Aviattic | Roland D.VIa/b 5 Colour Lozenge Decals for Wingnut Wings Kits
Reviewed by Mike Swinburne
Aviattic has made a name for themselves in the last few years for producing a relatively unique decal product for modelers who want realistic-looking lozenge camouflage on the wings and fuselages of WWI German aircraft. These decal sets are printed on a clear background allowing for various preshading effects before application, and this in and of itself is not unique to the large scale model industry, however the Aviattic products go one step further and feature a fabric effect which add a layer of realism other companies currently do not offer.
In late 2014, Aviattic followed up their popular Fokker D.VII lozenge pattern decals with sixteen separate custom decal sheets for the Wingnut Wings Roland D.VIa and D.VIb kits. Like the D.VII decal options, there are sets available for 4-colour and 5-colour lozenge, available in "factory fresh" and "faded" effects, with linen or lozenge print for the rib tapes. One key benefit of these new sets is that you no longer have to lay down strip after strip of lozenge decal, carefully aligning it and then trimming it after it's set. Simply cut the piece from the sheet along the edge of the printed area and dip it in water. The carrier film is continuous so take your time to cut at the edge of the print and you shouldn't have to trim anything after the decal has set.
The sample provided to me from Aviattic is a 5-colour "factory fresh" lozenge decal with linen rib tapes. On the 1.5 decal sheets in this set, you get enough lozenge to fully cover both wings and all control surfaces. There are backups for some areas that are more prone to goofing up also, such as the rudder and elevators. At first glance, the colours are extremely bright on the decal sheet and certainly pop out; it's important to keep in mind that the original lozenge was also extremely bright and crews in the field often painted a brown varnish atop this to tone down the colours. Having used Aviattic lozenge decals before, I can attest to the fact that the colours do tone down a little over a pre-shaded surface, and you can also easily simulate a varnished surface by using a light tan in place of white as your base coat.
Visually, some may find the fabric effect to be too large for 1/32 scale, which may or may not technically be true to the naked eye, however when the decals are applied, the effect looks absolutely superb as you'll see in the photo I've included below of Aviattic decals on my Fokker. From photos of surviving lozenge fabric I've seen, the Aviattic colours appear to be the most accurate from all options on the market, which is another added plus. The physical quality of the decals is quite tough - they stand up to more abuse when applying than other aftermarket lozenge products that I have worked with, and for someone as clumsy as me, it's a very welcome feature! Very highly recommended.
Currently the Roland D.VI decals are available from Aviattic's newly relaunched website. Thank you to Richard at Aviattic for the review sample.
© Mike Swinburne 2015
This product is available from the following LSP sponsors
This review was published on Saturday, March 21 2015; Last modified on Monday, November 30 2015