James H

I'll be sending these onto Jeroen for his kit. I'm sure he'll be as thrilled with them as I was to receive and review them.

Soon Padawan.....

....piece of piss! Uschi decal? Soft pencil demarcation and strips made up from a combination of Knotless rich and pale decal.

Apart from the canopy, the whole airframe is now decaled! The wingtips, and even that pesky nose ring. Yes, it is enough!

I've used both, and Mr Mark Setter does seem a little more suited to the job for moulding things. I think this proved it. I no longer have Microsol to check though.

I was seriously worried about decaling the wingtips and tail tips etc. Some high octane compound curves there, BUT, I tried tonight and with Mr Mark Setter, and Uschi's decals mould like clay around them. Took me about 20 minutes to do the upper sides. I'll leave to set, then go for gold with the under sides.

More wood than a Ron Jeremy film here.

Awesome! THIS I like very much. I'll try to sort you with the extra info you need. There's something about these sort of builds which is real appealing.

1:32 Sopwith Snipe Post-War RAF Pheon Decals Catalogue # 32043 Available from Pheon Decals for £15.00 Pheon Decals, whilst not a new name on the scene, certainly are new with regards to their products appearing on Scale Plastic & Rail/Large Scale Modeller. For Pheon's debut here, they have sent two sets from their new 1:32 releases, and today we publish the first of these, concerning the Wingnut Wings Sopwith Snipe 'Late' release, which we reviewed here. I'd heard some great things about Pheon, and indeed seen a number of models finished with their decals, so I was quite excited to see the decal quality and presentation that has now become synonymous with their releases, for myself. There's no doubt that this slightly larger than A4 size ziplock wallet is quite hefty with content, unlike most 1:32 decal releases, so without any further ado, let's take a look inside and see what you get for your money. This Sopwith Snipe Post-War RAF set has options for no less than ELEVEN schemes; all of which are based on the classic post-war silver dope finish. If the usual post-war chequer-board schemes are a little run of the mill for you, but you still want your model to have that attractive doped aluminium appearance, then Pheon have researched and presented some both varied and unusual options which are undoubtedly going to appeal to silver wing fans. Before I open this set, Pheon has attached a note to the package which states that a serial number for one of the schemes has been inadvertently omitted from the sheet, but will be forwarded on to the customer as soon as they arrive back from the printers. We'll certainly not let that spoil our enjoyment here, as we see exactly what's on offer. A colour-printed A4 insert is used as the cover sheet for this set, with all eleven profiles being printed in small scale for quick reference. Inside the package, a further THREE sheets present these profiles, but printed in a larger scale, and in full colour on high grade, glossy photographic quality paper. This is something I have never seen before, and I have definitely not seen profiles produced to this standard, with perhaps the exception of the Ronny Bar profiles which accompany the Wingnut Wings decal sets. Along with the port side profiles, a number of wing plans are given which aid the positions of various bars and panels, as well as any other decal placement. The profile sheets have no notation on them which refer to either decal number identification or machine history. With this set, decal numbering isn't used as it's pretty obvious where the individual decals need to be placed, and the profiles are to such as high standard that you can easily follow panel and wing rib locations to ensure that you place your decal precisely. As for the machine histories and reference material, here I find something else which I have never seen outside of Pheon Decals, namely an instruction manual totaling 12 pages! This is printed on regular A4 paper, folded into an A5 format. The first three pages relate to the history of the Sopwith Snipe, through its development and wartime service. Reference to the failed Dragonfly radial engine which caused a number purpose designed aircraft projects to be shelved, is mentioned. The stop-gap Snipe saw service beyond its intended life, and into the post-war period. Pheon have thoughtfully included an extensive list of the reference material they have used for the development of this decal set, with acknowledgements too. It seems Rowan wants to see a WNW Gloster Grebe. I have to concur that that would certainly be a welcome addition. Hopefully Richard Alexander is reading this, or indeed the Pheon booklet. Each numbered scheme has some notation printed too, including colour and marking information detail, and any other relevant notes, plus a little history. These aren't comprehensive histories of the machine by plane and pilot, but serve as useful reference for the individual aircraft's markings. Accompanying this section are a number of colour walkaround images and also some period images of the Snipe. A couple of colour Grebe profiles are thrown in for good measure too, just in case Richard is indeed looking in. There is a little notation included for the rationale behind printing the cockade centers' as separate decals, as well as general information on applying the decals. Setting solutions aren't recommended, but MicroSol Blue is suggested in order to allow the decal to float properly until it is finally positioned. The schemes included in this release are: E6655, "B" Flight, 1 Sqn, Hinaidi, Iraq, 1925. P/O Dermot Boyle E6942, "A" Flight, No.3(F) Sqn, RAF Manston, 1924 F2441, 111 Sqn, Duxford, 1924 F2408, 23 Sqn, Henlow 1925/6 E6268, 32 Sqn, Kenley, 1924 F2527, 111 Sqn, "A" Flight Commander, Duxford, 1924 E7538, 19 Sqn, Duxford, December, 1924 E8358 "Bonzo", No.1 School of Technical Training (No.1 SofTT), RAF Halton, 1923 E7528, 25(F) Sqn, San Stefano, Constantinople during the Chanak Crisis, September, 1922 E6825, 41 Sqn, Northolt, 1923 E7423, 25(F) Sqn, Hawkinge, 1923/4 The decals A single sheet of decals are included, roughly A4 in size. Printed by Fantasy Printshop, the sheet includes the majority of national markings (both individual and as part of fuselage décor), serials and personal machine markings for 'Bonzo'. Fuselage tail bands are included as well as vertical fin markings for E6268. You will of course need to use a number of standard decals from the Wingnut Wings sheet, to complement those on this release. Where there are similar decals for both port and starboard, these 'handed' decals are signified by a 'L and 'Rt' symbol (left and right). The various decals are tightly packed onto this sheet, with only the serial numbers being given an identifying number for the machine, and included within their own print box. The decals are superbly printed, beautifully thin, and with minimal carrier film. Having used decal setting solutions with Fantasy Printshop products, I can concur that MicroSol Blue does work very well on them. If you do plan to use any other solutions, use a test decal on some scrap plastic first. Registration is perfect and the inked edges are sharp. Conclusion It is true that you really have to look around to find silver-doped schemes that have some individuality to them, but I think this is just what Pheon have succeeded in doing here with this superb array of 11 varied machines. There are probably two or three of these that I would like to build myself, and combined with the informative instruction booklet and excellent glossy colour profiles, this seems more of a complete package than I would otherwise expect to see. As I said, this is a first time for me looking at Pheon Decals, and now I know exactly what I've been missing. Very highly recommended James H Our sincere thanks to Pheon Decals for the review sample used here. To purchase directly, click THIS link. (Note, website will be fully active soon, so please contact Pheon via the details on their site)

Holy crap! This is modelling nirvana for me. Seriously, many thanks for sharing these here. Many thumbs up!

That looks just amazing. The best images I've seen of this so far, and that PC10 looks superb. I give you ONE WEEK to rig this, seriously

Gotta do those wingtips yet

I've been decaling all weekend. There is a pile of used decal paper which is mountainous, right next to the rows of empty drink cans that have sustained me. Here are the results of the work so far, just before I started to add wood nail decals.... I've also used dual layers of wood grain decal on the control surfaces to create a distinction. Not particularly authentic, but serves the purpose of this project.

Thanks for this one Nick. I work in a science-based job and use Sodium Hydroxide all the time (caustic soda), and I never thought of using it to strip paintwork. Your effort seems to show it works totally. Very impressive. I think I'll use this method in future. Remember....try not to get this stuff in your eyes as the alkaline properties will attack the eye's chemistry quite badly.

Great possibilities for static and flying models.

Nick, Thanks for posting this. It's invaluable. I'll try to copy this later this year as it will come in very useful. Got to be the best instructional I've seen for this yet.

What a great subject, and in 1:32! Do you have any CAD to show us too? Thanks for sharing Petr.

Adorning this with wooden plumes is certainly plenty of work these days, but well worth the effort! There might seem like lots of panels to create, but equivalent, I reckon I can get from a single sheet or so for the fuselage. Yes, it is enough. I'll pour a little Yamazaki whiskey this weekend and do the business!

Two updates in a number of days? Not like me! Ok, I know Uschi says that if you lower the tack on masking tape, then you can take a tape profile of the panel you are decaling, then transfer direct to the decal. My experiences have been poor of that as I tend to lift the decal from the sheet. My way of doing this, which is a little more time intensive, is to mark out the panel on the model, using making tape, then I peel this off and stick to very thin card. A good quality cereal box is what I use. I then take the card template, place it on the decal sheet and trace around it with a fresh scalpel. This is a test piece I did for the Natter. I actually removed/destroyed this afterwards as my intention is to produce all panels as decal parts before I apply them in one session. The reason for that is that I don't want to risk lifting any parts that are stuck down. That would make a serious mess. Anyway......here you go.

No Tamiya paint here....just Gunze, and all shades are already gloss, ready for decaling tonight

It's been a while since I updated here, but you know what it's like. Too much time with much laughter, and enjoying life with fantastic friends Anyway, I've been preparing the Natter for its false plumes by following Uschi's pre-decal paint regime, and despite it taking a day with each of the layers, it's now finally ready to receive the decals. With the fuselage finally buttoned up, I replaced any lost panel line detail with my Mr Hobby scriber and infinite lengths of Dymo Tape. The kit itself didn't have anywhere near enough panel lines to represent the number of wooden panels that the Natter had. Under the regular paintwork, there were far more panels, many of where puttied. All timber was also glued and nailed. I intend to add HGW wood nail decals after the Uschi wood grain decals are added. I removed the pips on the wing roots that aligned the wings to the fuselage. I drilled their positions instead with a drill bit that matched the holes I drilled in the fuselage wing root. This was the same diameter as a cocktail stick. I intended to use one of these for the wing spar. A little real timber to supplement the plastic. Next up, the various assemblies were airbrushed in Gunze 'Flesh' before being heavily pre-shaded in black. Next up was a coat of heavily diluted Flesh. This was to help balance out the base coat and pre-shade. After leaving for 24hrs to dry, Gunze Radome was used to highlight the panel centres, before a balancing coat of heavily thinned Radome helped to balance things out again. If that wasn't enough, Radome was then mixed 50:50 with white, before the same process was repeated. To break things up a little, a few panels were lightly shaded with the original Flesh, again, heavily thinned. I will be using both a mix of pale and rich wood grain decal, but those Flesh tinted panels will help to break things up further. It looks like shit at the moment, but I promise it will come good. I did a couple of decal tests to see how it looked

...you sends yer sample, you gets yer banner I'm starting to use these on the Natter tomorrow evening

Nice review! I might not like NMF, but I quite like the machines with a mix of olive and NMF. I could go for that.

1:32 Four Colour Upper/Lower Lozenge Decal with rib tapes Old Propeller Catalogue number: see article Available from Arrow Wolf Models for £9.99 per set We've written a number of articles recently which relate to the increasingly popular genre of WW1 aviation modeling. Whether it be kits from Wingnut Wings or Eduard, aftermarket detail sets from HGW, or indeed the fabulous spoked wheels we recently looked at. Whilst HGW themselves have produced their own lozenge decal sheets, until now, they were really the only game in town for 1:32, with the exception of the decals already supplied in the Wingnut Wings kits. Very shortly, we'll have a whole range of new releases from Aviattic, but in the meanwhile, we thought it would be useful to introduce these rather excellent lozenge decal sheets from Czech company, Old Propeller. Under their 'Wood & Wire – Fabric Lozenge series', we have these initial two releases which we think you'll be seriously impressed with. D32004, 4 colour upper Lozenge with rib tapes, 1:32, £9.99 D32005, 4 colour lower Lozenge with rib tapes, 1:32, £9.99 Both of these decal sets are presented in a large, re-sealable clear wallet with a product hanger topmost. Each set contains two sheets of decals, A4 in size. The actual lozenge sheet has four lengths of lozenge, 250mm long, and at a pre-determined scale width, whilst the second sheet contains a multitude of rib tape decal in both salmon pink and powder blue colours. This is noticeably more vivid than the actual lozenge decal, which creates an outstanding effect as seen in these images of a Wingnut Wings Albatros D.V, built by Darren Newport (Coolbox) on the Large Scale Modeller forums. The first thing that strikes you when you see the lozenge is just how ultra-realistic it looks. The real thing was printed onto Irish linen, and of course you would still see some of the warp and weft of the fabric, irrespective of the inks used to colour it. This is what Old Propeller have tried to create here, and in my eye, they've nailed it. Of course, this is another one of those things which some will argue against and say that the fabric weave wasn't really noticeable, so at 1:32, it should be almost, if not completely invisible. I suppose it's like the panel line argument all over. If you've seen the lozenge decal which is supplied with Wingnut Wings kits, you'll certainly be struck as to just how different this approach looks. It makes the WNW decals look quite radioactive in their colour intensity and solidity. Remember that the WNW decals are printed as solid colour lozenge with no fabric representation. I have seen modellers work absolute wonders with the kit stock decals, as Jeroen Veen did with the Fokker D.VII which was/is to be published in Tamiya Model magazine. Jeroen toned down his decals with oils to fade things out and make it look more organic. These decal sheets are FOUR colour lozenge, whereas WNW supply FIVE colour, but I have tried to show you the difference in approach between the two types of decal. For the Albatros that Darren built using Old Propeller decals, he used carbon to gently tone the fabric adjacent to the rib tapes, then he used a fixative spray to set everything in place. Combined with the actual fabric appearance of the decal, the effect really does look like fabric stretched and tightened between ribs. Quite outstanding. The printing of the lozenge is also of the very highest standard, with beautifully reproduced colour across the strip. The accompanying sheet states that there was a slight over-printing of colours on the real thing, and they have indeed represented this on these sheets. Whilst subtle, I can indeed see that effect. I think something is slightly lost in translation on the instruction sheet, but from what I can gather, the lozenge is produced on a high grade laser printer, whilst the rib tapes are produced in the traditional way using silk-screen methods. It would certainly appear to be so as the tapes have a thickness to them over the top of the carrier film, whereas the lozenge doesn't. The instructions also suggest you lay a coat of Mr Surfacer 1000 over the wing/fuselage to be decaled, and polish. Of course, this is standard practice, but it also mentions pre-shading around the 'ports'. I presume from this, it actually means 'ribs'. If that pre-shade can be seen, it of course means there is at least a slight translucency in the decals, so be careful about whether you use grey or white primer. Try a test piece first. An 'installing lotion' is mentioned, but of course, this is a decal setting solution. It does say only to use on the underside of the decals, presumably to protect the laser inks. No filters are required either, as this may impair the visual aspect of the fabric texture. Conclusion These decal sets are stunning, and I hope to be able to bring you further products from this exciting company. I've already decided to strip the Pfalz D.IIIa wings and use the correct Old Propeller equivalent sets. I'll keep you updated on that. In the meanwhile, seriously consider giving this product a try. You can see the results for yourself. Very highly recommended James H. Review samples courtesy of Arrow Wolf Models. To purchase directly, click THIS link.

Wood Grain Decals Uschi van der Rosten Catalogue and price: See article inventory Available from Uschi van der Rosten and Arrow-Wolf Models It's been a while since we featured Uschi van der Rosten's original wood grain decal here on SP&R, and I remember it being a product which was released at the perfect time with regard to an explosion of World War 1 modelling. Many things must still surely put modellers off trying this genre. Two of the main ones that come to mind are rigging, and of course depicting the various timber panels and boards that these early birds had. Of course, it's not just WW1 modelling that benefited from Uschi's wood grain decals, but it also laid the way wide open to many different uses, from dioramas, to civilian vehicles, and also to some rather nice 'bare bones' studies of military aircraft in their bare wood and metal forms. Uschi's decals are unusual in that they still require a number of basic model painting skills to use properly. This of course applies to the sets which we have here now too, and we will come onto that shortly. For a reminder of just what can be achieved with wood grain decal, here is the fuselage of my Wingnut Wings LVG C.VI that I built a couple of years ago. This was completed with a single sheet of the Rich decal. You might think that you need more than one set for these larger 1:32 birds, but it is enough. I didn't get these new sets of decals in the conventional way, i.e. through the post, with an accompanying email/letter. Instead, I arranged to meet Alex and his wonderful wife in Munich, where we arranged a nice evening meal. Some superb German wine and Weissbier flowed. A much welcomed break with fantastic friends. Accompanied by my wife, we spent a few hours chatting away and Alex explained his ideas to me as he always does. He also brought with him the F-86 Sabre droptank that he'd been using to promote his latest wood veneer decals. Now that was seriously impressive. At the meeting, Alex provided me with the following decal sets: WGP-1, (1:48,1:32,1:32), 'Bright Planking, coarse/fine, 14,99 € WGP-2, (1:48,1:32,1:32), 'Dark Planking, coarse/fine, 14,99 € WGSF-48C (1:72, 1:48, 1:32), Assorted Veneer, fine/medium/coarse, 14,99 € Go to this link to purchase. And to compliment this article, Grant of Arrow-Wolf Models has sent a sample of Uschi's knotless woodgrain decal: WGSF-48B, 'Knotless', Rich/pale, £14 Knotless The 'knotless' decal sheet is perhaps the first of this latest batch to have been released, and was developed in response to modellers who wished to create a realistic timber appearance, but without the multitude of knots that the previous releases had printed. This makes sense as some WW1 aircraft were indeed skinned with timber that was more uniform in appearance. An example of this is shown below on a reproduction Albatros D.III which is currently being flown from Munich's Flugwerft Oberschelissheim museum. It was with this machine in mind, and in multi-pitcorial form, that Uschi developed this particular set. The 'Knotless package', like all Uschi wood grain decal sets, contains TWO sheets of decal, measuring approximately 200mm x 120mm. One sheet contains a full printing of a knotless design in 'Rich' colour. The pattern is repetitive, and you will need to mix and match the various panels in order to break things up a little, but as you can see from the LVG whose decal was similar in execution, that is very simple to achieve. The second sheet contains a paler representation of the knotless approach, but importantly, it isn't the same pattern as the rich colour sheet, enabling the two to work organically together when used in conjunction. Planking We are perhaps beginning to see a woodgrain decal solution for diorama modellers with these two releases. It's highly unlikely that these decal sheets would be suitable for an actual aircraft, but they could be used for some aspects of vehicles, such as those flat back trucks used for both military and civilian purposes. Ship diorama modellers will also see a use too, as the planking pattern system on some of these sheets is very indicative of the patterns used on the decks of timber ships. There are two sheets in each set; light planking, fine/coarse, and dark planking, fine/coarse. One of the lighter sheets doesn't have any planking system employed except for single, long lengths run together consecutively. This is very useful in its own right, or even as something which could be cut up and reassembled in your own staggered planking format. The colours of the other sheets does tend to lend these decals to be used for diorama use, as stated, because the colour of the timbers is similar to what you may find on the floors of domestic dwellings. The package description states that the planking decals can be used for vehicles, as stated, aircraft, furniture, and also diorama items such as crates. What a cool idea! From that, you could look at duck-boards, timber beams, worktops, pallets etc. Never underestimate just what you can use these for! Veneer Simply, this decal set contains two sheets of fine-grain wood veneer decal. The first sheet is singularly printed with a beautifully fine veneer pattern, with a superb appearance, and a pattern which doesn't look at all bad with regard to repetition. For me, this is probably the nicest looking of Uschi's sheets, and this specific sheet will have 1000's of uses for the modeller. Uschi describes this appearance as that of 'birchwood' which is very typical of the WW1 aircraft fuselages that were left in bare timber and varnished. I don't think he's far off the mark there. I'll be using some of this in my current Bachem Ba 349 build on Large Scale Modeller, in which the finish will be left in bare timber and metal as a study of the aircraft's construction. The second sheet is split into 3 areas. These are fine, medium and coarse representations, although please understand that all of them are still rather fine in relation to regular timber, but instead show a different style of pattern, which when displayed alongside the regular main sheet decals, should look amazing. All of these decal sheets are superbly printed, with a pretty non-visible pixilation, unless you look very, very closely. That aspect is nothing at all to worry about, and won't affect the finish of your model. Having used Uschi decal before, I know that this grade of decal film does allow repositioning, even under setting solution, yet still works beautifully with those solutions. You will also find that the decals can be worked by finger into various compound curves, and can be made to cover just about any shape surface. The decals are also printed with a transparent backing. This means that you will need to apply various base colours and shading to your model before you apply the decal to this. This allows you to work with your own tones and highlights and if you mix and match things a little, you can get various impressions from the very same sheet of decal. The possibilities are endless, and I would suggest that you test these base colours and decal ensembles before you begin your project proper. Conclusion Wood grain decals are Uschi van der Rosten's signature product, and he sure knows how to deliver. The products are superbly researched and meticulously recreated before undergoing testing prior to release. You need to know that you cannot apply masking tape directly to the top of the decal sheet when you transfer the various panel shapes from your model to the sheet. You'll need to reduce the tack of this first, or you'll lift the decal from the sheet. When you've mastered the process of transferring shapes, you can, for example, decal a whole fuselage in a couple of hours. Practice makes perfect. This is a top notch product produced by a guy who actually cares about your results. I've tried the product, and I can vouch for it totally. Very highly recommended James H My thanks to Uschi van der Rosten and Arrow-Wolf Models for the review samples used here. To purchase directly, click the links in the review.