Markings for My NVA Vehicles - Peddinghaus Comes Through!

Good markings, numbering, and insignia can make or break an modeling or miniature building project. In the past I've created my own decals and markings for projects like the Soviet 1st Mechanized Corps for my lend-lease Soviet army as well as my 502 Schwere Panzer-Abteilung force. It is, however, a fairly tedious process and I hadn't intended to make my own markings for my East German force as Battlefront produced decals (TY014) included in the T-55AM2 kit, and available separately. Unfortunately I've had many issues with my decals cracking and fragmenting, so I went in search of alternatives.

Battlefront Decals - I'd hoped these would work, but have had several issues...

Peddinghaus decals in Germany has a very nice set of numbers and markings for East German vehicles in 1/87 scale which I'd picked up previously, but they're just a bit big for the 15mm (1/100 scale) Battlefront miniatures. I contacted Peddinghaus to see if they could or would run up enough 1/100 versions of the decals to make a go of the overall project, and needless to say, they came through in a BIG way! The photo below shows the original set of markings with numbers in 1/87 at top left, the Battlefront decals at right, and the 1/100 roundels at the bottom.

Book Review: All the Gallant Men

I'd read an article about Donald Stratton's memoir All the Gallant Men in an article online and put it on my Amazon list for "later." My sister and brother-in-law were kind enough to pick the book up for me for Christmas, and I must say that the book lived up to the strong reviews and press it received. Donald Stratton is currently in his mid-90s, and is one of only a handful of living survivors of the attack on the USS Arizona on December 7, 1941 during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Born and raised in rural Nebraska, Stratton paints a rare and absolutely unflinching portrait of life during the Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. He is brutally honest about the hardships faced by his family and the rest of the state on a daily basis. Levels of deprivation thankfully rare today in the United States, but which were all too typical then. Yet these same hardships seem to foster a sense of perseverance in Stratton and many of his generation preparing them for the horrors ahead.

Source: Wikipedia

Stratton's sense of pride when being assigned to the Arizona is palpable. His thoughtful and heartfelt characterizations of his fellow crewmen help you understand these men not mere statistics or caricatures in some Hollywood movie, but real people who had real dreams, goals, and aspirations which were in far too many cases cut brutally short.

Plan 2018 or "Where do we go from here?"

In the early 1990s, then Intel CEO Andy Grove borrowed a mathematical concept and coined the term strategic inflection point to refer to those points in time where businesses must make a critical change to their normal operating process or face a period of declining revenue, or even the failure of the company itself. In some ways 2017 represents an "inflection point" in my hobbies both in terms of capabilities and interests. Therefore, in 2018 my plan it to try and exercise some of those new capabilities and (hopefully) get more done in less time...  Stop laughing!  No REALLY!

In case you missed my most recent Volksarmee progress update, my wonderful wife got me a spray booth (it's even portable!) for Christmas. I am only beginning to understand what opportunities this opens up, but in short, it's "a lot." Not only does this allow me to have a semi-permanent base for my airbrushing, but it allows the use of lacquer paint inside the house (watch this space). Because I'm not relegated to a cold garage or utility room, my paints will consistently be at a better operating temperature as well getting me better results. I also don't have the overhead of having to set up the whole assembly any time I want to pull out the airbrush - which is a major game changer!