Introduction

A finishing touch on any tank or diorama goes a long way – the devil is in the details of course. One of the prominent features that is quite an eye-catcher on WW2 tanks is the ammo, be it spent shells or full ammo compliment ready to be reloaded. Archer Fine Transfers provides extra stencil detailing for the Panther/JagdPanzer IV L70 ammo. Some of the shells used by the KwK42 gun on these beasties were:

Panzergranate 39/42 (Pzgr. 39/42)
• Type: Armor Piercing Capped Ballistic Cap High Explosive
• Projectile weight: 7.2 kg (16 lb.)
• Explosive filler: 18 g of phlegmatized RDX
• Round weight: 14.3 kg (32 lb.)
• Round length: 893.2 mm (2 ft. 11.17 in)
• Cartridge case length: 640 mm
• Muzzle velocity: 925 m/s - 1000 m/s depending on source being used.
• Average penetration performance established against rolled homogenous steel armor plate laid back at 30° from the vertical:

100 m: 138 mm
500 m: 124 mm
1,000 m: 111 mm
1,500 m: 99 mm
2,000 m: 89 mm

Panzergranate 40 (Hk) (Pzgr. 40/42)
• Type: Armor Piercing Composite Rigid (tungsten core)
• Projectile weight: 4.75 kg (10.5 lb.)
• Round weight: 11.55 kg (25.5 lb.)
• Round length: 875.2 mm
• Cartridge case length: 640 mm
• Muzzle velocity: 1120 m/s
• Average penetration performance established against rolled homogenous steel armor plate laid back at 30° from the vertical:

100 m: 194 mm
500 m: 174 mm
1,000 m: 149 mm
1,500 m: 127 mm
2,000 m: 106 mm

Sprenggranate 42 (Sprgr. 42)
• Type: High Explosive
• Projectile weight: 5.74 kg
• Round weight: 11.14 kg
• Round length: 929.2 mm
• Cartridge case length: 640 mm
• Muzzle velocity: 700 m/s

Review

Archer decals come in a packaging with a single decal sheet and simple color and placement instructions with added (very thorough) tips for correct application of the decals. The decal sheet gives four separate options:

A – High Explosive (HE) round
B – Smoke round
C – Armor piercing round with ballistic cap
D – Armor piercing round with tungsten hardened core

There are 32 separate decals for each section, giving a total number of 128 shells, which is more than enough for several combat loads of these rounds or a decent reloading scene for your diorama. The decals are printed by Cartograf, the printing company from Italy that has become the benchmark in quality right up there with Microscale. The print is perfect, on minimum carrier film and the film itself is very thin. The register is flawless, and every detail is sharp and crisp. I have used with success Model Master, Gunze Sangyo, and Microscale decal solutions on Cartograf decals, but to be sure try any of these first on a scrap piece with AFT logo or some other decal you don’t plan to use to avoid any potential problems.

The stencil instructions provided are more than adequate and show clearly where each marking is supposed to be.

Color description is provided although no specific colors numbers are called out, but since this is WW2 German territory I would assume these are very well known to a wide number of modelers interested in this modeling period. Not all of the decals are explained as to what they represent, so I took the liberty of researching this a bit for the rest of us that are not totally familiar with German WW2 stenciling:

• Numbers 14, 28, 86, 92 are bursting charge numbers. Place, day, month, year of fusing with work mark
• Place, day, month, year of shell filling with work mark. The large II, III, IV are the weight classes. KPS, FES or KES stands for the bimetallic type of driving band
• Color of tracer band is provided where necessary (i.e. the smoke round)

Conclusion

This is a very well designed decal sheet that gives you an eye-catching level of detail that most models require to reach the next level. It is researched, simple to use, available and affordable - and as such very recommendable for all your Panther/JagdPanzer models.