Home > Reviews > Britain WWII > Quarter Master's Depot British and Commonwealth Uniform Insignia: Sheet 35080, British 7th Armoured Division Insigina. Sheet 35084, Canadian 5th Armoured Division Insignia

 


Quarter Master's Depot British and Commonwealth Uniform Insignia: Sheet 35080, British 7th Armoured Division Insigina. Sheet 35084, Canadian 5th Armoured Division Insignia

by Cookie Sewell


Quarter Master's Depot, 1071 Ambleside Drive, Suite 1111, Ottawa, Ontario K2B 6V4, Canada (http://www.quatermastersdepot.com); price CDN $12.00 each (about US $10.00)

Advantages: Nice, clean and crisp shoulder flashes, stripes and "pips" make finishing 1/35 figures a snap

Disadvantages: somewhat fuzzy on closeup examination, but most of us are not equipped with microscopic vision!

Rating: Highly Recommended

Recommendation: For all modelers doing 1/35 scale WWII British or Canadian figures

Alas, the Commonwealth. They tend to be the "Rodney Dangerfield" of 1/35 scale armor as they rarely get any respect, either from the manufacturers or the after-market sector. Several years ago companies like Pre-Size and Archer Fine Transfers began to provide waterslide decals for shoulder patches and other markings for both US and German figures, but the British and Commonwealth troops were more or less ignored.

Quartermaster's Depot has been issuing a number of waterslide sheets to fill this gap, and these are two of their latest efforts. Each sheet provides the shoulder flashes and unit patches for the entire organic structure of the division listed (by unit, not quantity!) as well as specific officer insignia and stripes for enlisted soldiers. Insignia are provided for private, corporal, sergeant and staff sergeant ranks (as well as two specific branch sergeants, engineers and artillery), and commissioned officers from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Colonel.

The 7th Armoured sheet provides patches and flashes for a total of 16 different regiments or branches, and includes helmet flashes. That for the Canadian 5th Armoured provides a total of 17 different unit patches and flashes. The "facings" listing below the picture presentation is an accurate term, but what they mean here is the backing color for the officers' rank "pips" by branch color. This will assist the modeler in getting the right shoulder flash and "pips" together.

Alas, as a layman and US Army type I have little knowledge of where these go and on what uniforms (especially the helmet flashes) so I do wish QD had included a basic drawing and guideline to get them on the right figure and right time frame.

Overall the quality is pretty good – under a jeweler's loupe there is some pixilation of the insignia and they become hard to read (but at still readable). On a model, most of us do not have the level of vision that would make that annoying!

Thanks to Quartermaster's Depot for the review samples.

Cookie Sewell