U.S. Navy BF2C-1 Biplane
VF-5B USS Ranger

Yellow Wings Decals, 1/32 scale

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

Yellow Wings Decals are available online from Squadron

Sheet 32-008 from Yellow-Wings decals returns to their roots in that it supplies decals for two pre-war U.S. Navy machines from the what is termed the ‘yellow wing” era when their machines wore brightly painted ship/squadron colours and the upper surfaces of their wings were painted orange-yellow.

The sheet is also what Yellow-Wings term a complete package in that it provides the complete markings for a pair of VB-5B Curtiss BF2C-1 Goshawks aboard the USS Ranger in 1935.

Appropriately, both machines wear overall painted aluminium finish with willow green tails indicating that they belong to the USS Ranger. The two options are:

• Bureau number 9589 assigned to the 1st Section. Its lower half of the engine cowling is painted in gloss insignia red – you will have to paint this yourself – and the upper wing chevron is also in the same colour, this time however you are supplied a decal for this marking. The other markings comprise the bureau number, fuselage side codes, service identification (U.S. NAVY titles), the squadron insignia, model designation, national insignia and a set of red, yellow and blue prop tips
  

• Bureau number 9593 the Section Leader’s aircraft of the 3rd Section. It wears a true blue engine cowling – again, you have to paint this yourself – a true blue fuselage band and a true blue upper wing chevron; the latter two markings are supplied as decals. The other markings comprise the bureau number, fuselage side codes, service identification (U.S. NAVY titles), the squadron insignia, model designation, national insignia and a set of red, yellow and blue prop tips.
  

Comprehensive supporting information is included with the sheet as is the standard with Yellow-Wings products. You are provided with two A-4 size pages. One page carries a four view coloured illustration of the depicted machine to show decal placement as well as tabulated data on the BF2C, whilst the other sheet carries both detailed instructions for the painting of your model that includes a table that matches proprietary model paints to the shade used by the U.S. Navy to paint their one to one scale machines as well as detailed instructions on how to apply the decals.

The decals themselves have been printed by Microscale. As with all Microscale products, they are well up to the standards of this company. They are in perfect register, thinly printed and have an absolute minimum of carrier film surrounding each subject.

A couple of negatives, no stencil data is provided and the ‘Battle C” for the 1st section machine shown on the placement guide is not provided – this latter one is really not an issue though as you can model the aircraft without it!

The recommended kit is the ancient Hasegawa one.

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The decal sheets (there are three of them, the main one as well as two errata sheets that supply the correct sized service identification titles and the upper wing numbers) and the two placement guide sheets come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag. A thin cardboard header card is also included to keep the decal sheet from being bent – the rear of the header also carries a brief history of the yellow wing era as well as instructions for applying the decals.

I am impressed with this new direction taken by Yellow-Wings Decals. Whilst their decals are without question first rate, they now give you complete decals for a machine rather than their previous approach of having you buy several different sheets to gather enough decals together to model your chosen subject.

Thanks to Yellow Wings Decals for the review sample.

Review Copyright © 2012 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 29 May, 2012
Last updated 31 May, 2012

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