"1/144th Cold War Decals - Bundeswehr?" Topic

Just curious if anyone produces 1/144th scale decals for the West German Army, e.g. Bundeswehr?

I need some of the West German crosses, as well as unit numbers for various vehicles, e.g. JgPz Kanones, M-113s, HS-30s, M47s, and other vehicles.

I'd prefer three digit unit numbers that are all in one decal, instead of having to add one decal number at a time, which I suspect would be rather challenging, even in this much larger scale, compared to microarmor. Still looks to be rather fiddly.

One of the issues though is that the 1st company is usually just HQ vehicles, so the combat units start with the second company, and go up from there, with many vehicles in companies beyond the usual third one, especially for support units.

In inquiring about this before, mention was made that WWII decals use the same font, so that is at least helpful.

Appears that in some cases, the smaller, microarmor (1/285th – 1/300th scales) vehicle numbers might work for at least some vehicles, but will need to double check that.

So does anyone make 1/144th scale decals specifically for Cold War, West German armor?

If not, has anyone used other decals in this scale, or microarmor scale, for their West German vehicles, and if so, which manufacturers' decals did you find worked?

Perhaps small 1/144th scale WWI aircraft decals might work in a pinch, too?

For the West German crosses have a look at Dom's Decals 1/300th scale aircraft crosses, he makes some post 1956 German crosses. I use his 1/600th scale crosses for my 1/300 scale German armour.

link

For numbers have a look at Mehusla on e-bay
auction

I'm not sure if it's something you'd want to explore, but clear or white decal paper give you the freedom to make whatever.

I'm not in the US, so I don't know if these folks are any good:
decalpaper.com
but since I bought decal paper I've been as free as a bird.

The problem with decal paper:

Clear means clear, so anything not printed will show through whatever is underneath. It also doesn't go well over dark colours as the clear decals tend to be translucent, even once printed.

White is a white sheet, so anything not printed is opaque and white. Also because it is an opaque white sheet the printed colours remain nightly visible even on dark backgrounds… But… Because it is an opaque white sheet you are printing on you need to cut precisely round the outside edge of the decal or it will end up with a white outline (or on a white box)

When I have decals printed, I have a white base screen printed under the colours first (especially those affected by translucency such as red or yellow, and any light colours). This enables whites to be white, clear to be clear, and colours to retain their quality even on dark backgrounds or across patterns.

So home printed custom jobs are possible, but with compromise or very fiddly.

We produce German crosses in 15mm. They might be suitable for 1/144