Luftwaffe Ground Attackers, Vol. 1, 1/48 Decal Sheet, EXITO Decals (ED48004)

The most popular trend among decal sheets designers & companies the last 25 years is to produce a set including four, five, six or more decal choices of the same subject. The modeller may (or may not) probably use one (or two) of them. More often than not the rest remain unused, archived in a file folder or dusty box, somewhere in the dark workbench shelves. Like a stock of tens or hundreds of model kits, all these decals are never going to be used in a lifetime. And most of us hate the fact that we spend a ton of money buying multiple decal choices, when in fact we only need one set (at a specific time for our particular subject).

Enter a different decal maker: Exito Decals - a new Polish company that is building a reputation for thorough research and high quality decal sheets, accompanied with large frameable artwork in each product they offer. Decals are packaged inside a transparent self-sealing nylon bag of A4 format.

We examine here "Luftwaffe Ground Attackers" Vol. 1 (ED48004), which covers three different Luftwaffe ground attack aircraft - a Junkers Ju 87D-3, a Henschel Hs 129 B-2 and Focke-Wulf Fw190 F-8. These are available in either 1/72 or 1/48 scale. The following is about the 1/48th scale set.

The set comprises an A4 cover sheet, plus three A4-sized glossy cardboard sheets in landscape formats. The front of each sheet features two large side views (color profiles) of one aircraft and a brief description (caption) at the bottom of the page. These are high-quality frameable artworks. The rear of each cardboard sheet offers upper plan view, scrap views, historical photos, additional notes, more colour profiles, references and directions for decal placement and camouflage colors (RLM, Mr.Hobby & AK Interactive Real Colors code numbers)

The very detailed and realistic illustrations are the work of Janusz Światłoń and we like very much that they include fine weathering touches and shadows, like a 3D effect!

The three subjects offered are:

• Junkers Ju 87 D-3, W.Nr. 100082 (Stkz. BP+DD), coded T6+HN of 5./StG. 2, Achtirskaya, USSR, early summer 1942.
• Henschel Hs 129 B-2, W.Nr. 0140405, coded <▲+H of 4.(Pz)/Sch.G. 1, USSR, summer 1943.
• Focke Wulf Fw 190 F-8, coded Winkel Dreieck, flown by Maj. Theodor Nordmann, Kommandeur of II./SG 3, Riga-Spilve, Latvia, August 1944.

Several maintenance stencils are supplied for the Hs 129. Swastikas for all three subjects are also included in both usual styles: full design provided (for countries with no relevant laws) and, alternatively, split into halves (for countries like Germany, where the importer/reseller must cut off the politically incorrect section of the decal sheet).

All Exito decals are printed by Cartograf of Italy, well known for their perfect registration and fine quality.

All in all, this is an excellent set of decals with three pieces of frameable artwork. The themed variety approach is very tempting to the modeller, as it is more likely to build one of each of these subjects, than six markings for the same subject. We also liked the general quality of the package and especially the three frameable artwork cardboard sheets. Note: Exito Decals do offer other sheets with multiple choices of the same subject, but these choices are limited to three, so the price is significantly lower among the competition.

Highly recommended! You can find and order it online here.