Draw Decals 1/72 Grumman Goose Decals: Alaska & Trans-Provincial

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

The Sword 1/72 Goose is a nice little kit and it builds up into a great looking flying boat.  The only downside to the kit is the lack of civilian options on the decal sheet.  These two releases from Draw Decal make a small dent into the big world of civilian Gooses out there, and what a nice pair to start with.

The first set is for an Alaska Airlines ‘Golden Nugget’ Goose.  This is a very attractive livery, made up of gold and red.  The decals include the stylized eagle for the fuselage, Alaska titles, Golden Nugget logo for the tail, and registration numbers.  All of these are printed in gold leaf and outlined in red.  In addition to these parts the sheet also has decal windows printed in an interesting combination of silver and gradated black.  Black walkways for the wing, antiglare panel, and engine trim are also included.  A final touch is a set of decals for the vent holes on the bottom of the hull.  This plane, with its white fuselage, black hull bottom, and gold & red livery, is definitely one of the more attractive civilian Gooses out there.

The second set is for Trans-Provincial Airlines Gooses.  This one is a bit simpler than the Alaska scheme, but it’s no less attractive.  The plane is overall yellow, with the hull bottom painted black.  All of the livery is also in black, accenting the yellow nicely.  The sheet has the fuselage arrow, tail logo, fuselage titles, and two sets of registration codes.  Like the Alaska sheet, this one also has the silver and black window decals and lower hull vent holes, as well as a different style of wing walkways.

Tim Bradley designed both sets, and a quick check on airliners.net shows that he’s done his homework.  Both of these sheets look to be very accurate and should look quite nice on the Sword Goose (or the Czech Master Resin kit, if you have that one).  Like all of Draw Decals, these are printed by an Alps printer, which means you’ll have to be a bit more careful with them, and trim the individual decals from the solid film.

If you’re looking to build a civilian Goose, these decals are the only game in town for now, and hopefully these two sheets just mark the beginning of a whole flood of neat civilian Goose liveries.