No luck in the main forum, so let's see if anyone here knows:

I'm looking for some stencils for a modern Soviet project (ZSU-23-4) like the blue ones shown below (1/35) - a search of the usual suppliers (Archer et al) turned up mostly WWII German or Allied stuff and I was wondering if anyone could recommend anything?

Thanks!

I've got some generic Archer stuff downstairs, I'll try to paint some Tamiya clear blue over them and see how it looks.

Otherwise, I got nothing.

M

This is 4M version, the V1 black.

And this version German language, change the original.
The original Russian, black silver fonts, (aluminium).

The only solution I can think of is to obtain some original full size images, and then shrink them to the required size. Once you have that done you can either print them yourself on decal paper or send them to someone and have them printed for you.

Too small fonts 1/35.
1-2 redundance decal paper (old kits), spraying blue or black, matt lack, cut.

Well, looking at a few examples from my "Soviet Placard" collection below, here's what I would do --
Paint some squares of .005 styrene sheet metallic blue. (or aluminum, or black) Add model railroad or aircraft stenciling over it. Don't worry about what it says, or what font it's in. Just having the text in the right general shape will be good enough if you're looking at it at an angle throught the hatch. Anyone saying "Hey, that's not what it's supposed to say" really ought to get a job with the Secret Service running down counterfeiters...

Real Placards:





As for the actual stenciling, I find railroad decals for locomotives and rolling stock to provide almost exactly what I need in any given situation. You can make out white and yellow stenciling on this particular sheet. It even has solid black you can cut out and use underneath any of the stenciling.







A few sheets from different railroads should last you at least a couple of days...

Thanks everyone - great ideas all around!

You guys are an incredible source of knowledge!

yuk!
too light on the silver background placards and blue text on black background on the black

oh well, it was worth a try.

I don't mean to

but for an even easier method foget what I said before. Take some blue confetti, cut it to the proper size, and scratch lettering in it. There's silver underneath.
You can be as careful or quick as you want. This took me all of five seconds, and while it looks like gibberish straight on, when I look down on it as if through a hatch (about a 30 degree angle) it looks amazingly like text. You can even scratch in grids or whatever you want, as in my previous photos of the real placards. Take a look:


And for more mundane data placards, here's another sheet I've been using. As you can see I use them quite a bit.