publication by Vintage Eagle came in  a hard letter in the post I was pleasantly surprised – you can get yours in 1/32 and 1/48^th scale and come together in a package with the book or by themselves in both scale options. The decals of which we are talking about here (the review for the book is here) are printed by those industry bar-setters Cartograf from Italy and a nice surprise is that they are accompanied by the truly worthy inclusion of all of the stencil data which is supplied by Hobbydecal from Korea – this coupled with a twelve page instruction booklet make this great value – it’s not “cool” to talk about value in a review but I will – these are VERY good value! But is the quality matching the attractive price – let’s have a look.

1/32 set - It is the same it just  has bigger sheets!

“Each stencil and decal was meticulously researched and prepared specifically for these four aircraft.” 
Well if you read the review of the book I have just finished you would tend to agree with that statement from Vintage - The author Roger Gaemperle and his companions sure did their homework on this book and the decals were a natural fit – after all the hardest part of making great decals is the research – anyone who has this can go to Cartograf and get a set made up providing the artwork is good – well again they had an ace in the hole here as the profile artist from the book Simon Schatzto.

Before we go on to talk about the decals I will go into the rest of the package – the instruction booklet is an A5 sixe on glossy paper given the same attention to detail as Vintage eagle’s books – the four profiles are there for each aircraft – as are the top and bottom view of each aircraft on another page – I suppose it’s hard to show all four aspects of these aircraft as there may not be all angles and  with these maybe it was a space thing as well – I would like the other side of the profiles as well – this though is the only thing I can find that I do not like about this set. You can always buy the book as well for extra background reference and a larger profile view – but this is all a modeller needs really

The second part of this package (and one which I was pretty happy about the inclusion of) was the added Hobbydecal dry transfers for the stencil and data plates on the aircraft – these thing really are ace – a kid could use them (I did when I was a kid) and they leave no residual carrier film or deformity on the surface and cannot really go wrong. The 1/32 rub on transfers are laid out in a wider fashion whereas the 1/48^th are on a square sheet - the booklet shows you in a great little illustration and text how to do this if you hadn’t before – I learnt on my “Battlestar Galactica” book when I was 5 – so I don’t think anyone else will have problems - These things really are the best! 

See how they go on here to an old ME262 fuselage I have…

And held to the light so you can see how thin they are - just coat over with a varnish or future polish and done!

The excellent instructions leave you in no doubt as to where to put things..

Now for the decals – There are four choices – and these choices ( on 48^th and 32^nd I may remind you are….

He 162A-2, White 4, 1./JG 1, found at Leck  - The famous “White 4 ”  is well known to many but evidence in the supporting book provides proof of altered squadron markings – this decal sheet provides you with this.

Bf 109G-10, Yellow 7, 3./JG 27, recovered from Salzburg this fighter sports a quite large green defence of the Reich band at the rear - an “Erla” machine with the different canopy and cowling, this is an interesting choice.

Fw 190A-8, Red 3, 2./JG 301 This machine has the interesting sloping forward Defence of the Reich band in red and yellow. This machine had a “blown” canopy and the outboard MG 151’s removed when found so it’s performance as a “Jabo” (fighter-bomber) would improve.

Fw 190A-8, Yellow 7, 3./JG 2 This aircraft was recovered in Germany (somewhere) and had the same blown canopy and cannons removed as the other A8 here – this though had Yellow and white striped defence of the Reich bands applied and you can actually see this aircraft modelled in these very decals on Vintage Eagles site – they look great don’t they?

The decals are sensibly laid out with a few sensible features I would like to point out -  the Swastikas are on the end of the sheet so they can be easily cut off in those countries who do not permit them being portrayed – The instructions on the actual decal sheet themselves pointing out exactly which decals they are makes your job fool proof – this combined with the extensive placement instructions on the instruction sheet for the data plates as well as the decals  - you can see where Vintage Eagles creative, and organization skills have really helped here.

Helpful directions again on the decal sheet

Now I must say with these decals which are printed by Cartograf – well they are what you would expect really – Glossy in appearance on the paper – just the right thickness as to be tough but not too thick – are in register and the colours are all correct in hue and the whites do not look opaque – well looking isn’t enough for me -

- Let’s apply them ourselves and see if they actually work… First the decal held to the light to show the  low carrier film used and thinness of the decal

applied on to the test nose of my old scrap '262

The decals I used were from the 1/48^th sheet – they adhered even better than some of the other Cartograf sheets I have recently stuck to this test bird

Whites are strong and the decla adhered very well – I added some micro set/sol and 1 layer of future over the top and this is the result – top stuff!

Well I have to say this is a great package from start to finish – the fact the dry transfers were added – the peerless research from people who know how to examine a photo and the decals quality make this a perfect set – especially if you are after new decals for your  He 162 after  the revelations in the accompanying book -  if this is your subject area buy it - and the book – you will love it.

Captured Eagles Vol. 1 is available in three forms, priced as follows:

Captured Eagles Vol. 1- Book - Price: €24.90

Captured Eagles Vol. 1 - 1:48 Decals - Price €14.90

Captured Eagles Vol. 1 - 1:32 Decals - Price €16.90

Captured Eagles Vol. I - 1:48 Combo - Price €37.90

Captured Eagles Vol. I - 1:32 Combo - Price €39.90

Thanks to Vintage Eagle Publications for supplying us with this decal and book combo

Adam Norenberg