U.S. Navy
Curtiss F11C-2/BF2C-2
VF-1B USS Saratoga 1937

Yellow Wings Decals, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

Yellow Wings Decals are available online from Squadron

48-058 is another of the new Yellow-Wings decals sheets from their recent round of releases.

This sheet too returns to the Yellow-Wings Decals roots in that it supplies decals for four pre-war U.S. Navy machines from the what is termed the ‘yellow wing” era of U.S. Navy/Marine Corps aviation when their machines wore brightly painted ship/squadron colours on their tails and the upper surfaces of their wings were painted orange-yellow.

The sheet is also what Yellow-Wings term a “complete package” in that it provides all of markings required to model four different machines.

Details of each option are as follows:

• Curtiss F11C-2 Goshawk Bureau number 9282 assigned to the 6th Section of
  VF-1B aboard the USS Saratoga in 1933. It is painted in overall painted aluminium with its tail surfaces painted in insignia red (as were all USS Saratoga’s aircraft of the era) and the upper surfaces of its wings in orange yellow. Its engine cowling is in lemon yellow– you will have to paint this (and all of the other options on the sheet) yourself – with a black bordered lemon yellow upper wing chevron and fuselage band both of which are supplied as decals. The other markings comprise a white “battle C”, the bureau number, fuselage side codes, service identification (U.S. NAVY titles), the squadron insignia, model designation, national insignia and a set of red, yellow and blue prop tips
  

• Curtiss F11C-2 Goshawk Bureau number 9333 the Section Leader’s aircraft of the 1st Section of VB-3 assigned to the USS Saratoga in 1937. It wears a royal red engine cowling a royal red fuselage band and upper wing chevron; the latter two markings are supplied as decals. The other markings comprise a white “battle C”, the bureau number, fuselage side codes, service identification (U.S. NAVY titles), the squadron insignia, model designation, national insignia and a set of red, yellow and blue prop tips.
  

• Curtiss BFC-2 Goshawk Bureau number 9277 the Section Leader’s aircraft of the 5th Section of VB-3 assigned to the USS Saratoga in 1937 . It wears a willow green engine cowling with willow green fuselage band and upper wing chevron; these latter two markings are supplied as decals. The other markings comprise the bureau number, a white “battle C”, fuselage side codes, service identification (U.S. NAVY titles), the squadron insignia, model designation, national insignia and a set of red, yellow and blue prop tips.

• Curtiss BFC-2 Goshawk Bureau number 9267 the Section Leader’s aircraft of the 4th Section of VB-6 assigned to the USS Enterprise in 1938. It wears a black engine cowling with black fuselage band and upper wing chevron; these two markings are supplied as decals as well as true blue tail surfaces indicating the machine was assigned to the USS Enterprise. The other markings comprise the bureau number, a white “battle C”, fuselage side codes, service identification (U.S. NAVY titles), the squadron insignia, model designation, national insignia and a set of red, yellow and blue prop tips.
  

Comprehensive supporting information is included with the sheet as is the standard with Yellow-Wings products. You are provided with two A-4 size pages. One page carries a four view coloured illustration of the depicted machine to show decal placement as well as tabulated data on the BF2C, whilst the other sheet carries both detailed instructions for the painting of your model that includes a table that matches proprietary model paints to the shade used by the U.S. Navy to paint their one to one scale machines as well as detailed instructions on how to apply the decals. As a bonus, a reproduction of the letter from T.P. Wright, the Vice President of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company to the Inspector of Naval Aircraft detailing the painting of each of the F11C-2 is provided in the pack.

The decals themselves have been printed by Microscale. As with all Microscale products, they are well up to the standards of this company. They are in perfect register, thinly printed and have an absolute minimum of carrier film surrounding each subject. No stencil data is provided at all.

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Thumbnail panels:

The recommended kits are the Classic Airframes and Lindburg ones. A note on the placement guide advises that there is an update set available for the ancient Lindburg kit from the Modelshack.

The decal sheets (there are two of them, the main one as well as a smaller one that carries the markings for the USS Enterprise based option) and the two placement guide sheets come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag. A thin cardboard header card is also included to keep the decal sheet from being bent – the rear of the header also carries a brief history of the yellow wing era as well as instructions for applying the decals.

Again, I am impressed with this new direction taken by Yellow-Wings Decals. Whilst their decals are without question first rate, they now give you complete decals for a machine rather than their previous approach of having you buy several different sheets to gather enough decals together to model your chosen subject.

Thanks to Yellow Wings Decals for the review sample.

Review Copyright © 2012 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 29 May, 2012
Last updated 29 May, 2012

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