Middle East Wars

This set covers the following vehicles:

• T-34/85, Syrian Army, 44th Armoured Brigade, Golan Heights, Six day war, 1967.
• "T-100" (i.e. SU-100), Egyptian Army, Suez Canal Crisis, 1956.
• IS-3 Stalin, Egyptian Army, Cairo, 1957.
• Charioteer FV4101 “BAALBECK”, Jordanian Army, 40th Armoured Brigade, Jordan, 1955.

Modelers should be aware that the drawings used in the instructions are only meant as a help for placing the decals, and not for the specific features of the tank. The T-34/85 for instance seems to have the D-5T gun in the drawing, while the reference shows a ZiS-S-53. It also carries an anti-aircraft gun mount for a DshK 12.7 machinegun (more info here).
Regarding the second vehicle, most SU-100 (I guess the T-100 in the instructions is a typo) of the Egyptian Army had an extra box-like structure on the right of the superstructure.
More importantly, the IS-3 is actually an IS-3M.
Modelers are thus advised to do a little research.

The set doesn't mention which kits would be the best suited to take these decals, but while the first three vehicles would not really present a problem to source, as far as we know, the Charioteer can currently only be built using an MR Modellbau conversion set for the Revell Cromwell.

Looking at the decals themselves, it is immediately clear that they are printed to a very high resolution, with only a very slight trace of pixelation; even the smaller items are still readable. The only thing that gives them away as not being printed by the big decal companies is that they are printed on continuous film. Being laserjet printed, it is also wise to protect them before weathering starts on the model.
Something very peculiar to these decals (and actually to all of the latest releases by Braille Strike is that the multi-color decals are printed "upside down". In other words, the colors are printed first and the white at the end. This means that you have to flip the decals over when putting them on the vehicle (which is easy) and that it is difficult to judge the quality of the multi-color decals while still on the sheet, as the (translucent) white creates a sort of haze over the rest of the colors. I hope to be able to use them soon and tell our readers how this turns out. Just remember that (some of) the decals that are in one color only are NOT upside down.

My scanner always has trouble scanning white decals on a blue background, that's why the image from the Braille Strike website has been included on the right.
Note that the picture on the right shows how the color decals should appear once flipped over, while the picture on the left shows how they appear on the sheet.

Conclusion

Braille Scale continues to expand its series of well-printed decals covering intersting subject material.

Review sample kindly provided by Braille Strike.

Article Last Updated:
27 May 2021