Fündekals
Initial Decal Releases

Fündekals, Various Scales

Reviewed by Brad Fallen

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Fündekals is a new company that released its first decals in April this year.  Its aim is to provide modelers with accurate decals on popular subjects, in popular scales and at a reasonable price.  There’s nothing remarkable about wanting to do this – but how Fündekals is trying to achieve it is paving the way for how most decal companies may one day do business.

Fündekals is the brainchild of Jennings Heilig and Jonathan Strickland – both of whom, as the company website notes, have “been around the hobby biz for a long time”.  Certainly, you don’t have to look far on the Internet to find some great examples of their work.  Jennings’ and Jonathan’s business model at Fündekals is simple:

• Produce decal sets that focus on a single subject only;

• Sell and ship modelers the decal sheet only;

• Offer the instructions on the Fündekals website as a free PDF download.

In my view, this approach should work well for both Fündekals and the modelers who buy their products.  By limiting decal sets to a single aircraft, Fündekals has no excuse for not conducting extensive and thorough research on the chosen subject.  A single aircraft decal sheet is also cheaper to produce than one that covers multiple subjects.  This benefit is passed on to the purchaser, who – in theory at least – ends up with accurate, inexpensive decals for an aircraft that he or she really wants to model.

Fündekals has reinforced its likelihood of success by making some canny choices for its first series of releases, most of which focus on single seat Allied fighters from World War 2:

• Spitfire Mk.VIII, ZX-J/JF472, flown by Squadron Leader Lance Wade, No.145 Squadron, RAF, based at San Severo, Italy, in November 1943.  This aircraft was fitted with extended wingtips, and finished in Mid Stone, Dark Earth and Azure Blue.

(Editor's note: Jonathan has sent the following comment about these markings: "We are convinced that the codes were a lighter blue (possibly Deep Sky) than the Ident Blue we printed on the original sheet. We were lucky enough to attach new correct codes to our 2nd batch of new decals due in July. Therefore, Wade's ZX-J has been temporarily removed from our website.")

• Spitfire M.IXc, MH434, finished as the fictional “AI-A/N3310” for filming in the 1968 film “The Battle of Britain”.  This is a great scheme that is worth using on a model just to upset unsuspecting rivet counters, because everyone knows that a Mk.IX couldn’t be finished in Dark Earth and Dark Green over Sky….  It’s also not the first time that Jennings has released decals for this aircraft – readers might recall that he offered a limited number of 1/32, 1/48 and 1/72 “AI-A” sets for sale on Hyperscale last year.  http://www.hyperscale.com/2011/reviews/decals/jenningsbobdecalpreview_.htm

I ordered one of these sets and was very pleased with what I received, so it’s great to see the same markings available again.

• P-40N, 42-105128/“Lulu Belle”, flown by 2nd.Lt. Philip Adair of the 89th Fighter Squadron, 80th Fighter Group, USAAF, based at Nagaghuli, India in early 1944.  This aircraft was finished in Olive Drab and Dark Green over Neutral Gray, with nose art of a ferocious skull dripping blood from its fangs.

• P-51D, 44-15569/“Bunnie/Miss Kentucky State”, flown by Captain Roscoe Brown of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group based at Ramitelli, Italy, in 1945.  “Bunnie” carried a natural metal/aluminium lacquer finish, set off by red stabilisers, fin, rear fuselage, forward cowlings and spinner, and orange-yellow identification stripes on the upper and lower wings.

All of the above decals are available in 1/32, 1/48 and 1/72 scale; the review samples illustrated here are 1/48.

Fündekals has also released two generic decal sheets, both of which address specific gaps in the market.

• 1/32 P-51D stencils.  For me, this is the highlight of Fündekals’ releases to date.  The stencil sheet that Tamiya provides with its 1/32 P-51D kit is not bad, but it’s completely eclipsed by the Fündekals sheet in terms of accuracy, scope and the quality of instructions.  This is the best sheet of stencil decals I have ever seen, and it has clearly been a labour of love for Fündekals.  If there is a downside to the sheet, it’s that it is only available in 1/32 – but to be fair, it would be almost impossible to produce with anything like the same precision in 1/48 or 1/72.

• A sheet featuring 1/18, 1/24, 1/32, 1/48 and 1/72 decals of a “famous radial engine logo” – as the Fündekals website says, think F4F, F6F, F4U and P-47 and you’ll know the manufacturer.  These logos will add a nice final touch to your kit engines and, given that the sheet contains a total of 80 decals, it will likely last a modeling lifetime.

The engine logos and P-51D stencils are listed as having been printed by Cartograf, while the decals for “Lulu Belle”, “Bunnie” and ZX-J/JF-472 appear to be Fündekals in-house productions.  No printer is identified on the sheet for “AI-A/N3310”.  Regardless of their origin, all the sample sheets are of excellent quality, with crisp printing and flawless production.  Although the red and blue on the roundels of ZX-J/JF-472 looks too dark in the scanned image of the decal sheet, this is a result of the scanning process rather than the colour of the decals themselves, which is much more accurate.

The PDF instruction sheets are also very good.  The examples attached to this review were all downloaded from the Fündekals website.  They are quick and simple to download, and easy to view on both computer monitor and tablet.  I haven’t tried printing any of the instructions yet, but presume this won’t be a problem with a decent-quality printer.  The instructions are generally one or two pages in length, with full-colour three or four view drawings accompanied by notes describing any unique features of the subject aircraft.  The instructions for the P-51D stencils are particularly comprehensive.

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Also worth mentioning is that the website contains a number of good photographs of the featured aircraft, which will be useful references for painting and detailing.

Fündekals is not the first model company that has made its instructions freely available over the Internet – Eduard and Wingnut Wings, for example, have done this for some time.  But providing such access is not essential for these companies, because the instructions are also provided with their kits and detail sets.  Not so with Fündekals, who ship customers their decals and nothing else.  Is this the future of aftermarket decal sales?  Only time will tell, but at the moment it’s hard to see a downside to the approach that Fündekals is taking, particularly if their customer service and support is strong.  It helps that the overall quality of the packages being offered by Fündekals is excellent, from thoroughly researched subjects to well-printed decals to clear and comprehensive instructions.  Hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer for some new sets to be added to the range!   

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Fündekals for the review samples.

Text and Images Copyright © 2012 by Brad Fallen
This Page Created on 29 June, 2012
Last updated 2 July, 2012

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