Reviewed by Glen Porter

Yellow Wings Decals are available online from Squadron

Background

Yellow-Wings Decals exist for the soul purpose of documenting, in decal form, the pre-war years (1930-41) of US Naval Aviation, also known as the Golden Years. This period saw some of the most colourful aircraft ever and was also a transitional time as aircraft design changed from biplane to monoplane.

The Decals

72-011 is for the USN Boeing F4B-4 Biplane of VF-2 (1 aircraft-USS Lexington) , VF-6 (2 aircraft-USS Saratoga), VB-2 (1 aircraft-USS Lexington) and VB-5 (1 aircraft-USS Ranger). There are enough markings to build five (5) complete models including national markings, aircraft and squadron codes, serial numbers, squadron badges and wing, fuselage and nose stripes.

There is a very useful 2 page “Instructions for Decal Placement”. Under the headings of General Painting Instructions, Fuselage Band, Tri-Color Prop Tips & Logos, Wing Chevrons, Squadron Badges and LSO Tail Stripes you will find lots of info that is not obvious to the average builder such as colours and the order in which some decals should be placed on the model.

Then we have a list of “Suggested Model Paints”. On one side is the”Official U.S. Navy & Marine Corps Colors” including FS numbers and on the other, model paints that closely match these colours from Tamiya, Testors or Polly Scale. Very helpful indeed.

Next is the five decal placement guides. One complete side of an A4 page for each aircraft with full specifications and three view diagram. These diagrams are not in colour so care will need to be taken, however, the colours are clearly marked as are the locations for all the decals.

The kit recommended by and for this sheet is the Monogram/Accurate Miniatures Boeing F4B-4 kit. An oldy but a goody, it now has some very nice alternative decals.

72-013 is specifically for the USN SOC-3 Seagull and covers six aircraft from six different squadrons.

The subjects are:

• VO-1 on USS Arizona, USS Nevada and USS Pennsylvania.

• VO-2 from USS Tennessee, USS Oklahoma and USS California.

• VO-3 flying off USS Idaho, USS Mississippi and USS New Mexico.

• VO-4 on USS West Virginia, USS Colorado and USS Maryland.

• VCS-9 from USS Honolulu only and

• VMS-2, a Marine Corps Squadron based at San Diego.

The last aircraft, from VMS-2 is a land based aircraft with wheeled undercarriage while the rest are float planes.

Instructions are the same as above except that this one covers six aircraft instead of five.

This sheet also has two small supplementary sheets. One has green elevator stripes for the fifth aircraft from VCS-9 and the other has all of the ships names which were left off of the main sheet.

The recommended model for this decal sheet is the Hasagawa SOC-3 “Seagull”.

An oddity. For every aircraft on these two sheets, there is two, and in some cases four, white Es with a black shadow. I'm told this is an award of excellence of some kind but it's not shown anywhere in the instructions.

They might be old kits but with these decals and in the recommended colours they will certainly look a treat.

It will be interesting to see what Yellow Wings Decals come up with next.

Watch this space.

Thanks to Yellow Wings Decals for the review sample.

Review Copyright © 2008 by Glen Porter
This Page Created on 20 October, 2008
Last updated 20 October, 2008

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