This decal sheet represents another of the Yellow-Wings “complete aircraft packages”, this time concentrating on pre-WWII and early war Wildcats. Covered are F4F-3s from two Atlantic Fleet carriers from early 1941, USS Ranger’s VF 41 and USS Wasp’s VF 72, and an early war F4F-4 from USS Enterprise VF-6 based on Guadalcanal and flown by ace Donald Runyon, complete with “tombstone” kill tally tail markings. The set contains all the details that we’ve come to expect from Yellow Wings, including squadron badges, propeller tip markings, walkways and fine pin stripes to outline the painted cowl colors. There are minimal stencils, as was the case on Wildcats of the era. As always, the printing (by Microscale) is sharp and in perfect register, and there is a bare minimum of carrier film. Yellow-Wings recommends the Hobby Boss F4F-3 or the Tamiya F4F-4 (suitably backdated for the Atlantic based aircraft).

Along with the decals, the package includes a color and placement guide for each aircraft, as well as brief history of Don Runyon’s wartime service and a copy of his Navy Cross citation for his actions during the Guadalcanal campaign.

This represents another fine set from Yellow-Wings enabling the modeler to accurately mark two colorful pre-war Wildcats, and a famous one from the Guadalcanal campaign. My appreciation goes out to Wayne Tevlin and Yellow-Wings for providing IPMS with the review sample.