JK Resin

German WW II
Licence Plates

While a few manufacturers have given us decals for German licence plates and others have given us PE sets for the actual metal plates, this is the first set that I see that contains both decals and PE.
The decals and PE come in 5 shapes (four for the rear and one for the front). Strangely, the PE trapezoidal licence plates (that are typically found on the Sd.Kfz.250 and 251) are split unevenly with more left plates given than right plates, while there is an equal number of decals for left and right. The PE parts all have a small ridge, giving depth to the plate. Note, however, that later in the war licence plates were sometimes just directly painted onto the vehicles.

The decals come in a wide variety of combinations:

• WL, WH, SS
• different shapes
• with one, two or no red stamp (which was required to officialize the plate, even though they are rarely seen in wartime pictures, possibly because they wore off quickly).
• blank plates

All plates come without numbers, meaning that the modeler will need to painstakingly complete the plate with the numbers that are available on the sheet. Additionally, the blank plates also need to have the prefixes added.
Unfortunately the amount of numbers on the sheet is insufficient for the licence plates that are given. For instance, there are 72 rear licence plates, but only 110 numbers for them. As a licence plate typically had 6 numbers, you would need at least 432 numbers, and still be limited by the combinations that you could do with them. Even the prefixes are too few in number for the rear plates, as you get 24 prefixes for 36 plates. It is anybody's guess what to do with the remaining plates.
(A similar argument holds for the front plates.)

Apart from that, the decals are perfectly printed and in register.

A good source for info on German WW2 licence plates can be found here.

Review sample kindly provided by JK Resin.

JK Resin kits can be purchased from

Article Last Updated: 29 October 2017