Battlefront

15mm WW II Decals

Reviewed by Bill Rutherford

Imported by Military Miniatures USA

While at Fall In, I was pleased to discover that Battlefront Miniatures had released several sets of decals. They're nominally 1/100 scale, though the symbols were on the largish side, which means they'll suit any of the 15mm vehicle ranges on the market. A $5.50 bag contains three 3.5" by 2.75" sheets, each of which is packed with decals… They make at least six sets - Allied stars (A800), British markings (B800), French markings (F800), German crosses (G800), German tank numbers (G801), and Soviet stars (R800).

The decals are reasonably thin and all of mine were on-register, which was no mean feat with the French markings that include tricolors! I decaled a tank with them and the decals (crosses and numbers) went on without a hitch… The German numbers (5 sheets included in this one) are white outlines and include enough to do EIGHT companies of tanks at 1:1 scale, as well as battalion and regimental assets… As noted, the French set includes both early and late war tricolors, roundels, playing-card troop markings in three colors, and a sheet of vehicle numbers, but, strangely, lacks matricule numbers. The Soviet stars are, well, stars, but the American stars come in three styles (small stars, large stars, and stars-in-solid-circles, but NO stenciled circles)… The German crosses are an odd set - one sheet each of black with white outline, black outline, and white with black outline (???). I'd have expected to see a sheet of white outlines, rather than this third sheet…

Though mine are all on-register, it'd seem to have made more sense to make the two color crosses as separate sheets of outlines and fillers, simply because that would have given the gamer the ability to do just about all of the cross varieties used (OK - no yellow crosses, but that's a quibble!) My favorite sheet, and the one that would have justified the range even if the others were all of polka-dotted giraffes, was the British sheet. It comes with the same number sheet as the French set, but in addition, comes with two sheets of British tactical symbols - the first ones, to my knowledge, released by ANYbody in this scale! This pack contains open squares, circles, triangles, and diamonds in yellow, red, and black, in sufficient quantity to do 14 vehicles each.

Quibbles? Well, it would have been nice to see decals for a 15th vehicle in each color (enabling one to do an entire squadron of each style in each color) and blue might've been a better choice for the third color, rather than black, but considering that nobody else even makes these markings, I've little to complain about! All in all, there're a couple of odd choices in subjects here, but if you game in 15mm (or 20mm, for that matter, as the symbols are a bit on the largish side), you really owe it to yourself to take a look at these - especially if you "do" French or British! These should be available from your Friendly Local Game Store (NOTE: This is what I refer to when I say FLGS!), or failing that, directly from A.T.A.K. Miniatures, 38 Shady Lane, Mercerville, NJ 08619; or visit them at their web-site, at http://www.nerc.com/~atak. Recommended!

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