Yellow-Wings Decals

1/72 TBD Devastator Section Leaders Aircraft 1937-1941

Stock Number: 72-002, 72-026

Reviewed By Howie Belkin, #16

MSRP: $12.95 USD

As U.S. military aircraft evolved from bi-planes to modern monoplanes before Pearl Harbor, they were painted with high viz Orange-Yellow upper wings (wrapped around and under the leading edge), along with elaborately painted matching wing chevrons, fuselage bands and forward cowlings designating the section within a Squadron; the aircraft tails were color coded for each aircraft carrier, and they sported squadron insignias over aluminum doped fabric or grey painted metal fuselages.  Yellow-Wings Decals (YWD) company is in the process of producing an extensive collection of 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 decals to enable you to produce most of those awesome "Yellow-Winged" as well as other between the wars a/c, all printed by Microscale.

I was given two TBD Devastator sheets to review.  Each is loaded with individual decals that allow you to build any of the 18 aircraft for each of two Torpedo Squadrons on the decal sheet (36 a/c per sheet).   But you’ll have to borrow Squadron insignia elsewhere if that’s your ambition, because there are six sets of Squadron insignia per decal sheet which is not bad for a 1/72 sheet.  Crammed as the sheets are, there are enough fuselage bands or wing chevrons to do six complete aircraft (two Sections, or one of each of the six Section leaders, or…)  You have to paint the cowlings to match the chevron color and the tails to match its aircraft carrier color.  Hey, you’re a modeler, right?  The directions provide FS, Testors and Gunze Sangyo color matches.  You’ll also have to add the thin deck landing angle stripe on the vertical stabilizer but all the number codes, U.S. Navy and Serial number stencils and “E” for excellence in training competition are included as decals, as well as time saving decals for the tri-color propeller tips.  A small separate sheet provides the 3 perfect sets of each of the two Squadron insignia per decal sheet.  The directions provided help you produce these Section Leaders aircraft without further reference, but if you don’t want to paint the Leaders’ wing chevrons you need both decal sets.  "Yellow-Wings Decals" is posting reference info on their website if you want to understand the color coded system thoroughly.  For example, while only the Section Leader had a fuselage band and his entire forward cowling in the Section color, a/c #2 in the Section would only have the top half of the cowling painted while #3 painted the bottom half.  YWD really makes it easy to recreate a Section, a complete Squadron or even all the aircraft that flew off one of our carriers between the World Wars.

I highly recommend them.  The clear film is thin and trimmed close to the decal art, the colors appear opaque with spot on registration.  They’re good value for your money, as you can get at least 6 a/c from a $13 sheet in 1/72 – 36 a/c if you have extra Squadron insignia!  I emailed YWD a question and without knowing I was working on a review, Wayne Tevlin responded immediately.  Sheet 72-002 provides wing chevrons that appear on the top-side of the wings on all planes, in the same color as the fuselage band.  They were red on planes 1, 2, and 3, white on planes 4, 5, and 6, blue on planes 7, 8, and 9, black on planes 10, 11, and 12, green on planes 13, 14, and 15, yellow on planes 16, 17, and 18.  The section leaders fuselage bands on sheet 72-026 are only used on numbers 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, in red, white, blue, black, green and yellow.  I’ve enjoyed building a few “yellow wings” over the years but was frustrated by the few decals options from kit and decal manufacturers.  It seems to me there’s a whole new renaissance in the hobby, with more and more new kits being produced.  Some that are replacing old models from an old “state of the art” to all new models of a/c I thought I’d never see released (MPM 1/72 F3Fs!)  Wayne is right there filling a need and doing it just right.  You can contact Yellow-Wings Decals, 204 Penn Pl., Linden, NJ 07036 U.S.A.; go to the website at http://www.yellow-wingsdecals.com/indexhtml.html or find them at better hobby shops and suppliers.

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