WW II German PanzerDivision Markings

From Mäkinen Marko

This new decal sheet (#D.72001) by ICM from Ukraine consists of emblems of German panzertroops plus a very extensive variety of tactical markings and asortiment of balkenkreutzes from the time period 1939-1945. BothHeere (army) and Waffen-SS units are covered. With these decalsit is possible to give the finishing touch to almost any GermanWWII tank or soft-skin vehicle according to one's personalwishes. Of course the modeller needs to acquire theidentification numbers of unique vehicles elsewhere since theyare not included on this sheet.

The sheet includes severalemblems for:

• Panzer Divisions 1 through 27 and 116, Grossdeutschland and Panzer Lehr Divisions
• Schwere Panzer Abteilung (heavy tank battalions) 501 through 509
• SS Divisions 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 and 10, SS Panzergrenadier divisions 12, 16, 17 and 18
• Panzer regiments 31 and 35

An astonishing total of 56different units is depicted. Unfortunately most of the markingsare so tiny and delicate that they do not show well in thescanned picture.

As far as I understand thesheet is restricted only to the markings of "pure"panzer formations. For instance the emblems of such motorizeddivisions that included panzerjäger battalions or self-propelledartillery battalions are not included. This means that the decalscan not be used with vehicles which were exclusively used bythese units. Therefore modellers of such important tanks asJagdpanzer IV, Hetzer, StuG III and IV or even Jagdpanther wouldnot benefit much from these decals. The collection of tacticalmarkings (76 different, 2 each) found on the sheet can still beuseful with them, too. Another negative side with this productmight be that there are only a couple of emblems, sometimes justone emblem per each depicted unit on the sheet. This means thatyou will run out of emblems very quickly if you need them formore than one or two vehicles of any given unit. Luckily in mostcases the same types of vehicles were used by numerous divisionswhich allows the modeller several "designation options"for most tank types.

The sheet itself is verycomprehensive and well put together, but no kind of guide isprovided with it to help with the use of the decals. Thereforeyou need to consult additional reference material in order to usethe markings correctly. In particular this is necessary as thereare a few, slightly different emblems for many of the units,clearly for various stages of the time period covered and/ordifferent types of vehicles used. Also the use of the tacticalmarkings would require additional reference material.

Since the decals are welldetailed, the printing is nicely in register and also otherwisevery good, the sheet is a treasure for any modeller of WWIIGerman tanks in 1/72nd scale and is very warmly recommended. Minewas bought at a local hobby store. I expect it to be foundelsewhere, too, although I have not yet spotted it on the webpages of Hannant's model store, where new products appear early.ICM produces also a corresponding, though a less comprehensivesheet in 1/35th scale.