not-TOYS Publishing

German Military Unit Insignia - 1

This new title from artist Igor Donchik at not-Toys Publishing from Estonia concerns itself with unit insignia and emblems of WWII German units, from Army Group level down to select company size. 

Previous books from this publisher on German and Soviet vehicle camouflage schemes follow a similar format and have been favorably reviewed by AMPS.

Vital Statistics

Format - softcover, portrait format

Page Count - 88 pages

Size - 9” x 11.5”

Photos - none

Tables / drawings / diagrams - unit emblems, vehicle drawings. Tables of unit information 

All text and captions are in English.

What's between the Covers?

Above - the book’s table of contents

This volume shares a common format with the other books in this line, including well drawn full color renderings of unit insignia or emblems, vehicle renderings with markings shown, and camouflage colors on the vehicles called out in small inset panels which provide RAL designations as well as the German term for the color.

Thumbnail histories of select units are provided in the text, as seen above. Some vehicles are shown in single or two aspect views, giving nice looks at camouflage schemes and locations of various markings.

Above - a wide range of vehicles are shown throughout this volume, despite the focus largely being on the unit insignia and emblems themselves.

Take a look at the motorcycle variant shown at top left. A motorcycle sidecar converted for use as a sausage cooker / smoker that actually existed. This would certainly make for an interesting model!

Above right - There are a great many tables in this book, providing information on the units whose insignia is shown throughout this book. Information provided includes the unit emblem, the name of the unit, when the unit was formed or merged into another formation, and the major campaigns that the unit participated in.

The range of units depicted in this book is quite large and interesting including units not often considered as subjects for model making, such as the above image providing information on propaganda units.

Above - the variety of unit insignia / emblems and vehicles depicted is quite wide in this volume.

Above - two different Sd Kfz 250 Ausf. B  vehicles, both in 1945 camouflage are shown in detail.

Throughout the volume, the author’s text is informative and well written, giving interesting information on the units and vehicles depicted in the book. There are a few QR scan panels to be found throughout the pages of the book, these all take to the not-TOYS Publishing website.

Conclusions

For those interested in WWII German formation emblems and insignia, as well as nicely drawn renderings of a wide variety of vehicles in wartime camouflage, this book is a gold mine. Mr. Donchik does a very nice job with his renderings of the wide variety of unit emblems, and with the vehicle renderings as well. This entire series of books will be of good use to modelers!

I do understand that page space is at a premium with books that cover this much ground, but I do wish that some thumbnail photographs were provided of at least a few specific vehicles, like the sausage smoking motorcycle.

Highly Recommended

Thanks to David Doyle Books for the review copy

Reviewed by Chuck Aleshire, AMPS Chicagoland

AMPS 2nd Vice President, Midwest Region 

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