Few aircraft have served in as many roles as the Focke Wulf 190, the famous Butcherbird. the charismatic German WWII superfighter. Intended as a Bf-109 replacement, the 190 served alongside it till the very last day of the war.

Nearly every company that has done a model of WWII aircraft has a FW-190 in its catalog. As is customary decal variants are between 1 and 4, and most feature aircraft of certain ace pilot – e.g. Josef Priller or Hans-Ulrich Rudel. This sheet is no different, and it does feature TWO options for Priller’s mount, but it’s got a few more tricks up its sleeve.

The Italian company generously supplies markings for 24 DIFFERENT aircraft from A-2 and up to A-8 inclusive. You can actually mix and match with your stock (or other) sheet and get nearly any aircraft. Aside from the marking options for 15 (!) different units you get

– 24 balkenkreuze (straight-arm crosses), or 4 complete aircraft,

– 12 of the always useful hakenkreuze (“hooked cross”) for the tail (which most companies conveniently skip) to fit 6 aircraft,

– complete stenciling for 2 (two) aircraft,

– 8 (!) different types of spinner spiral.

Hidden amongst the spirals is the lettering “Printed by Cartograf”, which translates as “really high quality decal” 😉

The following machines are featured on the sheet:

1. FW-190 A-8, blue 8, Lt. Schneider, Staffelkapitan 9/JG5, May 1945.

2. FW-190 A-4, yellow 4, Hauptmann Schnell, Staffelkapitan 9/JG2, February 1943.

3. FW-190 A-2, black double chevron, Hauptmann Josef Priller, Stab 3/JG26, June 1942.

4. FW-190 A-8, black 13, Oberstlt Josef Priller, Stab/JG26, June 1944.

5. FW-190 A-6, black double chevron, Major Anton Hackl, kommandeur 3/JG11, April 1944.

6. FW-190 A-4, black chevron and a bar, Lt. Von Burath, 1/JG1, spring 1943.

7. FW-190 A-5, white 12, 1/JG1, 1943.

8. FW-190 A-4, white 10, feldwebel Husser, 1/JG1, spring 1943.

9. FW-190 A-4, white 8, 1/JG1, spring 1943.

10. FW-190 A-2, white double chevron, hauptmann Hans Hahn , stab 3/JG3, spring 1942.

11. FW-190 A-2, red and yellow snake, hauptmann Hans Hahn , stab 3/JG2, spring 1942.

12. FW-190 A-6, white 2, feldwebel Vivroux, Sturmstaffel 1, winter 1944.

13. FW-190 A-8, black 10, 2/JG11, 1945.

14. FW-190 A-7, red 13, major Heinz Bar, 2/JG1, 1945.

15. FW-190 A-8/R8, white 11, gefreiter Wagner, 5/JG4, Operation Bodenplatte.

16. FW-190 A-8, blue 4, lt. Rudi Linz, staffelkapitan 12/JG5, 1945.

17. FW-190 A-8, white 10, feldwebel Rudolf Artner, 9/JG5, May 1945.

18. FW-190 A-3, black 1, hauptmann Strakeljahn, 14 (jabo)/JG5, June 1943.

19. FW-190 A-8, black 11, lt. Heym, Stabstaffel JG 51, September 1944.

20. FW-190 A-5/U-12, black 13 (red outline), lt. Hondt, staffelkapitan 2/JG11, October 1943.

21. FW-190 A-6, white 7, major Bacsila, Sturmstaffel 1, January 1944.

22. FW-190 A-3, yellow 7, 9/JG1, spring 1943.

23. FW-190 A-4, yellow 12, unteroffizier Guthenke, 9/JG1, spring 1943.

24. FW-190 A-4, yellow 7, unteroffizier Guthenke, 3/JG11, spring 1943.

Below I will show you a few examples of how well the sheet is printed. The stenciling and unit and personal badges are virtually 100% legible, even the thinnest borders are in register, and the rudder victory markings are just incredible! The best part is there are several options that offer alternative decals for optional archive image interpretations – this concerns both numbers and unit insignia.

You’ve noticed that there are some oddly-colored numbers in the sheet; their purple color is better suited to Gundams rather than FW-190s. Skymodels has taken care of that with a smaller correction sheet, where numbers, lines and dots are printed in blue – see below.

There’s even more 🙂 Beyond all the profiles the booklet contains a standard painting guide for the 190’s color scheme with color callouts.

To make it even easier on you, the people in Skymodels have also printed a reference color chart to match the RLM nomenclature to FS numbers, as well as some of the more popular model paint brands – a touch I personally do appreciate.

In all – this is an excellent decal sheet, which will be put to good use on my FW-190s, Ta-152s and Bf-109s.