Bison Decals Balkan Warriors (BD-35002)

by Frank De Sisto

Water-slide decals in 1/35th-scale. Price: $9.00 USD, plus shipping.

This recent release from Bison covers three FV510 “Warrior” armored vehicles. Two are FV510 Infantry Section Vehicles (ISV) and one is an FV511 Infantry Command Vehicle (ICV). All are from units deployed to the Balkans in the years 1997, 1998 and 1999. Two vehicles are from The Green Howards; the third from The Light Infantry. The recommended plastic kit would be Academy’s Warrior for the IFV, with the Accurate Armour conversion recommended for the ICV.

Markings are based upon the readily available Concord Publications book “7509, Warrior, British Combat Vehicle Tracked” by Carl Schulze. Photos in the book show that the sheet’s designer has done an excellent job of presenting an accurate set of markings for the vehicles depicted.

Vehicle “A” is painted in the dark green/black European scheme and carries a large white “IFOR” logo, large black coalition chevron and a large yellow “triangle-30” squadron sign. Vehicle “B”, also in the dark green/black European scheme, wears a small white “SFOR” logo, small black coalition chevron and a large yellow “circle 12” squadron sign. Vehicle “C”, the ICV, is painted in the dark green/black European scheme and carries small white coalition chevrons as well as a small yellow “triangle-30” squadron sign. Each vehicle has other small markings such as unit coats-of-arms, NATO insignia, registration plates, red/yellow caution strips, Union flags and bridging classification disks.

The printing is done by Microscale in the USA, which is an assurance to the consumer that such things as color saturation, registration and image quality are first rate. The instructions consist of clear multi-view drawings and references to the colors that should be used.Altogether, this is a fine product at a reasonable price, especially if the modeler wants more than a simple “UN white” Balkan Warrior.

Highly recommended.

Bison products are available at retail and mail order shops and directly from the manufacturer at: www.angelfire.com/pro/bison. Visit their web site for images of reviewed items.