"WWII AFV decals" Topic

A couple of mates and I ordered some custom decal sheets for a variety of 15mm/1:100 and 20mm/1:72 WWII vehicles a month or so ago. There were a few minor issues and a misaligned sheet was replaced for free. The printer and I exchanged emails and he is interested in producing, either print on demand or as shelf stock, some wargaming decal sets.

The idea is not to produce a "shotgun assortment" of tac plates, numbers and DIV signs like a lot of people do, but to produce sets based on organisations, eg a 1/100 sheet for a British Squadron for 1 model = 1 vehicle rules like Battlegroup, a regimental set for 1 model=1 troop/platoon set like Command Decision, etc (see lo-res samples below). However I suggested it would be a good idea to see if there's any interest first, hence this topic.

Do you think these sets would be useful and worth buying (at the right price)? Would the P&P costs from Australia be likely to dissuade customers?

Yes, I know there are good decal suppliers like I-94 out there. However see if you can find a set of "15mm" decals for C Squadron of an armoured recce regiment (ie at least 38 white circles on the sheet) for sale. As to what he will produce, I think Geoff wants to see whether it's worth producing anything first.

No, I am not, nor will I be, getting any kickback or benefit from this. I'm just doing some rough "market research" for a bloke looking at expanding his range of decals.

Yeah, as a Battlegroup and Rapid Fire player, I would be interested in that.

Always can use good 15mm decals. What sort of price is he looking at? Should be able to mail as first class letter which wouldnt be too awful.

I'd love to see this type of product on the market. And, since you can send it as a first class letter, postage from Australia won't be prohibitive

This sounds like the sort of thing Don's Decals used to make. Much missed is old Don's.

Amen Mserafin. I still have a fair number of his decals but wish I had stocked up. And by he way the third sheet would be much more valuable to me then the first. More complete to include AoS and bridging disks.

Thanks for the feedback, gents. I'm doing the initial artwork in Corel Draw as a favour (and because I'll benefit from having decent decals available and easily found). Any suggestions or ideas are most welcome, too.

I miss Dom as well, Mserafin and Marc33594, as an internet mate as much as for his great decals.

I don't know what the price will be. At least (for you blokes) the low-value Aussie dollar will make them cheaper (and may put my next trip to Europe in the too-hard basket). So far we've just been discussing what may or may not be useful/popular. I know that the initial aim is to use A7 decal paper (available print space is 95mm/3.74" by 64mm/2.52") and that's what I used when I did the samples above. As for postage I haven't sent anything OS for a couple of years, so I can't say. Using OzPost's website is somewhat less fun than a DIY vasectomy.

As for scales I think 1/100 (15mm) and 1/72 (20mm) are most likely- unless someone asks for something different. The 15mm sheets will probably include AoS plates, as above, but there's not enough room on the 1/72 sheets unless we remove something else or reduce the number of squadron tac symbols. One bit of advice was just to put the troop numbers on the sheet, not individual vehicle numbers, and use the space made for bridge class markings.

With the comments and advice here and on LAW I'm tweaking the 1/72 sheets. Still no room for the bridge classifications, though.

In 15mm it's almost as easy to paint them on.

I'd be interested

Good 15mm decals are hard to find sometimes. Some LRDG decals would be great.