Archer Fine Decals 1/35
German SS Shoulder Boards

MSRP: $16.95
Archer Discounted Price: $8.00

By Ray Mehlberger

Quite some time ago, I did a review of Archer decals for SS sleeve insignia and cuff titles. These are dry transfer or rub-on type decals or transfers. At that time, I asked Woody Vondracek (the head man at Archer) if he planned to do the shoulder boards.

He said that they were in the works and would be released later. I planned to get some of these, but as things would have it, I didn't get back to him for quite a while to get some.

Then I heard a bad rumor that he was dropping them and selling of his remaining stock at 50% off. This rumor had very little basis in truth. He is actually re-doing the sheets and correcting them.

Here is what he has to say about all that (and I quote from his web-site):

We have discontinued our SS uniform shoulder boards with the white background and are selling off our existing inventory of these discontinued sheets.

When we first introduced our line of SS patches, we offered them with the white background because so many modelers were used to using that color, and the gray background is the correct color. This just caused a lot of confusion, even for us. So, we discontinued the white to simplify selection and are selling these sheets at a big discount (half price). If you are willing to live with the near inperceptible white color you can save a lot of money. If you need absolutely accurate SS patches, these are not for you.

Okay, like I said, Woody is going to release new and accurate ones soon. However, he sent me review samples of the ones with the white backgrounds that are on sale. I have to admit they are extremely usable. Especially the lower ranks, where the main body of the shoulder boards are all black. The piping around the edges of these is the right color and I am just as happy with these.

You get all kinds of different ranks for SS soldiers and officers. There is enough boards to do 48 figures.

The samples I got were:

FG35043E for infantry units, with white piping.

FG35043F for Panzer units, with pink piping.

FG35043G for Artillery and Stug units, with red piping.

FG35043H for Reconnaissance units, with yellow/brown piping.

Archer is really the Cadillac of dry transfers. His images on them are very clear and sharp and the tiniest details are fully readable under magnification. The shelf life of them is superior too.

Highly recommended.

I want to thank Woody Vondracek of Archer for these great decals. He also makes some helmet markings for Wermacht, Luftwaffe, and SS, all on the same sheet. I would like to get some of that sheet sometime too.

You can obtain these transfers directly from Archer at:

Archer Fine Transfers
P.O. Box 1277
Youngville, NC 27596-1277
USA