1/48 Monogram SBD Dauntless -------Finished--------

[mustang1989]

Ok this will be my first official WIP here. This will be the last aircraft I build before I start restoring my 31 year old Monogram Dodge Challenger that has managed to survive all these years relatively in only a couple of pieces. This SBD is going to be a Confederate Air Force Edition Monogram 1/48 scale SBD Dauntless that was boxed in 1988. The only thing different about this kit from prior boxings is the decal sheet really. I decided to take this kit on largely because I built this thing when I was 12 years old, as I'm sure a lot of us have if we are aircraft buffs, using minimal paint which consisted only of "no name" acrylic black and "green apple green" (no zinc chromate but it was real close), silver enamel, acrylic yellow for the prop tips, some enamel red for the dive flaps, and an enamel grey for the undersides, thinner (which consisted of gasoline-hey gimme a break here, my dad was a mechanic) , and basic model glue. I swabbed the paint on the interior (what little it had) and the undersides. No paint on the top because it was molded in blue, didn't paint the tires or the prop(except for the yellow ends and the silver hub) because they were already molded in black and I guess I did try my hand at painting the canopy frames with some blue paint that I ended up with. Back then I was as happy as a clam! By these days standards it was a disaster! Anyways I thought I would show the build here as well using todays skills and some of todays upgrades. These I will cover in the WIP but will tell you that Hasegawa has a hand in this, even though it too has some inaccuracies, because the cockpit is SO lacking. I robbed a lot of parts from this spare Hasegawa kit and will use the decals from it as well. Is this going to be my best build?? No. But I intend to have fun taking a trip down memory lane building this plane. So without further delay I'll begin.

We start off with the kit boxing:

Followed by the internals of the kit which are molded in blue and black (just like when I was a kid!!) And of course the crappy decals and canopy pieces that came along for the ride too.

I'm not going to deviate too much from the "toy like" functions of this model. I am going to be as accurate overall as I can and still maintain the old Monogram intent of the kit. I think the only things that will not operate are the prop and the tail hook. Dive flaps , landing gear and the dropping bomb I fully intend to have working as the original model I built did.

Any how here is a picture of the cockpit minus the crappy molded pilot and note its molded in black. Yep this is it folks! All two pieces of it!

.............and here are the first of many robbed interior parts from the Hasegawa kit. The pilots seat, control column, rudder pedal pedestals and the pedals themselves. If I were to just add these parts and nothing else to the interior it would be a VAST improvement over the stock Monogram cockpit area. There are some that may wonder, "How come he didn't just build the Hasegawa build?" . The whole point is to take a kit that looks awesome from the outside with all that rivet detail and make it look just as good on the inside.

And that's where today's stopping point is. Will resume more tomorrow at some point.

Edited December 5, 2013 by mustang1989

[mustang1989]

On to the rear gun and turret assy. This kit was supplied with a rear gun but it has absolutely no accuracy at all. A half moon shaped gunners ring is supplied along with what looks like a modified "potato gun" for the rear firing .30 cal machine gun. The next photo shows that:

This is how the gunner ring is supposed to look:

I am going with a twin .30 cal setup in the back so heres a so-so photo of that :

The next shots will be of the completed cockpit floor and related items and the rear gunner ring with the twin .30 cal set up that I used from the Hasegawa kit.

Edited October 24, 2013 by mustang1989

[mustang1989]

Here is the cockpit flooring and related parts as well as the gunners ring with the twin .30 cal setup. I first painted the seat with "rattle can" Testors Metallic Silver enamel followed by a coat of Model Master acrylic Zinc Chromate Green. I then took a toothpick and chipped the Chromate as to provide a scratched seat back surface from parachute buckle and seat belt buckle contact for that worn in look. The seat belts were made out of lead foil with PE buckles from Tom's Modelworks. I must have worn that stupid visor for 30 minutes trying to feed those belts through the buckles and through the seat belt end latches! I painted the seat belts a linen color from Humbrol and after the paint cured out hit them with a dry brushing of ground up black pastel to dirty them up. I also applied a black wash to the cockpit tub for the used effect as well. I had to be careful with that because carrier based aircraft are usually corroded and not dirty. The raised detail on the side consoles was completed by using a white lead pencil to bring out the details. The gunners ring , while not totally accurate, at least resembles the reference!!! Seat belts for the gunners seat were made from lead foil as well with PE belt latches/ ends.

As you can see, this is a FAR cry from the out of box offering that the Monogram kit offers!! The only thing missing from the gun at this point is the PE gun ring sight and the PE .30 cal ammo leading from the ammo boxes to the guns. Those get installed later.

Edited October 24, 2013 by mustang1989

[the goon]

Look's great. One of my favorite aircraft. Keep it coming.

Mark

[cobraman]

Coming along nicely.

[mustang1989]

Thanks Ray and Mark! I've always favored this bird. It was never the fastest nor armed to the tee but it's like the 57 Chevy of planes. Whoever designed this aircraft sure knew how to sculpt some cool body lines!!

[Agent G]

More more more!

G

[mustang1989]

Thanks for the encore Wayne! I'll have some progress to post tomorrow. I'm on a mission to complete this thing. I usually spend between 1 - 2 hours on it a day.

[mustang1989]

Ok fellas. Got up this morning and finished up detailing another Hasegawa part for this thing. The instrument panel from the Monogram kit was a decal and that aint gonna work so was kit bashing time again. I took the existing Hasegawa IP and trimmed it to fit into this kit. It's not only got the IP but also the backs of the .50 cal cowl machine guns at either side of the IP. Painted the sides with Zinc Chromate, the center with Matte Black and picked out the details with a white lead pencil. The guns got a shot of Gunmetal. Lots better! Any how here's pic of that mod. Photo bucket was not cooperating very well with me this morning which is why the dang pic is rotated!

Edited October 25, 2013 by mustang1989

[Agent G]

Oh yeah!

G

[Ira]

Looks Great Joe!

Real Nice Detail...

[mustang1989]

Thanks Wayne and Ira! Will be bringing more pics to the table tomorrow morning. As for future plans for the tail guns I spied some Verlinden .50 cal ammo belts that will set the .30's off in the back. Will be running the belt from the guns to the ammo box. I'll be ordering that soon.

[mustang1989]

Hey guys. Was able to get up this morning and test fit the fuselage halves together only to discover that the IP was contacting both cockpit side consoles at the very front of the console resulting in the IP being pushed forward at the bottom and angled out ward at the top. Shown here:

...........and now corrected! I have another Revellogram SBD kit and will piece together the in box cockpit and fuselage halves to give you a better idea of whats missing in the Monogram boxing tomorrow morning. What worked out REALLY good was the fact that the Hasegawa gun turret fit perfectly in place of the original "potato gun" set up!! Wow........something went smooth!

Edited October 26, 2013 by mustang1989

[Agent G]

Looking good so far.

G

[mustang1989]

I appreciate the comments Wayne. Thanks bud!

[mustang1989]

Well I'm going to focus my attention for now to the lower wing and dive flaps. First off the dive flaps had a NASTY bow in them. For instance:

So a pot of boiling water was in order. I ran out of tea yesterday so this is the perfect opportunity to go ahead and boil the water for that too. Any how this is the results after dunking the part for about three seconds and reshaping:

It has a small twist in it, which is really easy to correct, but no bow.

Now onto the wings:

After a "rattle can" primer coat of Tamiya gray, I painted the wing flat white, allowed to dry and cure out, and then shot the gloss coat. After that came the insignia on the wings. First off, I forgot how old these Hasegawa decals were and after about 3 minutes under water they still didn't want to slide off the backing. They literally "broke free". I don't know how they didn't tear but they made it. Secondly it took ALOT of Microsol to get these things to conform fully into the stall slots at the end of the wing. The one on the right had a small puncture and shrunk up in the inboard slot. Guess I'll be using a little paint in that!

and then another coat of gloss and the MIG productions oil based wash. I was careful not to go too overboard with it because, like I was saying a couple of posts earlier, carrier based aircraft have a really tough time getting dirty. And I moved to a better , more well lit area because taking photos at my bench just don't turn out as well.

A little unorthodox approach to painting the aircraft but it'll fall together in the end. I've got my son helping me a little on this one so I'm breaking the build up into sections for his sake. I forgot to mention that I drilled out the dive flap holes. I think there were about 260 or so of these!

Edited October 27, 2013 by mustang1989

[mustang1989]

At first I thought I DID go a little heavy with the wash until I looked at my references again:

[Agent G]

Nope they were filthy in no time!

Looking good.

G

[mustang1989]

Thanks Wayne!

Well I glued both fuselage halves together and managed to get the top part of the fuselage painted. I went with intermediate blue because the dark sea blue was just WAY too dark I think. Any how here's the before and after pics. (I don't know why some photos come out grainy...erks me to pieces!!)

Here's before:

and after

[Agent G]

Love it!

That color shot is of an early war formation. If you look close you can see where they painted over the red circle inside the white star. Look again and you can see the red/white rudder stripes were paintaed over as well, especially on #8 in the foreground. That period, right around Midway, makes the planes two toned, intermediate blue over pale gray.

G

[mustang1989]

Thanks the comments Wayne! You know part of building these old warbirds is a constant learning experience. I get a blast out of building them because I do ALOT of reading when I build each subject. It's as much fun learning about them as it is building.

I used Vallejo acrylics on this build and was not happy that the "intermediate blue" was actually a dark color. I used this for the top coat and then mixed some "intermediate blue" with some "sky blue", which was ALOT lighter and came up with the middle color which intermediate blue is SUPPOSED to look like. Here's the latest:

and the canopy frames got a Tamiya tape masking after being dipped in future. No pre-cut masks here. . I painted them a coat of zinc chromate first so the interior color could be seen from the inside of the canopy and then a coat of "intermediate blue". The canopy came as two pieces: the windscreen through intermediate section and then the gunners canopy. I cut the sections apart to display the pilots sliding piece in the open position. The windscreen turned out like BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH for this painting segment so I dipped it into Windex and will start over on that part tomorrow.

Edited October 29, 2013 by mustang1989

[mustang1989]

You know , looking at the references sometimes a little closer AFTER the painting is done is painful sometimes. The vertical fin should be painted the lighter intermediate blue and the lower part of the nose should be the lighter color as well. Will post pics of the references and the corrected paint tomorrow. WOW!!!

[Agent G]

The color looks good.

Sorry about the issues but.....thats why it's called....................camoflage!

G

Edited October 29, 2013 by Agent G

[mustang1989]

Thanks Wayne. I'm going to treat the border like the German mottle pattern when I repaint. I usually mix the paint super thin, crank the air pressure up to about 30-35 psi and barely open the needle AND keep the air brush moving!!! and that'll give me that soft demarcation line between colors instead of a hard edge.

..............and it's better I find this all out about the color now instead of after decaling!!! lol

Edited October 29, 2013 by mustang1989

[Ira]

Great Painting Joe!