introduction

One of the biggest pains in the *** are Wehrmacht license plates. Many kit manufacturers include gorgeous sets with individual numbers that allow for all sorts of combinations. But they are also a PITA to apply. Decalomaniacs has solved this problem by releasing a set of Wehrmacht license plates that are ready to use right from the sheet.

what you get

A generous sheet of 54 large and 56 small license plates are printed in two parts: white backgrounds and black letters & numbers.

the review

German license plates prior to the war were grouped around a specific defense zone (Wehrkreis) that usually was allocated when the unit was created. That system pretty much went out the window when World War Two started, and Germany's vehicles were being sent all over Europe and North Africa.

Obviously if you are a stickler for detail, you will want to faithfully recreate the license plates on the particular vehicle you're modeling. Thankfully for the rest of us, Decalomaniacs has an easier solution.

First off, I should alert those who are not familiar with Decalomaniacs that these decals are a labor of love by Georg Eyerman, and are not meant to compete in quality with those by large professional printers like Cartograf. Georg uses a laser printer that is a big improvement over his earlier efforts using ALPS printing, but the value in these decals is they fill a niche. Decalomaniacs brings out sets that are so obscure, no one else would do them, or helpful items like these license plates.

But if you look at the side-by-side comparison on the Sd.Kfz. 251 in the photos, you will see a commercial SS plate on the left-hand rear fender and one of Decalomaniacs Wehrmacht Heer ones on the right. Properly placed with the separate white backgrounds behind them, these license plates will look fine on just about any vehicle. A little weathering, and you can't tell the difference.

There is a preponderance of WH (Wehrmacht Heer, the army) and some WL (Luftwaffe) and WM (Kriegsmarine) thrown in. No SS. It's a personal decision on Georg's part, and I respect that, but feel you should be aware.

Each plate comes with doubles: the "skinny" one for the front plate and the polyhedron-shaped one for the rear. There are no motorcycle license plates, but ample ones for nearly all softskins.

conclusion

Those who are sticklers for detail will likely want to wrestle with kit-supplied decals that let you make your own number combinations. But if you just want a very good license plate on your build, this is the solution.


Thanks to Decalomaniacs for providing this review sample. Please mention you saw it reviewed here on Armorama when ordering.