Yellow-Wings Decals 1/72 Multi-Aircraft Series #1
By Matt Bittner
Yellow-Wings Decals is trying something new in 1/72. Instead of releasing a decal sheet catering to a single-subject aircraft, they're now releasing a decal sheet containing more than one specific aircraft. For their first release - Multi-Aircraft Series #1 - the subjects contained within are:
- Douglas TBD-1 Devastator (VT-6), USS Enterprise (CV-6) 1940 (finished with an aluminum fuselage and yellow-orange wing and horizontal tail tops, with a blue fin and rudder)
- Curtiss P-36A Hawk, 77th Pursuit Squadron (PS), Squadron Commander's Aircraft, Moffet Field, California (finished overall in natural metal with a red cowl and fuselage stripes)
- Douglas SBD-1 Dauntless, USMC VMB-2 San Diego, 1940 (finished with an aluminum fuselage and yellow-orange wing and horizontal tail tops, with a green cowl and fuselage stripe)
- Grumman F3F-1, USN VF-7, USS Wasp, 1940 (finished with an aluminum fuselage and yellow-orange wing tops with an overall black tail, red cowl and red fuselage stripe)
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The decals appear to be in register and are nicely printed, especially since they're printed by Microscale.
One thing Yellow-Wings hope to do with this series is cater to the short-run and/or resin kits. This first release contains the F3F-1 which was done by MPM/Special Hobby. The rest of the subject matter kits are called out for on the instructions, except for the SBD-1. I know Hasegawa does the later versions, but I'm unsure if anyone caters for the SBD-1 - nor do I know what the differences is between the -1 and the later marks. Hopefully creating an SBD-1 from one of the other kits, like Hasegawa, isn't a difficult endeavor.
In any event, I like the direction Yellow-Wings is taking. This way instead of having extra decals for one specific aircraft type, you have decals that can be applied to other models easily. Usually with one-type-decals you only receive enough national and common markings to be used on either one or two kits. Yellow-Wings provide enough decals for all four aircraft.
I truly hope Yellow-Wings does well with this new way of producing decals.
Thank you to Yellow-Wings Decals for supplying the review set.