Print Scale 1/72nd Lake Khasan and Khalikin-Gol VVS Decals By Matt Bittner

Some may remember the Russian Civil War Nieuport decal sheet I reviewed in August 2004. Well, Print Scale has sent his latest sheets, and while the rest will fall under a more "general" article, I want to point this one out in detail. Especially since VVS decals in any scale are extremely difficult to come by.

With this sheet you get enough markings to build 14 separate decal schemes. That is, this sheet gives you all of the decals for fourteen different VVS aircraft so you can build all 14 without any other decal needed. That is pretty impressive, especially since the "larger" decal companies tend to give you only enough decals to completely build one single scheme, usually leaving out the national markings for the rest. Not so with Print Scale's sheet 007-72.

All of the aircraft featured in this decal sheet took part in the "skirmishes" China and the Soviet Union had with Japan, some may say prior to the start of World War 2. These skirmishes took place around Lake Khasan and the Khalikin-Gol providence. The aircraft type catered to on this sheet are: six early-type Polikarpov I-16s, three Polikarpov I-153s, one Polikarpov I-15bis (I-152), two Tupolev SBs and one Tupolev TB-3. Decals are spot on, in register and well done.

I won't go into detail on the schemes available because of the two files I'm including. The instructions that come with the decals aren't very well reproduced and I have permission from the owner of Print Scale to include them with this review. Warning: the following linked images are large: Instruction Page 1 and Instruction Page 2.

For those interested in obtaining Print Scale decals, I have the following instructions from the owner, Alexander Chekhovsky. First, email him enquiring about the decals you want to purchase. Once everything is beneficial to both parties, he sends you the decals and you wire money into his Maestro credit card. For now this is the only way you can do business with Print Scale.

As I have already said, these are awesome decals in not only quality, but also what is covered. We see - unfortunately - very few VVS decals so whenever anything comes along it tends to be snatched up quickly. Do so, and you won't be dissappointed that you missed out on these well done decals.

My thanks to Print Scale for the review sample.