WWII Soviet Tactical Signs

The Stencilit 1:76 scale stencil sheet for World-War II Soviet tactical signs is made of 0.125 mm photo-etched brass, and it is flexible enough to conform to the contours of a scale model. The manufacturer recommends separating individual stencils from the sheet and applying them directly to the vehicle to be stenciled. However, many of these stencils are so tiny and delicate, that we prefer to keep the stencil sheet intact and simply use it to stencil the required markings onto decal paper.

Contents

35 × 22.5 mm Stencil Sheet

• 5 mm Turret Numbers: 1–0
• 3 mm Turret Numbers: 1–0
• 2 mm Turret Numbers: 1–0
• 1 mm Turret Numbers: 1–0
• 3 mm Cyrillic Script: 26 Letters
• 4 mm five-pointed Star
• 4 mm five-pointed Star with Border
• 3 mm five-pointed Star
• 3 mm five-pointed Star with Border
• 2 mm five-pointed Star
• 2 mm five-pointed Star with Border
• 1 mm five-pointed Star
• 4 mm Rhombus

Evaluation

Excellent choice of subject, stencils are commonly used to apply tactical signs to military vehicles and it makes perfect sense to use miniaturized stencils on scale models for the same purpose.

Stenciled vehicle markings look much more realistic than decals, because they can be airbrushed in the correct colour, adjusted for aerial perspective, and there is no carrier film which may cause silvering. However, many of these 1:76 scale stencils are so tiny that they become very difficult to handle individually. The small turret numbers have such narrow margins that masking them properly, taping them to a turret side, and correctly aligning them with adjacent stencils proved impractical.

We found that the stencil sheet works very well for stenciling tactical signs onto spare decal sheet left over from another scale modelling project. Decal sheets typically have a lot of empty space between decals, and the stencil sheet can be used to fill that empty space with additional vehicle markings. The airbrushed markings need to be protected with gloss varnish, otherwise they will break apart when they are floated off the backing paper. Once the varnish has dried completely, individual markings can be cut out of the decal paper using a scalpel.

The 3 mm turret numbers are compatible with 1:87 scale ROCO and 1:100 scale Roskopf vehicles which are typically sold without decals.

Soviet Red Army Miniatures of World War Two