RCR Models 1/35
WWII Italian Armor

This water-slide type decal sheet is by a company out of Italy. I have never heard of RCR before seeing this sheet for sale at my local hobby shop. I had to have it. This is because I have several of the older Italeri kits of WWII Italian armor and the newest kit, by them, of the AB-41 (which I am currently building for a later review on this site). Add to this, the impending release, also by Italeri, of their AB-43 and the Sahariana desert vehicle.

Outside of the decals that come in these kits, I have never seen an after-market decal sheet on the subject of WWII Italian armor before. This sheet surely will give you other choices than what comes in these kits.

The sheet is roughly 8.5” x 11” packed in a cello bag with a tissue sheet to protect the face of the decals and includes a 4 page instruction sheet with line drawings of various vehicles and their markings. Text on this sheet is in Italian and English.

The instructions begin with a description of camouflage colors used by Italian armor during the war. Unfortunately, these colors are all called out in Italian, which your’s truly cannot read. Wish they had also printed them in English too. Will have to translate things later I guess.

Line drawings are shown for a few different groups for:

• Motorcyles
• The L3-33 & L3-35 tankettes, Albania 1940, Ethiopia 1936, Tobruk 1940, Organization TODT
• L6/40 & M13/40 tanks, Bab el Wattara 1942, Tirana 1943, Russia 1942, Balcani 1943, Cirenaica 1942 & Afica (no year)
• The AB-41 armored car, Tunisia 1943
• The Sahariana desert car, Tunisia 1943
• The M42-75/34 samovente, Greece 1941

Rectangles are given for company marks: red = 1st Co., azure = 2nd Co., yellow = 3rd Co., green = 4th Co.

Platoons are represented by vertical white bars on these rectangles: 1 bar = first platoon, 2 bars = 2nd plat., 3 bars = 3rd plat. A rectangle with no bars is a command vehicle.

Above these rectangles is the tank number. Roman numerals indicates the tank’s battalions.

All these markings, and some otherwise special markings and license plates are included on the sheet. Registration of the colors is very good.

Highly recommended except for what I think is a little too high a price. Does anyone out there know what else RCR Model produces? I would be curious to know.