War Eagle Curtiss P-40M & N decals

Blast out of the past.  War Eagle decals where at one time some of best around.  The owner Ron Kowalczyk put great effort and research into each sheet of decals.  The first batch of decal had been printed by Scale-Master.   Later Ron got into making Nascar decals.  At that point in invested in a printing company in Mexico to make his decals.    Until unfortunately he pasted way at too early of an age May 2006
This is a tribute build for him.  A great guy and friend that is greatly missing by the hobby and modeller.   Picture of the finished P-40 should be up as soon at I finished the P-40.  Larry Bishop who make the models for Ron pasted around the late 90's from cancer.

Now for the images.

War Eagle Special decal sheet Luftwaffe Two seaters

Here is a surprise sheet of decals.  I didn't or realize Ron had made this decal sheet.  In the instructions he thanks all the modelers that provided the documentation to make this possible.  Ron had been burned by other modelers saying his sheets where incorrect. Or inaccurate, this upset Ron, as he was a perfectionist to make everything was historical correct.   It is general not known the Ron quit make aircraft decals sheets because of this.  In his he had stacks of decals sheets that he wouldn't sell.  Why because a so called expert ranted on line the color was off or the numbers or Letter Font was incorrect.  All his efforts became directed to NASCAR and automotive decals.   I hope is keep his legacy and efforts alive.  Enjoy

Toledo IPMS "1996" special decal printed by War Eagle

This was a special decal for the Region 4 convention in Toledo.

War Eagle 1/48 F-89C decals

Here is the sheet that featured the 127th Michigan ANG F-89C .   Both units had these fighter for a short time.   The F89 had been turned in for RF-84 before the unit transferred to Selfridge AFB, MI is Mt Clemens.

Not sure if the decal had been released for sale.  Ron give them to me when he had the decals printed.

War Eagle 1/48 Mig 17 plastic kit

Here is the much talked about Mig 19 by Hobby craft.  Not a bad kit.  It is a shame the Hobbycraft screwed it up when they made the molds.

More War eagle finished models

War eagle decals. model by Gil Hodges

Another picture of Gil Hodges F-100f conversion

War Eagle F-100f build up in Michigan ANG colors.

I have to thank the guys on Hyperscale for coming up with photos of  Ron's conversion that have been built.  Ben Brown posted this photo today 20 May 2018.   Also check out Gil Hodges F-100F in natural metal scheme.   Gils model here:  All natural metal F-100f.

Nice Michigan 127th  F-100F

Model and Photo by Ben Brown.

War Eagle 1/48 B-57 decals.

Most of Ron's decal had been made by scale master.  At that time in the modeling industry was one of the best decal company's.    War Eagle decals have stood the test of time.

Excellent model Boyd.


Here is what Boyd Waether said today.



Although I used Lone Star Models 1/48th scale RB-57A resin conversion kit (combined with the Airfix B-57B Canberra), I did use Ron's decals on the model. Nearly 30 years old, the decals went on fine.  I did have to use quite a bit of Solvaset to get them to snuggle down into the panel lines.

Boyd Waechter

model and photo by Boyd Waecther

War Eagle 1/48 Arado 234 Jet bomber

This was one of series of plastic kits released by Ron as a joint venture with Hobby Craft.   A review can be found  by a member of the Indianans AMPS :Arado 234 Bomber

War Eagle F-16 Ohio ANG decals

 Below are the Two decal sheet for the Ohio ANG F-16 units out of Toledo and Springfield, Ohio. Also show is the aircraft the decal was based off of.

Photo and model by John Mitchell

Blast from the past. War Eagle Sea Fury decals.

A few days  one of Hyperscales members posted about the War Eagle decals.  It is great to see some many people remembering buying and using War Eagle products.   That why I created the War Eagle items.   In a why is a way to Remember Ron.   His love of the hobby and aircraft.  Plus he was one hell of a nice guy.   I wish he was still around to read this comment.

Bit of a blast from the past seeing the old War Eagle Sea Fury sheet.
On of the options was VW.623 of 805 Squadron RAN. It was the very first aircraft I worked on in the RAN after joining VC-724 Squadron
in 1980 (I soon managed to skulk away from the Sea Fury and get my mitts on the Sea Venom on the other side of the shed, but that's a
whole different story)
Long story short, 623 had spent many years as a gate guard at HMAS Albatross and had suffered a very bodgy restoration at some stage
which included painting very nice but completely wrong side numbers (USN style instead of proper RN style) and losing 90% of the internal
components.
War Eagle did a brilliant job of reproducing this scheme, might not be accurate but capture a unique moment in that aircrafts history.

Steve Long

Former RANFAA A-4G/TA-4G Maintenance
Supervisor, Camden Museum of Aviation.

Passing interest in Sea Venom's

War Eagle 1/48 F-100F conversion for Monogram kit

This was one of War eagles  popular kits.  The master for the conversion was made by the late Dave "Boh"  Boksanski. I remember Dave working on in his man cave.   Boh like F-100's a lot. This as a simple quick conversion he created in about a day.  I still can see him flying the model making jet sounds...   There is a great article by Gil Hodges on building the conversion on  Hyperscale.  The article  can be found here: F-100f by Gil Hodges 2004

Model and photo by Gil Hodges

War Eagle 1/48 B-57

Another kit that Ron made for the modelers.  It seemed that everyone wanted a B-57 in 1.48 scale.  Well Ron made it happen, that what was interesting about Ron.  If he thought people wanted the kit he would push to get one out.   What amazed Ron had a full time job as a plastic injection mold maker.  It was at that time a highly skill machinist trade.  Working long hours at his regular job he pushed himself to make War Eagle a first class company.  I'm looking for any completed picture of the model to post here.

Photo provided by Gil Hodges.

War Eagle A-4 conversions.

The A-4 has one of Ron's first vacuum form conversion created by him.  He had the master made here and shipped to New Zealand to be made.  Ron was a big fan of the tiny A-4.  Plus at that time the monogram kit was state of the art kit  During this time simple resin conversion where coming on the model seen.  Ron and I had a discussion on making the nose and intake out of resin. But Ron as fully committed to vacuum form.  Later missing link used this idea for their conversions.   

All A-4s built by Gil Hodges

War Eagle 1/48 Lavovkin LA-5FN

Another of the vacuum formed kits from War Eagle.  The kit builds up really nice.

Photo and model by Jim Maas