Blue Rider 1/72 LVG Decals

Reviewed by Tracy Hancock

Grzegorz Mazurowski’s review of the Ardpol LVG C.VI in last month’s issue of Internet Modeler had me digging through my decal stash for a sheet that I had put aside for the right moment…that moment may have come.

Back in 1995, Blue Rider released a set of post war civil decals for the LVG C.VI in both 1/48 and 1/72 and these sheets can still be found pretty easily. The decals come in a small re-sealable bag with the instructions printed on one side of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and provide two options.

The first is an LVG used by SNETA, the forerunner of the Belgian national carrier SABENA, and is a German machine received as part of Belgium's reparations after the war. The upper and lower surfaces of the wings and tail plane are still covered in the relevant five-color lozenge fabric and the wings and fuselage retain the late war balkenkreuz, with the fuselage crosses being partially covered. The fuselage is varnished plywood and the cowl and struts are listed as being natural metal, but I would be more inclined to think these were painted light grey which seemed to be standard LVG practice; some detective work is required here to be certain. The wheel covers and armament have been removed and the gun trough on the forward fuselage faired over; the rudder is finished in an unknown dark color.

Fuselage and wing registrations are carried in a white field on the airframe and also on the decal sheet, with the lower wing registration underlined and carried only on the port wing covering the provided balkenkreuz. This seems unusual to me, with most aircraft of the period splitting the registration to cover a portion of both lower wings, but I have no reference to prove the contrary so will go with Blue Rider here. The tops and bottoms of the tail plane and the rudder all carry an "O" as well, making for a very attractive and busy airframe.

The second option is for a Deutsche Luft-Reederei (DLR) machine used in the years 1919-1920 before the company evolved into Luft Hansa. The wings, tail plane, and fuselage are shown finished as the above machine, with the relevant five-color lozenge and varnished plywood and the instructions again call for the cowling and struts to be natural metal; the same cautions regarding cowling and strut color would apply here. As for the fuselage color; John Stroud, in his excellent “Wings of Peace” article on DLR states that the fuselages of some of these machines appear to be painted, he believes, red and I have also seen period postcards where the fuselage is painted a dark blue, a slippery slope indeed!
Late war balkenkreuz also adorn the wings and fuselage and the observer's cockpit opening has been enlarged to fit two passengers. The armament has been removed and faired over and the rudder is listed as being finished in clear doped linen, but is more likely painted white (again, see John Stroud’s DLR article). The most distinctive feature of the DLR machine is the colorful logo consisting of the black, white and red Weimar Republic flag with a superimposed postal horn carried on the fuselage sides along with the stylized letters “DLR" and the fleet number "30".

The decals themselves are printed quite well and the white seems nice and opaque, with the carrier film being a bit thick, but very clear.

The main references listed are Aviation News Vol. 8 No. 11, 1979 and the LVG C.VI Datafile from Albatros Publications. Those interested in learning more about Deutsche Luft-Reederei (literally German Air Freight) see John Stroud's excellent article in the March 1989 issue of Aeroplane Monthly.

With these decals, the Pegasus, Blue Max, and now Ardpol kits, some lozenge, and Bucky Sheftall’s amazing build shown on his page in the Gallery section of the World War I Modeling Page of the World War I Mailing List you should have all you need to create an unusual two-seater.