Jump to content

1/48 Monogram TBD-1 Devastator


Recommended Posts

Time to start a new one. This build will be a Devastator from the USS Lexington, seeing action during the Battle of the Coral Sea. The Devastptor was considered obsolete at the start of the Pacific War, and saw action in several pivitol battles, prior to being used at Midway. where they were shot down to a plane by the Japanese CAP while making their runs at the carriers. I am in awe of the bravery of those aircrews, flying at low speed, at wave top level, facing fighters and flack....

On to the kit. I got one of these when I was a boy as a Christmas present, and built her up in pre-war markings. brush painting yellow and silver led to a model only a boy could love! It was a top notch kit for the day. This one was procured off of ebay, and probably rolled off the line when my original kit did. Detail is good, mouldings are crisp, and the decals even look usable. She will be finished off in the blue/grey over light grey, with stars and "meatballs", and red/white fin flash.

IMG_2480.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Started working on the cockpit. I'm not going to get too carried away, and have been adding a little scratched detail. In doing some research, it seems that some of the Devastators interiors were painted green, (asuming bronze green) and some were left natural aluminum. I'm going to leave mine aluminum. Now, also doing some research, I am thinking about maybe building one of the Wake Island raiders from the Enterprise. This one would be a level bomber ( 2-500 pounders on a centerline rack) rather than a torpedo plane. I'll mull it over for a bit, decisions decisions....

Deva1.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

Good looking start. That cockpit has a lot of potential for detailing. And Aluminum is a good idea. It seems pretty certain that the last block (1500 series) had green interiors but the earlier ones are still debatable.

And a point of interest for ya-the TBD could carry three 500lb bombs. The third was carried in the recess for the torpedo behind the external pair. Don't know if you needed to know that but I thought it was interesting.

Ken

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

I've seen the three bomb configuration, and I guess the TBD strained to lift 1000 lbs of ordinance, let alone 1500 lbs! The more research I do on this aircraft, the more I realize how much they were used in the first year of the war. The Wasp and Ranger had a complement that patroled the Atlantic, until replaced by TBF's, and the Wasp off-loaded her's at Scapa Flow, where they flew patrol missions while Wasp was delivering aircraft to Malta. Neat stuff.

Interior complete and painted, again bare aluminum. Seat belts are foil, and I busied the 'pit up a bit. I realized there aren't to many parts left in the box, so she should be looking like a plane soon.

deva2.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

Tamigawa this is not. Fuselage is together, wings going on. There are going to be some large (don't fall in) gaps between the wing roots and fuselage. Will fill them with plastic card, and hopefully not make a mess of it. Still haven't made my mind up on bombs or torpedo. My son says torpedo, my wife says bombs- just to be difficult.

deva3.jpg

deva4.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Clock is ticking, so I'd better make some progress. Its cold and foggy out today (vs yesterdays 90 degrees and sunny) so I'm thinking its modeling weather. Put some paint on her, and did some minor pre-shading. My double action airbrush is being serviced (and I hope I can get it back together) so I used my single action, and it worked just fine. I used Polly-Scale paints, and was happy with the results. We will now see how the kit decals go on! I'm hoping to finish in the next couple of days.

As a side not, we just got high speed internet up here in the hills, and man, loading pictures is fast. Stepping out of the dark ages.....

Thanks for looking

deva5.jpg

deva6.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

Lifted panel lines through the fusselage are a nice detail and give the plane nearly realistic look. For me sometimes (depending of the plane) lifted panels look better than recessed ones. But this is my oppinion. Nice work!

Primož

Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a neat old kit, and I think holds its own against modern kits, despiteits age. I can remember how excited I was when I got one for Christmas when I was a kid. Anyway, she is done. I built her from the box, with only some scratch built details in the cockpit. I put a wooden box around the torpedo fins, as they attempted to improve the performance of the Mk 13's in the field during the Battle of the Coral Sea. Apparently it didn't really help much.

Here is the finished product. I will try for some better pictures tomorrow.

CH

deva10.jpg

deva9.jpg

deva8.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...