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1/48 SB2C-4E Helldiver, White 80 of VB-85, U.S.S. Shangri-La


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Good evening guys, having finished my 1/32 Spitfire i decided to deal with another legent this time an american one the so called ''The Beast'' SB2C-4 Helldiver. I chose for that Revell's 1/48 SB2C-4E Helldiver.

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The profile i chose to replicate is the White 80 of VB-85, U.S.S. Shangri-La

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It is not going to be an OOB build, i will try to upgrade it as much as i can having as a guide the great build of Chuck Wojtkiewicz, also posted here.

The aftermarket i am going to use are the Big Edition from Eduard

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some stuff from Part,

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engine from Vector, seats from ultracast

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Aeromaster stencils and the KAM set from Montex

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First i removed all the detail from the bomb bay

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I cut the real wheel in order to shorten it, as Chuck is right about that, Revell gives the wheel fully extended as in flight condition, normally when in ground it should be compressed.

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After a lot of thinking i decided to lower the turtle back, so i took the courage and the razor and i started...

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Not bad for my first time...

I continued working with Part PE, the part that covers the fuselage under the turtle back, ...

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Here dry fitted

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Later i took my time on the turtleback. This is the Part's PE for that

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No way could i make it to be at the lowered position, so i took my folding tool and i cut it to 5 pieces. I tried to do the job with them but some of them proved to be too big, so knife again and i made some new ones from styrene sheet. This is the final outcome including some more detail things

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The folding parts from the turtle back are not glued together, instead i tape them together by two with a foil adhesive tape from 3M (stole the idea from Chuck, great tip in order to have them together and fully functional).

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Unfortunately i dont have a photo from the dry fit i did but i will show it eventually. After i had made my mind about the turtle back i moved to bomb bay and i added the PE from Eduard, great detail indeed.

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I removed all the details from inside the fuselage and i add some of mine, painted them and here they are...

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and here with the bomb bay dry fitted...

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Thats all for now guys, hope you like it so far,

John

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Thank you very much for your comments guys. a bit of progress with the Beast..

Well these are the kit covers of the landing gear corrected for the mold marks. They are not going to be used but they are going to be the ''plan b'' in case something happens with the PE.

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...and here you can see the ones that Part provides

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Some small items corrected on the kit gear legs some others were added and you can also see the kits wheels which have nothing to be jealous of the resign ones, great detail.

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...Next are the bomb bay doors, also here Part rules, better detailed than the Eduard's ones, the only remark is the absence of the small access door in one of them, but that was easily fixed with a part of adhesive aluminum tape.

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Here dry fitted, each part of the doors have to be painted separately in order to avoid any misspaintings.

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Next it was time for a little surgery on the wings, the plastic flaps have to be cut in order for the Eduard ones to be placed later.

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Unfortunately a quick dry fit revealed a major problem which i will have to face when the time comes. Eduard provides the flaps, landing and dive ones, to be positioned, in most cases, both in the open position. I want to build the aircraft ready for take of, so i will place the dive flaps in the closed position but as you can see the dive ones are a bit shorter than they should be.

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Next it was time for the wheel wells, this is how they looked like before

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I sanded all the detail and i begun to place the Eduard ones...

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Pretty detailed!!! After that i dealt with the hydraulic lines, i did not like the Eduard ones so i started build my own

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Using the Eduard ones as a guide...

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For each line i measured, marked with a pencil and finally bend it using a homemade jig, an idea that i stole from a good guy named Chuck...

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So i finally made this...

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...but i did not like it so i started all over again using a different method regarding the distance and measurements. I squeezed a bit of 0.3mm solder wire, i taped it down on the table and using the same method as above i started to construct the lines. Each one was glued on the solder wire and finally after i had finished all 6 of them i used the solder to make a brace over them.

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The result...

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And a dry fit inside the well, of course also these parts have to be panted separately!!!

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For the time being i am dealing detailing the cockpit. I have the Eduard interior set(based on the kit) which has its issues (it places the various details in the wrong position), the part interior which is good but not enough and the resign cockpit from true details which is pretty good. So i am trying to blend everything together in order to present as much as i can a right looking cockpit, that means a lot of work, a lot of dryfitting etc.

Anyway i hope you like it so far, till next post,

Have a good time

John

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For the time being i am dealing detailing the cockpit. I have the Eduard interior set(based on the kit) which has its issues (it places the various details in the wrong position), the part interior which is good but not enough and the resign cockpit from true details which is pretty good. So i am trying to blend everything together in order to present as much as i can a right looking cockpit, that means a lot of work, a lot of dryfitting etc.

Anyway i hope you like it so far, till next post,

Have a good time

John

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Good morning guys, it is being some time since i my last update but it is a lot of work that has to be done into the cockpit. The Eduard's PE are a bit wrong regarding the correct placement of all the detail, so i had to combine them with parts from True detqails resin cockpit which by the way is very nice but i had started using ther Eduard's PE so i could not go back. So i started cutting small details from the resin, ugrade them a bit and trying to combine them with the PE. Of course every little detail that was added i had to dry fit everything in order to achieve the correct placement of them so that to depict a correct cockpit according to the images i have from Detail n' Scale.

Enough with the talking take alook at some photoes...

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After i had dry fitted everything i had done so far, i started building the port side where the Eduard details were poor so i used most of the resin parts.

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At this phase i decided to use the Part's PE instrument panel against the prepainted Eduard's one because i think that is more accurate and close to the real one. Of course a lot of dry fitting is going to take place in order to be 100% sure, so plan ''b'' will be the Eduard one. At the same time i decided to place some of the interior details in different places in order to be closer to the real one.

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Here with the fuselage closed and with the Quickboost gunsight, the kit's one is very poor!!! I think that i am closer to the real one.

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nice work... will follow this one as well as using Chucks for me 1/72 work... I am in about the same position as you (need to do wheel wells and air brakes on mine but interior coming along nicely)

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