Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Hardest Part of Wearing Medals Is Getting Them Right
Anyone who has assembled a relative’s medal group knows the feeling. You have the service record, you have a shoebox of medals or a list of entitlements, and you have no confidence at all about which one sits closest to the heart. Order of wear is not a matter of taste — it is prescribed, and getting it wrong is the sort of thing a veteran spots from across a parade ground.
Military Shop medals exist to remove that anxiety. The company has been mounting medals in Australia for more than 30 years, and in 2026 it pairs that workshop with something no competitor has: a free, interactive Rack Builder that assembles the rack on screen, in the correct order, before you spend a cent. This review walks through the whole medals operation — the builder, the mounting standards, MagnaRack®, the framing service, and what a rack actually costs.
Why Replica Medals Exist in the First Place
Original medals are irreplaceable. Wearing them to a march, a funeral or an Anzac Day service puts a one-of-a-kind object at risk of being knocked, lost or damaged, and no amount of care undoes that. Replicas solve it cleanly.
- Available in full-size and miniature versions
- Produced in durable, long-lasting materials
- Faithful reproductions suitable for wear at official events
- A safe alternative that keeps the originals protected at home
- Covering military, police, emergency services and corrective services awards
The medal library runs deep: Order of Australia, campaign and operational service medals, long service and national medals, civilian awards, and historical groups from the Boer War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. If a relative earned it, there is almost certainly a replica for it. You can browse the replica medal range here.
Inside the Rack Builder, Step by Step
The Rack Builder opens at app.rackbuilder.com.au and needs no account to use. It starts by asking three questions:
- Rack choice — build a Custom Rack from scratch, or start from a pre-set Common Group
- Award type — National and Military Awards or Civil and Service Awards
- Country — which nation’s order of precedence applies
Answer those and the builder itself opens: a searchable award library down the left, and a live preview on the right split into three panels — Full Size Medals, Miniatures Medals and Ribbon Bar. Add an award and all three update at once, so you are never guessing what the miniature set or the ribbon bar will look like. Each panel carries its own running price, there is a Personalise button per panel, and the rack can be named and saved with Save Rack to come back to later.
When the rack is right, you either Request Quote or Place Order and the same Australian mounters who built the preview build the real thing.
Order of Wear Is Handled For You
This is the part that earns the tool its keep. The award library is not alphabetical — it is presented in order of precedence, starting exactly where the Australian system starts:
- Victoria Cross
- George Cross
- Cross of Valour (CV)
- Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) — Civil, then Military
- Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) — Civil, then Military
- … and onward through the full sequence
Because the builder applies the correct sequence automatically, you cannot accidentally hang a long service medal ahead of a gallantry award. The rack that appears on screen is the rack that is regulation-correct, and it is precision mounted in Australia afterwards. The system is powered by Medals of Australia, and Military Shop bills it as Australia’s first interactive medal builder — on the evidence, that claim holds up.
What a Rack Actually Costs — Live Numbers
Most medal suppliers make you request a quote before you learn anything. The Rack Builder prices every panel as you go, which means you can cost a set in about ninety seconds. Here is what the tool returned on a test build:
- One medal — Full Size $60.00 · Miniature $45.00 · Ribbon Bar $12.25
- Two medals — Full Size $140.00 · Miniature $105.00 · Ribbon Bar $24.50
- Three medals — Full Size $290.00 · Miniature $235.00 · Ribbon Bar $36.75
Two things stand out. The ribbon bar is a flat $12.25 per medal — clean, predictable arithmetic. And the per-medal price varies by award rather than being a flat rate, which is what you would expect when a Victoria Cross replica and a service medal are not the same object to manufacture. Every figure includes the mounting; you are not quoted a medal price and then surprised by a labour charge.
For a family costing a grandfather’s WWII group before committing, being able to see the total move as each medal is added is worth far more than a price list. Open the Rack Builder and try it — nothing is charged until you place an order.
Common Medal Groups: the Shortcut
If the group is a standard one, you do not need to build anything. Military Shop stocks pre-assembled, professionally mounted common groups in both full-size and miniature, ready to wear:
- First World War — WWI Pair, WWI Trio
- Second World War — WW2 Pair, Pacific, Pacific + Defence, Pacific + ASM45-75, Africa, Africa + Defence
- Vietnam — the standard Vietnam service group
- Modern service — ANSM, AOSM, ADM, ADM + AOSM, ADM + ANSM, DLSM + ADM, AOSM-CT/SR
- Operational — Border Protection, Greater Middle East Operations, Special Operations, Logistics & Support
There is a bundling option worth knowing about too: Medal Group Sets save 10% and pair matching full-size and miniature medals with a ribbon bar in a premium protective case. If you need all three formats — and most people who wear medals eventually do — that is the cheapest route to them. The full list of common groups and set bundles is available here.
Court Mount or Swing Mount, Full-Size or Miniature
Two choices come up on every order, and both are simple once explained. Court mounting fixes the medals flat against a backing board so they sit still and cannot clash together — the neater, more protective option, and the usual choice for a rack that will be worn regularly or framed. Swing mounting leaves the medals hanging free from the bar in the traditional manner. Military Shop offers both across full-size and miniature sets.
On size: full-size medals are worn on ceremonial occasions and daytime parades; miniatures are worn with mess dress and formal evening wear. A ribbon bar covers everyday uniform wear where medals themselves are not worn. That is why the builder prices all three at once — a complete kit is three items, not one.
MagnaRack®: Wearing Medals Without Putting Holes in a Jacket
The single most practical innovation in the Military Shop medals range is MagnaRack®, an Australian magnetic mounting system that replaces the traditional pin back entirely.
- Ultra-strong magnets with a smart sawtooth non-slip grip hold the rack securely in place
- No pinholes or damage — safe on a ceremonial jacket, a leather jacket, a sports coat or a casual blazer
- Versatile — available for full-size medals, miniatures and ribbon bars
- Perfect alignment — adjust instantly so medals and ribbons sit straight every time
- ADF compliant — built to meet ADF dress standards
- Dual-purpose — the Full-Size MagnaRack® includes both the magnetic backing and a traditional brooch bar
- Works with replicas or originals — your issued medals can be updated to the system
Ordering it is three steps: find your medal or common group, select Magnetic (MagnaRack®) in the Mounting Options, add to cart. One piece of buying information worth knowing up front — MagnaRack® cannot be retrofitted to an existing mount, so medals already mounted need to be remounted to incorporate it. The in-house mounters handle that as part of the service.
For anyone who has wrestled a pin through the lapel of a good jacket on an Anzac Day morning, or watched a parent decline to wear a rack because of what it does to their coat, this is a genuinely meaningful fix.
Framing and Honour Boards: Medals That Stay on the Wall
Not every medal group is meant to be worn. For families preserving a relative’s service, Military Shop’s framing service is built by the same medal mounters rather than outsourced to a picture framer.
- Solid timber frames, with or without a portrait photo panel
- Triple-layer acid-free, museum-grade mat boards in navy blue or olive green
- Medals swing mounted to the official Order of Wear, paired with a matching ribbon bar
- A custom engraved nameplate on a gold-finished plate — name, rank, service number and service dates
- Up to twelve medals in a custom framed display; frame size follows the medal count
Ordering follows the same two paths as the rest of the medals range. Pick a common group, choose frame style and mat colour, enter the nameplate details, upload a photo if you want one, and add it to the basket. Or build a custom frame: choose the style, set the number of medals, enter the nameplate details, then add your medals selecting the Full Size Unmounted option so they arrive ready to be framed rather than mounted for wear. If you are supplying a photo, 1200 × 1800 pixels gives the best result.
Customers who have used it describe the finished frames in emotional rather than commercial terms — several mention giving a framed group to a friend or relative and the reaction it produced, and more than one notes that a five-medal frame cost about what two medals cost elsewhere. Those are paraphrased impressions rather than quotes, but the pattern across the wall of feedback is consistent.
Mounting Your Originals, or Doing It Yourself
Two further routes exist for people who are not buying replicas. The team will remount and restore original medals to official standards — the usual reason being a rack that has aged, lost its backing or needs a new award added. And for anyone who prefers to do the work personally, unmounted medals are supplied with ribbons, ready to assemble, alongside ribbon bars in custom or stocked configurations, plus accessories, components and Tasmanian Blackwood presentation boxes.
Getting It Right the First Time
A short checklist that will save a phone call later:
- Confirm the entitlement before you build. The builder gets the order right, but only you can confirm which awards belong in the group — check the service record through official channels first.
- Decide wear or display early. Worn racks want court or swing mounting; framed groups want Full Size Unmounted medals.
- Price all three formats. Full-size, miniature and ribbon bar are separate items — the Medal Group Sets bundle saves 10% if you need the lot.
- Choose MagnaRack® before mounting, not after, since it cannot be added to a finished mount.
- Save the rack. The builder keeps a named rack so you can come back, add a new award later and reorder against the same configuration.
- Ask if unsure. The medals team is on 02 6123 2996, or there is a support form on the site.
The workshop sits behind all of it: ADF compliant, veteran-trusted, 30+ years of experience, and mounting done in Australia rather than shipped offshore.
Verdict
Plenty of suppliers sell replica medals. Very few let you see the finished rack, in the correct order of wear, with a live price, before you commit — and fewer still back it with an in-house Australian mounting workshop, a pin-free magnetic system and a museum-grade framing service. For families assembling a relative’s group and for members adding a new award, the Military Shop medals operation removes almost every reason to get it wrong.
| Category | Assessment |
| Rack Builder | 9.5 / 10 — free, no account, live preview across all three formats with running prices |
| Order of wear accuracy | 9.5 / 10 — precedence applied automatically, from the Victoria Cross down |
| Mounting quality | 9 / 10 — ADF compliant, court or swing, mounted in Australia by a 30-year team |
| Price transparency | 9 / 10 — every panel priced as you build; ribbon bar a flat $12.25 per medal |
| MagnaRack® | 9 / 10 — no pinholes, ADF compliant, works with originals or replicas |
| Framing service | 9 / 10 — solid timber, acid-free mats, engraved nameplate, up to twelve medals |
| Range depth | 8.5 / 10 — military, police, emergency and corrective services, WWI through modern operations |
| Overall | 9.0 / 10 — the most complete medal service in Australia, and the only one you can rehearse for free |
Ready to see your own group laid out correctly? Start with the Military Shop medals range and Rack Builder — building and saving a rack costs nothing.
Disclaimer
This review is based on publicly available information from the Military Shop and Rack Builder websites, live pricing returned by the Rack Builder tool, and published policies at the time of writing. Prices, mounting options, stock availability and bundle discounts change over time and should be confirmed on the retailer’s own site before purchase. Medal entitlement and order of wear depend on an individual service record — confirm entitlements through official channels before ordering replicas or mounting services.
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