Internet Modeler : New Releases : Aviation RSS News Feed

Yellow-Wings Decals 1/32 U.S. Navy F9C-2 Sparrowhawk

By Matt Bittner

When you dealt with between-the-war aircraft in the past, you would have to resign yourself to the fact you were stuck with whatever scheme they provided for in decals, unless you had the resources to make your own. Even if those decals weren't printed to the higest quality possible, you had to use them. Thankfully Yellow-Wings come to the rescue.

This time they turn their attention to the Williams Bros. 1/32 Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk. The F9C-2 was one of the few successful designs that were meant as a "parasite fighter", being released from the airships U.S.S. Akron and U.S.S. Macon. While all aircraft from both airships had the same squadron badge, the colors associated with the airship, and the section they flew with changed, not to mention the serials and airship names. Thankfully this release from Yellow-Wings covers that. There are three specific aircraft catered for with these decals:

• F9C-2, 9056 (with an all-black tail and red section colors)
• F9C-2, 9058 (again with red section colors)
• F9C-2, 9060 (no color info but the serial exists)

The nice thing is the decal sheet contains text for both the U.S.S. Macon and the U.S.S. Akron. I am unsure if those three serials were for the U.S.S. Macon, the U.S.S. Akron, or both (since the planes were transferred to the Macon when the Akron crashed). You'll definitely want to perform more research to be sure.

While stencils are provided for on the decal sheet, unfortunately there is nothing in the instructions on where they are placed. You'll definitely need to perform additional research to apply those. In addition, there are "black stripe" decals that I have no idea what use they're for.

Aside from those "issues", these decals are really well done and are definitely needed to finish your Williams Bros. 1/72 F9C-2.

My thanks to Yellow-Wings Decals for allowing us to review these decals. I personally hope they'll scale them to 1/72 and release them on an upcoming "Multi-Aircraft Series" since I have a Pegasus kit waiting to be built.