Jump to content

1/48 Monogram TBD-1 Devastator


Recommended Posts

Fleet Problem XXI was a USN operation conducted in April 1940 to test the defensibility of the Hawaiian Islands. After the operation, Roosevelt ordered the fleet to remain stationed at Pearl Harbor as a deterrent to possible Japanese aggression in the Pacific. USS Yorktown would return to the Atlantic and would be there for the attack on Pearl Harbor. She would return to the Pacific to meet her fate. <BR><BR> During the course of the excercise, three of VT-5s Devastators conducted camouflage tests. All were given a light coat of aluminum paint overall and the top surfaces on them were painted in different colors-green, gray and black. These tests, along with earlier ones done on SBDs showed that the green was even more effective than the blue, but the US Navy adopted the blue nevertheless.<BR><BR> Shamelessly swiped from Lynn Ritger's website <A href="http://tbd_devastator.tripod.com/">http://tbd_devastator.tripod.com/</A> :<BR><BR> <EM>BuNo 0335 Delivered to VT-5, 5-T-14; Green top, full colors (MS 48-14) later lost with VT-6 as (6-T-) 14 on 1/16/42 due to forced landing at sea. Harold F. Dixon, ACMM(NAP), Anthony J. Pastula, and AOM2 Gene D. Aldrich, RM3 found on raft 34 days later. (MH)<BR><BR></EM> Translated; Insignia red tail, cowl painted green on the top half along with green chevrons on the wings. All would be visable through the light coat of aluminum paint used for the tests.<BR><BR> On with the build. On the bench now is a Revell B-17F that's being converted to the E variant, a 1970 Challenger that's getting a resin '71 body shell, the big USS Constitution with wood decks and a lot of other alterations underway or planned, a 1/350 USS Arizona that's being converted to the USS Pennsylvania and a Hasegawa lawn dart with all the bells & whistles. This group build gives me the opportunity and the excuse to just do one <STRONG>out of box</STRONG>...<BR><BR> Here's the kit. It's a later 1970s release:<BR><BR><IMG src="http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r53/WymanV/US/DSCN9082.jpg"><BR><BR> The giveaway-no UPC code on the box, and if you look at the sprues of parts I painted earlier today you'll see the perpendicular stubs Monogram uses to keep the sprues from rubbing together in the box. These was a feature of the first release and disappeared in later releases (but can be seen in later kits like the 1/48 JU-52):<BR><BR><IMG src="http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r53/WymanV/US/DSCN9083.jpg"><BR><BR> I'll start out with the obligatory cockpit work and fitting the wing panels together to minimize the trouble with corrogated wing leading edges.<BR><BR> Ken<BR><BR>

Link to post
Share on other sites

And I would REALLY like to know what the hell's up with this discussion board format, because that happens a lot :angry: Why?

Fleet Problem XXI was a USN operation conducted in April 1940 to test the defensibility of the Hawaiian Islands. After the operation, Roosevelt ordered the fleet to remain stationed at Pearl Harbor as a deterrent to possible Japanese aggression in the Pacific. USS Yorktown would return to the Atlantic and would be there for the attack on Pearl Harbor. She would return to the Pacific to meet her fate.

During the course of the excercise, three of VT-5s Devastators conducted camouflage tests. All were given a light coat of aluminum paint overall and the top surfaces on them were painted in different colors-green, gray and black. These tests, along with earlier ones done on SBDs showed that the green was even more effective than the blue, but the US Navy adopted the blue nevertheless.

Shamelessly swiped from Lynn Ritger's website http://tbd_devastator.tripod.com/

BuNo 0335 Delivered to VT-5, 5-T-14; Green top, full colors (MS 48-14) later lost with VT-6 as (6-T-) 14 on 1/16/42 due to forced landing at sea. Harold F. Dixon, ACMM(NAP), Anthony J. Pastula, and AOM2 Gene D. Aldrich, RM3 found on raft 34 days later. (MH)

Translated; Insignia red tail, cowl painted green on the top half along with green chevrons on the wings. All would be visable through the light coat of aluminum paint used for the tests.

On with the build. On the bench now is a Revell B-17F that's being converted to the E variant, a 1970 Challenger that's getting a resin '71 body shell, the big USS Constitution with wood decks and a lot of other alterations underway or planned, a 1/350 USS Arizona that's being converted to the USS Pennsylvania and a Hasegawa lawn dart with all the bells & whistles. This group build gives me the opportunity and the excuse to just do one out of box

Here's the kit. It's a later 1970s release:

DSCN9082.jpg

The giveaway-no UPC code on the box, and if you look at the sprues of parts I painted earlier today you'll see the perpendicular stubs Monogram uses to keep the sprues from rubbing together in the box. These was a feature of the first release and disappeared in later releases (but can be seen in later kits like the 1/48 JU-52):

DSCN9083.jpg

I'll start out with the obligatory cockpit work and fitting the wing panels together to minimize the trouble with corrogated wing leading edges.

Ken

edit-format problems...

Edited by WymanV
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...

So I've been doing some research while I wrap up my Musclecar GB project and I found some interesting stuff here. Let's start with the commonly seen but rarely understood pic:

ship_yorktown37.jpg

Look for the Devastators without insignia under the wings. These are the planes used for the experiment. Process of elimination tells me they used the 5th section planes-T-13, 14 and 15. The caption on the pic that initially drew me to doing this for a project years ago said that all three were dark green first, then gray and black paint was sprayed later.

But I don't think this is the case. First, I deduced by deck spotting and from what I can see when this pic is blown up that T-13 is the foremost, T-14 is on the corner and T-15 is the remainder. And the paint on T-13 is REALLY dark compared to the other two.

Hmmm. Speculation. But let's consider another pic:

T15.jpg

September. Fleet Problem XXI was in April. Yorktown was off San Diego when this happened. When I first saw this pic (in a different book) I thought it was mud-I think the pic said it crashed in Tampa, but that would be pretty far fetched. Comparing T-15 here and the one I guessed is T-15 in the first pic tells me that this is the same paint on the same plane. They didn't use a water based paint like Barclay did. The aluminum is obviously fading away but the remaining color topside looks an awful lot like my guess at T-15 in the other pic.

Now this is where I get to have a little fun with this. I'm speculating (with the info that T-15 was green, at least once) that the first pic shows us T-15 in NS Green, T-14 in NS Gray and T-13 in NS Black. And I really wanted to do the black one. I won't have to guess what NS Gray or Green is and being a Raider fan, this'll be better than a whiffer ;)

Lynn tells us that BuNo 0334 was the first 5-T-13, lost in a crash in 1938. 0359 carried 5-T-13 when it made a ramp strike and careened over the side on Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic, exactly 1 year before Midway. Barring any further discoveries, I'll do 0359 in black/silver as I believe she appeared in April 1940.

And soon, too. The Challenger is almost done.

Ken

Edited by WymanV
Link to post
Share on other sites

And here's how it begins. I already sprayed Metallizer Aluminum on all the interior parts and snipped the first parts off the sprues that I'l work with. My way of dealing with the corrogated leading edges starts right away, with snipping them off the sprue with as much of the pour stub as I can. Cutting this as close as I can right away runs the risk of snipping the corrogation off:

DSCN9150.jpg

Since I'm keeping this OOB, the cockpit is easy enough-pick out the black details and that's about it. I'll save the fussing for the wings :bandhead2:

Ken

Link to post
Share on other sites

It surely is a tough kit to do well.

I don't doubt that there's more than one way to skin this cat but here's mine. I start the wings by painting the visable parts of the wheel well silver (aluminum Metallizer, actually). This usually results in a coat of paint on the whole bottom, but not so much this time. I use that as a guidecoat for sanding and since it didn't happen this time I hit my leading edges where the corrogations run with a Sharpie (black magic marker):

DSCN9152.jpg

I then hit the mating surfaces with a file. I'm not at all shy about using coarse sandpaper on styrene (patience be damned) and it makes quick work of any irregularities on the mating surfaces. The older Monogram kits aren't known for really crisp molds and the TBD is not a kit where you want to fill gaps in the leading edge later. In short, success with this kit is all in the preparation.

Also, note that the wing tips on the TBD are not blunt as depicted by the kit but come to a rather sharp tip. Lose that trim tab as well as I have never seen one in any of my reference pics. I'm not sweating the wing tips on this one however as this build is just about getting one done and representing an unusual scheme. I have 53 more in the stash that I can be fussy with later :P

Sanded, and pretty much ready to assemble:

DSCN9154.jpg

The pour stubs that were left behind will eventually go away. Once they were flush with the mating surface I trimmed the bigger ones-close for now because as I work the leading edge I'll get opportunities to work them more and more until they're gone. It wouldn't be a big deal and most of them aren't but there are four of them that are RIGHT INTO the corrogations instead of the gaps in between.

Ken

Link to post
Share on other sites

And while I was at it, I glued them together:

DSCN9155.jpg

I use MEK and a needle point applicator to do these. The fast setting cements don't give me enough work time. The excess that squeezes out is fine as it's filling any potential gaps. While they're still wet I hold them up to my workbench light and look at the leading edge from the inside. If I see light spots (or heavn forbid, light) I hit it with more cement and more squeeze. Also notice the pour stubs are still there but fading away. I trim them whenever one gets to the point where I know I can get it closer.

Time for some Raider football while these dry.

Ken

edit: Notice that all mislocator pins are removed, as well as the tabs on the upper wing root. It's so critical to get the corrogations to line up and having those pins in there interferes. And the wing root tabs are redundant as we're not building this per Monogram instructions.

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

This one's plenty rough:

0334.jpg

The corrogations on top of the panels have a "wave" to them, like the sprue was too warm when it was pulled from the mold. Which puts the kabosh on entering this one at nats ;) I'm not about to correct all that.

Ken

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

I've had more energy for building than progress updates.

Pics of it coming together:

DSCN9178-1.jpg

DSCN9179-1.jpg

DSCN9177-1.jpg

It is indeed quite rough. Once I spotted the sinkmarks in the tailplanes I decided to just get it done. Maybe next time ;)

I started some paintwork today. First was silver, so I wouldn't have issues with green and red overspray on the canopy frames. I also sprayed silver on some problem areas and it exposed a few places where I could still clean up. Then the red and green:

DSCN9180-1.jpg

Kinda Christmas-y, isn't it? I'll get the color masked off once it's dry enough, deal with some of the issues, make the nav lights (if I don't forget) and spray it with silver overall.

Ken

Link to post
Share on other sites

The first of the colors on:

DSCN9194.jpg

And as far as I have to go with decals (nice, huh ;) ):

DSCN9196.jpg

Time permitting, tomorrow will see a light coat of Metallizer Aluminum overall followed with black on the upper surfaces. And I'll be skipping flat and gloss coats on this one too :thumbsup:

Ken

Link to post
Share on other sites

Gettin' close:

DSCN9201.jpg

Got some overspray under the canopy so I'll be opening it up-at least to clean it. And the leading edges turned out a lot better than I thought they would.

Ken

Link to post
Share on other sites

It is looking nice. It is interesting how much it resembles the later tri color even though the colors are very different. I wonder if it had any influence with the development of that scheme or the two were just coincidentally similar with the light colored sides.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll bet it did. When this one is viewed from above it's mostly black. I think it's interesting that the green and gray ones had a mottled fuselage.

Closeup of the leading edge:

TBD006.jpg

Ken

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

Well, after a couple weeks of looking at this I decided enough was enough and I'm calling it done. I'd add antenna wire but it'll never hold up to being packed away:

TBD008.jpg

A little disappointed in the way the paint turned out but the build itself turned out better than I thought it would.

Ken

Link to post
Share on other sites

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...