1:35 Figure Uniform Insignia Decal Sets

The battle of Monte Cassino was known for 2 rather significant events:  Leveling of  the 1500 year old abbey, and the disaster suffered by U.S. 35th Infantry Division attempting to cross the Rapido river.

Little less known was General John P. Lucas' landing at Anzio, 70 miles north of Monte Cassino and 50 miles from Rome.  Even less known was his blunder on 30th, Jan, 1944 at Cisterna, that placed the three Ranger Battalions raised by Darby (1st, 3rd and 4th) in a direct confrontation against elements of the elite 2nd and 4th Fallschirmjager Divisions supported by members of Herman Goering Panzer Division and 715th Motorized Infantry Division . The 7 hour bloodshed resulted in total destruction of the three Ranger Battalions (hence only 2nd and 5th participated in Operation Overlord on D-Day. 6th Ranger Battalion fought in the pacific. Among their courageous acts was the successful execution of POW rescue on Luzon. Depicted in the movie "The Great Raid")

This picture was taken near Cisterna in June, 1944, five months after the landing at Anzio.

Life magazine photos

June 6th approaching. We'd like to take this opportunity and introduce our 1:35 U.S Army figure insignia decal sets.  One set for WWII, and the other for modern subjects with ACU uniform.

On D-Day, A, B and C companies of 2nd Ranger Battalion landed at Omaha Beach with soldiers of 1st and 29th infantry division. Of all the characters in Saving Private Ryan, the portrayal of Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder by Dennis Farina was probably the least impressive. The man that led the Rangers up the sheer cliff of Point Du Hoc was not a grumpy old man.

The imaginary character, Private James Francis Ryan of Payton, Iowa, was part of 101st Airborne, as with all other members of U.S. Army encountered by Miller's element after they had left the beachhead. Noteworthy was Captain Fred Hamill played by Ted Danson, who identified himself as a Pathfinder - one of the 18 teams set out to mark landing zones for the paratroopers - some of the most dangerous missions on D-Day, and awarded with the extremely prestigious Pathfinder's Badge (Worn  4 inches above left sleeve cuff).  

Ranger Battalions were deactivated after WWII, and re-raised in the 70s and 80s. The 75th Ranger Regiment was reformed in 1986, consist of 3 Ranger Battalions. There are now also 4th, 5th and 6th Ranger Battalions that are part of the Ranger Training Brigade.

The unit that participated in Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia was Bravo Company of 3rd Ranger Battalion. Alongside C Squadron of the Delta Force. All accurately depicted in the movie Blackhawk Down.

One of the more recent portrayal of Rangers was in the Hurt Locker.
I'm sure someone reading is screaming "Bullshit" right now and getting ready to link from wiki...  Indeed they were EOD, but Sergeant James T. Sanborn was serving with the Rangers in Afghanistan before transferring into the 52nd Ordnance group. 

So... the decal sets (and you thought we were talking about movies...) also include options for Marines. Marines don't use unit patches (they have, but the MCCUU doesn't have velcros for them. They wear a sew on Marine emblem on their left chest pocket.  Ranks are sewed onto the collars, name and the letters "U.S. MARINES" are also sewed on.

In addition to the insignia sets, we're releasing 2 sheets of camouflage decals, for ACUPAT and MARPAT. Each of these features 15cmX6cm of uninterrupted and unrepeated patterns of camouflage, in correct scale and architecture. Here are 28X28mm samples, equivalent to 1X1m in 1:1.

To date, we have accumulated a small range of insignia sets for 1:35 and 1:16 figures. The German sets also include photo etched badges and medals since German soldiers were known to wear those on their combat uniforms. These sets all come with instructions detailing their contents and applications.

1:35 Luftwaffe Uniform Insignias
1:35 Wehrmacht Uniform Insignias
1:35 Panzer Crew Uniform Insignias
1:35 Waffen-SS Uniform Insignias
1:16 (120mm) Wehrmacht Uniform Insignias
1:16 (120mm) Waffen-SS Uniform Insignias
1:35 U.S. Army WWII Uniform Insignias
1:35 U.S. Army Modern Uniform Insignias
1:35 U.S. ARMY ACUPAT Camouflage decal
1:35 U.S. MARINE MARPAT Camouflage decal
1:16 (120mm) U.S. Army WWII Uniform Insignias

1:350 U.S.NAVY and IJN Ship Marking Decals

The tradition of marking ships had long been established before there were navies. Sometimes more subtle than others. The Greek hero Achilles arrived in Troy onboard a myrmidon ship with a pitch black sail.
Rome employed sophisticated marking systems. Each ship displays color of its legion at the bow or stern. Towers were painted for identifications.  Unit emblem or figure of commander depicted on the hull...

Today,  warships carry hull markings for visual identification. Here we introduce 2 decal sets for marking ship models in 1:350 scale. One set for U.S. NAVY, including options for both modern and WWII era. The other set is for WWII Imperial Japanese Navy.

The U.S NAVY used 48 inch number on its destroyers before WWII. A sets of numbers on each side of the bow, and 2 sets for stern. All painted white with black shadow, stood out against the light gray or ivory background colors. Bigger ships used larger numbers, In the case of carriers, numbers painted on islands can be very tall. The decal set provides numbers up to 8 feet in height (15", 24", 48", 60", 72", 96"). Also includes letters and numbers in black and white without shadows, for auxiliary vessels such as sub chasers and mine sweepers.

During the war, numbers were reduced to 24 and 15 inches, and shadow color switched to gray to make them less visible.  Then after the war, they were revamped to the pre-war standards.

The Imperial Japanese Navy ships carried markings for their names and units. Numbers on each side of the bow indicates unit of the ship, and ship names were spelled out on sides of the hull in Katakana (Destroyers) and Hiragana at stern.

Before the war, Hiragana ship names at sterns were brass, replaced by painted version during the war, that were white with narrow black shadows. The decal sheet includes choices for all of the specifications.

More on hull numbers and ship names
USN
IJN

NW35039 1:350 USN Hull Marking decal set
NW35040 1:350 IJN Hull Marking decal set

1:350 U.S.NAVY and IJN Naval Flag Decals

To become a hero, one would usually need to be victorious, and also dead, more often than not.

Such was the case with Horatio Nelson. He had always been a brilliant strategist, but wasn't elevated to hero's status till after Battle of Trafalgar, he was victorious, but for that he also gave his life (out of all things, to a musket ball from a sniper sitting atop the mizzentop of the French ship of the line Redoutable). 

Brits won because pretty much everything went as Nelson had planned. Unable to direct much of the action that day, being mortally wounded. The exact count of orders Nelson issued during Battle of Trafalgar was...2. 

These messages were broadcasted to the fleet via signal flags hoisted up the mizzenmast (the mast immediately after the main mast) on Nelson's flag ship Victory.  They were displayed word by word, each word represented by a 3 flags arranged according to the 1803 Popham's code book.  Illustrated below.

The last 4 letters D-U-T-Y were each signaled by 2 digits. Interestingly, this system omitted the letter "J"  due to sailor superstition. More interestingly, such tradition is still in place today.

Nelson's last order was illustrated with 2 flags, for the letter O. Or in other words, a code within a code. The letter "O", when displayed alone, meant " Engage the enemy more closely".

In the above example, we also saw use of the first substitute flag.
A substitute flag is used to represent another flag that's currently being used. 

In the common 4 letter system, there are 3  substitute flags, for repeating first, second and third letter in the message respectively without requiring the same flag at 2 positions simultaneously.  (Or a second set of flags would be required). There are also systems that use 5 flags, with a 4th substitute flag.
F-O-O-D  =  F-O-2sub-D
T-R-E-E  =  T-R-E-3sub
A-A-R-O-N  =  A-1sub-R-O-N

More on codes

The systems used by militaries today are derivatives of the international signal system installed in the 1850s, but differ from country to country.

Here are our upcoming 1:350 signal flag sets. One for U.S. Navy, and the other for Imperial Japanese Navy.

The U.S. Navy decal includes 2 size 10 sets and 2 size 3 sets of flags, also all the special flags, pennants and rank displays. The size 3 set, is mathematically equivalent  to size 10 in 1:700, so this product actually suits both scales.

The Japanese decal includes 2 types of flags. One set according to WWII Japanese Navy regulation, and the other based on measurements from the impressive flag collection of the Mikasa Museum.

Design of hoists are different on the 2 sets, the 2 navies had different ways of hanging their flags. The decals come with detailed instructions.

Another use of signal flags is to display ship's ID. Each ship has a 4 letter ID, also known as radio call sign.

More on ship ID
USN
IJN

Some examples of ship ID and messages.

A century after Nelson's death, Japanese Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō displayed a similar message to encourage his men during Battle of Tsushima (Russo-Japanese War). This time, the long message was pre-assigned to one specific flag (Z) and hoisted up on Mikasa. Hanging of Z-flag became a Japanese military tradition. One example being the carrier Akagi displaying the Z-flag before the attack on Pearl Harbor.  

NW35041 1:350 USN Flag decal set
NW35042 1:350 IJN Flag decal set