YHD32018 is the third and final sheet in Yellowhammer Decals’ current series covering the Douglas Dauntless and designed for use on the Trumpeter kit. 

The sheet is sub-titled Early Combat SBDs and as such, there is a mixture of the early overall light grey and the mid-war blue grey over light grey camouflage finishes.  There is even an experimental green over light grey example. 

As with the previous sheet, this one is also an assortment of United States Marine Corps and United States Navy machines. 

Markings are provided for seven aircraft in all.  The individual machines are:

• SBD-3 Bureau number 4690 of VS-3 flown by Lieutenant Junior Grade Stanley “Swede” Vejtasa from the USS Yorktown during the Battle of the Coral Sea on 8 May 1942.

• SBD-2 Bureau number 2162 belonging to Commander Howard “Brigham” Young, Commander Enterprise Air Group in the markings it wore on
  7 December, 1941.

• SBD-3 Bureau number 4537 Flown by Lieutenant Junior Grade William E. “Pappy” Hall, VS-2 aboard the USS Lexington during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

• SBD-3 Bureau number 3382 of VS-41 aboard the USS Ranger during Operation Torch in November of 1942.

• SBD-3 Bureau number 2162 of VS-3 at Naval Air Station Oakland in September of 1941.  This is the odd man out on the sheet as it is wearing an experimental camouflage scheme of “green” over light grey.

• SBD-2 Bureau number 1712 of VMBS-2 based at Ewa Mooring Mast Field, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.  Two alternative markings are offered on the sheet.  One scheme as detailed above with the other being VMB-2, which was what VMBS-2 was titled as before it was redesignated in July of 1941.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

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You get three decal sheets with this issue.  A standard sized one that contains the individual markings for each machine as well as a single set of national insignia, a second smaller sheet that carries further plane in squadron markings and the third sheet (also smaller) that holds the same single and comprehensive set of stencil data that are also present in the two other Yellowhammer sheets in this series. 

The decals themselves are produced to a very high standard.  Each and every design on the sheet is thin, sharply printed and in perfect register. 

This set also contains a set of Black Magic vinyl masks.   The masks are provided to allow you to paint the yellow surrounds to the Operation Torch machine of VS-41. 

The support material is in the form of two A-4 sized pages that are printed on both sides.  The first sheet has upper surface plan views of each option as well as three plan view of the undersides of the wings of the various options on one side whilst the reverse shows larger side profiles of each option.  The second sheets hold information particular to each option as well as instructions for masking and painting the yellow Operation Torch surrounds to the wing national insignias. 

The decal sheets, masking sheet and the two pages of support material come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag. 

This is an excellent issue from Yellowhammer that rounds out their coverage of the Dauntless.    

Recommended.