RKic Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 (edited) Here is the build log for my Dauntless which I will be finishing as Sail-12, the famous SBD that shot down several Zeros at the Battle of The Coral Sea in 1942. I really love the early war USN aircraft with their fading paint and red-dotted national insignia. As with most modeling projects, I like to begin by finishing the least appealing task first. In this case that means drilling out 360+ holes in the dive breaks. Damn you Hasegawa! Damn you!!! Luckily for me, I have a drill bit which is just the right size on my Black&Decker swivel drill. It isn't exactly the tool for the job, but I don't own a dremel, and this is working so much quicker than trying it with a pin vise. As I write this, I have finished the bottom flaps and about half on the left upper wing half. I was a bit off with a few of my pilot holes, so some of two or three of the holes look off, but it doesn't strike the eye unless you look closely. No pics yet, as it isn't all that interesting looking. Edited July 1, 2008 by johnsan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted June 22, 2008 Author Share Posted June 22, 2008 Alright then. Most of my friends and gf are out of town this weekend, I don't have much in the way of errands to run, so I was able to devote much of yesterday to a power-modeling session. Given the simplicity of the Hasegawa cockpit, it went together remarkably quickly. Here is my sequence in case anybody is curious 1) spray everything down with Polly Scale interior green. Its dry enough to work with in a matter of minutes. 2) pick out the boxes and knobs with various colors atop a tooth-pick 3) add masking tape seat-belts (their arrangement being purely conjecture-but I allow myself lots of artistic license in the cockpits) 4) paint belts with testors interior tan, and add in "buckles" with aluminum *blurry but it gets the point across 5) The instrument panel is the decal flat coated and then with drops of crystal-clear over the bezels. It isn't ideal, and Hasegawa really needs to look into the sandwiched film panel or over-exaggerated raised bezel detail so many others give us in this scale. A decal looks fine in 1/72, but not in this scale! 6) apply oil wash 7) put it all together The whole thing took no longer than 4 or 5 hours. Two of those waiting for the wash to dry enough for handling The final product. The gunner's seat is very fragile, and the parts finicky. It has already been broken twice. I recommend gluing it firmly in place in its locating holes on the sidewalls and also at the bottom of the seat to the floor. Make sure it is set at a high enough angle for the guns to clear the fuselage top if you wish to display them in a deployed position. And here it is after closing up the fuselage. The wings aren't glued on yet, as I have one more to drill holes into. Once the drilling is done, I anticipate the rest of the kit to fall together pretty easily. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jordan03 Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Great work !!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jack-Swiss Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Very nice work indeed! Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted June 28, 2008 Author Share Posted June 28, 2008 Thanks Jordan and Jack; I'm glad you like it so far. The main airframe is complete and I have started to work on the motor. I hope to get the canopies masked tomorrow and begin painting. The fit wasn't horrible, but considering the price of admission, I wasn't expecting to have to deal with steps in the wing roots, and a less than stellar fit on the lower fuselage. A few questions for the experts. 1. Would the landing gear legs be the same color as the underside, or in white? 2. The wing roots had rather significant steps that I had to sand down and partially fill. However, this is also an actual seem on the plane, just not as wide. When I tried to etch in a new line; it came out not only too wide, but also pulled and broke the dry putty making the new seem look ugly. Any advice on how to fix this, or how to avoid such a problem in the future? The next shots will have some paint on this beast Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WymanV Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 Looking good so far I built one of them back when they first came out and other than the lack of holes in the flaps, I thought it was a great little kit. Lesse... 1. The landing gear is underside color. So are the center flap well and flap and wheel wells, in case you didn't know. 2. Tough one on the seam. That's always been one of my soft spots. I've been having pretty good luck using melted styrene for a seam filler tho. 1a. I would think the -3 prop had yellow tips. Someone would probably prove me wrong on this, but I think the -3 came on line after the three color tips went out. 2a. They all carried twin .30s. So did the TBDs at Midway. 3a. The red would have been painted out of the insignia by Midway. The insignia size and location were supposed to be made uniform, but I have a dust collector based on a Hornet SBD that shows the overly large insignia with the red painted out. A real oddity, as Enterprise's SBDs were the only ones to carry the big roundels and VB-6/VS-6 were refitted with brand new SBDs just before setting out for Midway. And no, I haven't started the Hellcats yet. I got into finishing up a couple of dust collectors from 2 years ago and I don't want to stop while I'm into them again Ken Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted June 28, 2008 Author Share Posted June 28, 2008 Thanks for all your help Ken. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted June 29, 2008 Author Share Posted June 29, 2008 (edited) I'm so happy with how this is turning out. This paint job was so quick and simple. I sprayed the whole thing black and then applied successive mist coats of a home brewed blue-gray up top and a light grey on the undersides. Decals went on like a dream, although the tail stripe folded in on itself a few times. Easy fix though. Although not visible in the photos, I found that a neat trick is to vary the level of sheen on some of the panels. Following the flat coat, I sprayed on some highly thinned Polly Scale satin finish along the edges of a few panels. It looks REALLY COOL. Now before anybody says anything, I realize that the title of this thread says USS Lexington, but clearly there was a change in plans. The markings are from VS-5 (Yorktown) during the Battle of Midway.The kit, as is can not be built into a Coral Sea SBD due to the machine gun arrangement, and I don't have a spare single .30 cal lying around anywhere. Oh well, I kind of like the giant national insignia, and once I build my Vindicator, I'll have a nice pair of Midway dive-bombers Some fiddly bits later today, then weathering and presto. Too bad I won't have time to work on it again for a while after today Edited June 29, 2008 by RKic Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HistnScale Posted June 29, 2008 Share Posted June 29, 2008 Looking very nice, sir. Sorry you will not have building time for at bit. Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 hey guys, glued on the canopies in stacked position today (had to leave out the posterior-most bit as they're just to thick to stack all four), and finished up the landing gear. Sorry, no photos, but I'll have something up here by the end of this week. Question. How many back stripes go on the arrestor hook, and how wide (in scale) should they be? Hasegawa's instructions don't even mention stripes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
moeggo Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 Looking Great! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted July 9, 2008 Author Share Posted July 9, 2008 A few pics as promised. The landing gear, looking pretty cool I think. The stacked canopies. I don't know what the dribble of black dots in front of the windscreen is from. It'll need to be touched up. The fit is less then stellar too but it looks alright from far away. any ideas about the arrestor hook folks? (see above post) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
achook-achook Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Awesome!!! this a good build. Cheers, Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jack-Swiss Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Very nice indeed!!!you've done a great job there! Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 (edited) Thanks guys! Its almost finished, I just need to do some touch up painting, add an antenna wire and wait for the sun to come out so I can take a few better photos. Here is a teaser the smudge on the side of the fuselage has been subsequently removed. PS. I plan on using thin nylon thread for the wire. What would you all recommend I use as adhesive? I don't want to craze the antenna mast with superglue Edited July 11, 2008 by RKic Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jordan03 Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Beautiful job, looks flawless !! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 Beautiful job, looks flawless !! Thanks Jordan, but its hardly flawless. This is why you won't be seeing any close-up shots Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TF51GREGWISE Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 That turned out really nice. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 Thanks Greg. Well here she is. All done. I already broke the aerial wire! I had a lot of fun with this build (First 1/48 aircraft since 2005). Thanks for looking Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mkimages Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Well that turned out a treat . The paintjob really looks the part. Much respect to you for having the patience to drill out all those dive-brake holes, too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted July 13, 2008 Author Share Posted July 13, 2008 Thanks Mkimages. I'm very happy with it too Jay and Johsan, she's all done, feel free to stick the last pics in the finished thread. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Looks good. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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