Thanks for all your comments, guys.
@ Martin: Yes, Verlinden
have produced some good stuff in the past, although I do feel that for the most part, their 120mm figures have - on the whole - always been much better than their 1/35 figures.
@ Mike: That's an interesting point you raise. To be honest I can't recall exactly where I got the decal sheet, though I'm pretty sure I mail-ordered it from the UK.
However, a few years ago I bought a Verlinden German para on eBay from some seller an the States. It got intercepted by German customs, and I had a letter from the local customs office "requesting" my presence. Once there, I was handed a Stanley knife and "requested" to open the box, whereupon the customs guy examined the kit very closely to check that there were no "forbidden insignia" on it anywhere (there weren't). And even if there had been, just bear in mind how small they would have been.
Once satisfied, he said that my figure and I were free to go. I asked him what would have happened had there been any SS tabs or such like, and he said that I would have been "requested" to remove them on the spot.
But it is a bit of a grey area - and (in my opinion) all a bit silly, the way they sometimes take it to extremes (like my customs guy), and yet at other times apparently turn a blind eye.
Because you're absolutely right that swastikas are indeed cut off decal sheets and airbrushed off box tops here (as indeed are SS runes on things like tank crew kit boxes). But watch a war movie, and there's no editing done to remove things like that. I've even seen huge swastika banners flying prominently on buildings in GERMAN-made movies (the "don't-mention-the-war" thing really is just a silly myth). Also, war documentaries, (factual) books about the war etc. sometimes include archive photos showing runes, swastikas etc. All freely available to buy - and yet try and advertise something to do with the Waffen SS on eBay.de and your auction is liable to be pulled (so people simply get round it by writing "Waffen XX").
So it's all a bit inconsistent - and all a bit daft, really. Whether I'd get into any bother dispalying this vignette at a show here, I really don't know. Maybe I should try it just to see what (if anything) they'd arrest me for, LOL
. But short of being grassed up by some busybody (which of course you can never rule out), I don't really see how they could enforce it or whether indeed the local law enforcement would even regard it as an appropriate use of their time.
As for the vignette itself - it is now safely ensconsed in my glass-fronted display case in order to keep the dust off!
- Steve
