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GWH TBD box art


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Anyone else seen the GWH Devastator box art? Looks very dramatic and inspiring, but it seems to to be a bit inaccurate. It shows a burning carrier and escort ship. If I remember my history right, no Japanese ship was hit before or during the TBD runs. The SBD attacks came after. Plus, the TBD seems far too high to be on a run. Still, cool box art.

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Actually, if it's one of VT-3's aircraft it could be accurate (albeit unlikely), VT-3 started its run before the SBD's attacked but hadn't reached its drop point until after Kaga, Akagi and Soryu were hit by the SBD's and VT-3's path took them past Soryu to their drop point against Hiryu. That said, I do agree that it appears to be too high to be in a run.

It was VT-6 and VT-8 which attacked earlier.

Edited by mawz
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Interesting, I wasn't aware of that. However, the box mentions VT-8, and the kit only includes decals for VT-8, so I assume the box art is meant to represent VT-8. The art also shows a large escort very much on fire, and I don't think that happened during TBD runs either. I think the only other Japanese non-carrier ships hit enough to catch fire (if hit at all) during the battle were Mogami and Mikuma, and that was after the main action.

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Interesting, I wasn't aware of that. However, the box mentions VT-8, and the kit only includes decals for VT-8, so I assume the box art is meant to represent VT-8. The art also shows a large escort very much on fire, and I don't think that happened during TBD runs either. I think the only other Japanese non-carrier ships hit enough to catch fire (if hit at all) during the battle were Mogami and Mikuma, and that was after the main action.

It's actually relatively new information, it was long thought that VT-3 had finished their run before VB-3 went in but in fact at least one pilot from VB-3 saw VT-3 on their attack run after pulling out, which puts VT-3's attack about 20 minutes later than originally thought. There's been a fair bit of information about the battle which has only become available in English since Shattered Sword was published in 2005 and which has extensively contradicted the conventional account of Midway, mostly due to poking holes in the primary Japanese source used for the conventional accounts (Fuchida's Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan). Most of the new info is on the Japanese side but also some primary sources on the US side that got overlooked, one of which affects VT-3's attack run.

One of Soryu's escorts did take a hit or a close miss (I don't recall) from VB-3 but it certainly wasn't damaged enough to be burning (nor was it that big, merely a Light Cruiser, or that close to the Carrier, the Japanese escorts were used primarily for warning, so aside from the plane guard they were much further out, most of the Japanese AA was on the carriers anyways so the Escorts didn't have enough AA to matter).

Edited by mawz
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I don't suppose there's any way to contact the artist. He probably did at<BR>least some research and may be able to add some insight.

Def

GWH was notified and chose to not change the box art.

Ken

edited ONCE AGAIN because the formatting shows up in the text.

Edited by WymanV
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Yeah, the box-art may be historically inaccurate, but it is a BIG aid in selling more TBD model-kits. The more TBD (and other) kits tha GWH sells, the (happier WE are, and) the more profit GWH makes.

And the SOLE OBJECTIVE of GWH is to make as big a profit as possible (EACH financial year).

George, out............

Edited by The Loggie
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