Hello. I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this...

I was always under the impression that the diamond shaped insignia that was painted on the back of Rangers' helmets on D-Day were orange in colour?

In two sets of 1:35 figure decals however (the Alliance Modelworks and Passion Models sets) they seem to only have the diamonds in lighter yellow?

I've only ever seen reference to the diamonds being orange...can anybody please clarify if the decals in yellow are correct?

Thanks!

The Rangers' shoulder patches authorized by the Army a yellow bordered blue diamond with RANGERS in yellow letters, which might explain why the decals are in yellow - the companies assumed the diamond was supposed to be the same. Legend has it that the Rangers hated the insignia and referred to it as 'The Blue Sunoco' patch; individual battalions had scrolls made in theatre to replace them as soon as they could. It wasn't until 1983/84 that the scrolls associated with the Ranger Battalions were actually "authorized" (legend has it because Ronald Reagan had invited Sgt. Steven Trujillo of 2nd Batt. to the State of the Union and the Army realized both Ranger Battalions were wearing semi-unauthorized scrolls under the current regs - the scrolls suddenly got a quick blessing). Anyway, to answer your question the helmet diamonds were orange in everything I've seen, too and don't forget the little battalion number in the diamond.

Thanks John...very interesting indeed, I've seen the scrolls for 2nd and 5th Ranger battalions but thought those were at the WW2 stage official but for dress uniform only... I've learned something!

I think you have a point, the decal companies probably assumed that the helmet diamonds took the same yellow as the yellow and blue shoulder patches.

In the very extensive Googling I've done I've never seen a yellow diamond on the helmet.

Glad I was able to help somewhat. The exact origins of the scrolls allegedly goes back to Darby's Rangers IIRC; the Army declined to approve the scroll and foisted the Blue Sunoco on them. The Blue Sunoco patch led to a few brawls between Rangers and other units over comments about them being a 'gas outfit', etc.

I wouldn't insult a Ranger!