One of the finest men in AFV modeling that I’ve never met in person is Woody Vondracek, owner and designer of Archer Fine Transfers in Knightdale, NC. Woody had been producing dry transfers for aircraft for a while when he decided to venture into “ground targets.” He’s done innumerable transfer sets for Allied and German AFVs. There’s a quick learning curve to using dry transfers, which you rub onto the model, as opposed to water slide decals. But modelers swear by them for their ability to adhere to the surface without any stepped up rise off the model or “silvering” of the outside border. Transfers can also be rubbed onto decal film paper, soaked in water and slid onto the surface just like regular decals. This works better for small decals or severely irregular surfaces, like the folds of some uniform sleeves.

Woody actively solicits ideas from modelers through the various Internet discussion groups. A few years back, when I was looking at doing an Omaha Beach diorama, I approached him with the idea of doing infantry division insignia and service rank transfers. We collaborated via e-mails and phone for several months on this project, which produced a set of rank patches and a set of shoulder patches that represented the Rangers, 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions that landed at Omaha. That in turn led Woody to create the other divisional insignia below.

If you’re wondering about the rationale for the grouping of divisions within each set, it’s due to keeping costs down by producing similarly colored patches together as a batch.