Yellow Wing Decals 1/72 US National Insignia Sheets

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

The newest 1/72 sheets from Yellow Wing Decals offers some very useful material: US national insignias in three different styles. While finding post-war and even WW2 star and bar insignia is not a problem, these earlier styles can be quite challenging to find. Now, with these new sheets, this will not be a problem.

Sheet 72-015 provides pre-WWII national insignia, with the red meatball centered in the star. These insignia were used only on the wings up until the Neutrality Patrol markings added fuselage roundels. Sizes include 24” and 36” for Neutrality Patrol fuselage markings, and 20”, 30”, 32”, 45”, 50”, 54”, and 60” sizes for other applications.

Sheet 72-024 provides the next step of national insignia, with the white star in a blue circle, without the red meatball. This style was used from May 1942 to June 1943. These are split into six basic sizes for wings (40”, 45”, 50”, 55”, 60”, and 105”) and six sizes for the fuselage (35”, 40”, 45”, 50”, 55”, and 60”). This sheet also has 20”, 25”, and 30” insignia as well, for those requiring non-standard sizes.

Sheet 72-025 provides national insignia for Operation Torch, when the roundel received a broad yellow ring. This sheet again provides the standard sizes, including 24”, 35”, 40”, 45”, 50”, 55”, and 60” sizes.

All three of these sheets are very useful to have, as not only do they provide quality national insignia not often found, but they will provide a consistent color appearance across several models. My thanks to Yellow Wings Decals for the review samples.