Swastika problem and how to solve it?

[durb]

This subject has been touched probably many times by more or less frustfrated modelers who find it difficult to have the complete decal sheets for their aircraft models with swastikas included in kits representing WW2 Luftwaffe planes. I think that this article sums it well up: http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v18/v18n2p34_Desjardin.html

As absurd as the swastika problem is regarding to model kits (just hobby items without political purposes), it seems that the swastika ban has unfortunately come to stay in the modelling world and thus we are forced to find out some practical solutions to resolve it:

- "aftermarket" or specially manufactured decals - I think that this is a rather expensive way when one is obliged to find out supplier from the web and order them from foreign country - when postage costs are included the price of small swastikas go well up and there is no point to use this option if one is not going to build a entire squadron of Luftwaffe planes. If you are going to build only couple of Luftwaffe planes, there is little point to waste money on expensive special decal sheet including only swastikas.

- using masking techniques to paint your own swastikas - this takes some time but is probably the best "poor man´s solution" - it would be interesting to see how this is done and what could be the best method to do this for less skilled modeller - specially when it comes to more demanding smallish 1:72 scale, a youtube step-by-step video or other visual presentation could be very instructive for less skilled modellers who want just to make a "final touch" to make their Bf 109´s complete with swastikas at the tail and what is the easiest way to do that - however this kind of webcontent would perhaps be considered as a neonazi propaganda video by some people...has anyone taken a risk to make a good presentation available in the web?

- making a choice as a consumer: buying products of those model companies who take the daring political risk to provide swastikas (or at least their parts) in the decal sheets of their kits - this is perhaps the best solution for a beginner who wants to have his German WW2 plane with complete markings including the important detail of the swastika at the tail. To find a good suitable kit with swastika decal included means to go through the kit reviews of chosen object - usually the viewers mention if the swastika is included with a decal sheet provided with the kit.

[Karelia]

As your link points out this is total hypocricy as long as using communist symbols is politically correct. What utter non-sense!

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

While I agree that government censorship is always problematic, it really shouldn't be necessary to link to a known Holocaust denial and Nazi apologetics website to make that point.

[Karelia]

To avoid any misunderstandings my comment referred only to the cencorship of swastikas. Personally I do not deny any genocides, whether executed by the communists, the Nazies, the Turks or anybody else - neither do I support the communism, the Nazism, the Islamist extremism, the Zionism nor any other murderous/racist ideology.

The nature of that website did not come through from that link.

[durb]

Well, my fault - I did not check what the "Institute for Historical Review" stands for. I just came across of the mentioned link article as a modeller without any political interest. It is a pity if IHR has tried to "hijack" the swastika problem of modelling world to progress their agenda as the swastika decals in kit models should have nothing to do with the politics. I think that the current swastika denial just creates unnecessary extra work for a average modeller. Lets take for example Finnish Airforce (FAF) planes of WW2 which had the blue swastika painted as a national insignia since 1918 - years before the NSDAP was founded in Germany. The FAF insignia turned out to be a problem for one Russian model kit retailer - he displayed a kit model representing WW2 FAF plane with authentic blue swastikas in his shop and as a consequence he had to deal with the police who closed his shop to inspect if there was more "nazist" material to be found. Does this mean that a Russian kit modeller has no right to build German and Finnish planes of WW2 with authentic markings if he is going to represent them in public model exposition displays?

I have not problem to see Polikarpov I-16 or Yak fighter of some well-known Soviet ace to have a decal of slogan "Za Stalina" (For the Stalin) or something similar if it has been really painted in his plane and the kit tries to be authentic replica of his plane of certain time based on historical evidence. I do not think that the kit builder is a stalinist for using such decal in his kit. I personally do not like the use decals representing some Stalin-era slogans in my own VVS RKKA planes (so I can choose those Soviet planes which by historical evidence were equipped just with red star insignia and tactical numbers or without direct praise for Stalin). However I do not deny other modellers to use them because of the historical crimes committed by Stalin´s regime - the kit modellers have full right to build a interesting and as authentic kit as possible. Even if go back in history, I guess that Soviet pilots had little to say what kind of slogans and political markings were painted to their planes - they were "obligatory decorations" for them as well as the swastikas were for Luftwaffe pilots. To deny by legal means stalinist-era decorations in kit models presenting WW2 Soviet planes would be equally absurd as the current swastika denial.

[David W]

We are lucky here in the U.K we do not seem to have this problem in kits for sale here. Perhaps U.K retailers could ship kits via their websites to buyers in other countries.

[Fliegende Untertasse]

Scrap decal film can be cut to strips and re-assembled.
Balkenkreutzes and Normandy-stripes make the best raw-material.