Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

Yellow Wings Decals are available online from Squadron

Yellow-Wings Decals has had a rash of releases of late.  This sheet 48-006 is amongst them and it is a revision of their earlier released 48-006 sheet.

As customers of Yellow-Wing Decals are no doubt aware, to get markings to produce a model of a Yellow-Wing era USN or USMC aircraft you needed to buy more than one of their sheets to get all of the markings you need.  This sheet however will provide you with everything you need to produce both of the options provided on the sheet.

The two options are Bureau number 0299 of VS-71 aboard the USS Wasp, and Bureau number 0296 belonging to VS-42 aboard the USS Ranger.  Both machines are in the standard finish of the era. 

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The provided markings include the yellow fuselage band for the VS-71 machine, “battle Es” – plenty of ‘em!!- fuselage 'number-letter-number', U.S. Navy titles, individual Bureau numbers, aircraft designator (TBD-1), wing chevrons, wing numbers, propeller logos, the tri-colour propeller tip markings, propeller logos, Landing Signal Officer tail stripes, and the thin black edging need for edging the fuselage, wing chevron and cowling bands.  There are also three Japanese rising sun “kill markings” provided but the placement guides/information sheets make no mention of them.

The decals themselves have been printed by Microscale.  Enough said!

As with all of the Yellow Wings decals sheets, you are provided with comprehensive support information.  You get two A-4 sized sheets that are printed on both sides.  Individual side profiles of each option are provided as well as a generic upper surface plan view.  You are also given smaller side profiles of three other options from each of the two squadrons that you could possibly model using what is provided on the sheet by basically mixing and matching the decals.  You will need to source the correct Bureau numbers to do this though. 

You also get detailed information on the painting of USN/USMC machines between 1930 and 1941 (termed the golden wing era) as well as instructions for the sequence of the application of the decals themselves as well as a chart that suggest matches paints of the era to readily available model paints – Tamiya, Testors and Polly Scale.

The decals and information sheets come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag along with a stiff header card to save everything from being bent.

I like this new approach from Yellow Wings decals as it saves you buying several different sheets to make up markings for a single aircraft.  This, coupled with first rate decals and support information make them value for money as far as I’m concerned.

Thanks to Yellow Wings Decals for the review sample.

Review Copyright © 2008 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 28 January, 2009
Last updated 28 January, 2009

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