These markings are based on photos in a Russian book, "Lend-Lease Tanks 1941-1945" published by Russian publisher ExPrint in 2000 which is written in Russian with photo captions repeated in English. All the photos are black and white, though most tanks were in their factory colours of Olive Drab or Brown which does not need much in the way of colour notes. For those who want them, see Wydawnwictwo Militaria no 113 "Lend Lease Vol 1" which is a Polish translation also with English captions. It has many of the same photos but also colour plates of many vehicles. It is available from Wydawnwictwo of Warsaw, ISBN 837219121-2.
Subjects covered are -
D35001
D35002
Where the vehicles are from the same unit, there is usually one "unit marking" with options for different vehicles so the total number of options is not quite as large as it might appear but there are still 20 to 24 vehicles per sheet.
Apart from the lack of colour notes, many American vehicles still carried their original US serial numbers which are not included so you may need to add those from other sources. Many of the markings were hand-painted in real life but unless you have a steady hand or good stencils these will be your salvation. Especially useful are the "warning" stencils on sheet D35001 which would be very hard to reproduce without decals.
All the subjects are available in kit form in 1/35 or can be modified from existing parts, though some are older kits and will need a little work to bring them to modern standards.
Backing carrier sheet is thin and matt, while I have not applied these they should go on well even if they might need some suitable solvent or set.
Note that the images have been scanned and then the colours altered to try and make the white markings clearer against the original pale blue background, in so doing the red has gone from scarlet to closer to purple.
See ACE’s website which has links to other stockists worldwide.
Sheet No.D35001 |
Sheet No.D35002 |
Page Created 18 December 2003