Ok, this is my first try here in this forum. The pics are in my gallery. I just love this plane. I tried taking pics of that using my new cam a while ago (around 5 pm) on a white illustration board. Tell me what you think. Please be gentle on me

Thanks!

Gee, the kit was very hard to superdetail.

BTW, the kit is from Accurate Miniatures. No added AM or scratchbuilt parts, completely OOB.

Gently speaking...its looking really nice.
What scale?.....1/48th?
Want to see this as it goes a long.
Cheers
Peter
:-)

Yep, this is their 1/48 bird. This kit poses the big challenge for me so far.

Look quite promising for the moment. One comment, easy on the silvering.

Yep, I think I'm crazy over silvering. BTW, how much would I chip off the paint on the body of the craft? I want to make it extremely weathered just like the Japanese dive bomber I saw in the FSM "Warbird Modeling"? Any tips and advices?

For the theater of the kit, it would be aboard the USS Lexington during the Battle of Coral Sea.

More inprogress picture


I sprayed Tamiya Silver Leaf on it. I guess I'll have to do paint chipping again on this model. Any other weathering suggestions?


BTW, is there a panel line on this area closest to the fuselage? This kit has a large gap in that connection and I fill it all up with putty.

looking good i built one of these in 1/72 a fews back.
its a nice kit
sbd means slow but deadly
have fub and keep us posted with pics

Hi Shonen

That's looking pretty good! :-)

I'd have to agree with Dave - go easy on the weathering. Although it's very tempting to try a "Japanese-style" finish, none of my refs show SBDs weathered to that extent. It's probably down to the fact that American paints were usually more durable than their Japanese counterparts.

However, if you want to do an extremely weathered US aircraft, try a P-61. The paintwork on Black Widows based in the Pacific suffered really badly.

All the best

Rowan

Whew! Thanks for the early warning! Good thing I've checked up this site before continuing with the chipping on the main body.

Merlin, can you give me the best ref pic you have? The most weathered one?

No problem Shonen

I'll try to scan a couple of tasty P-61s today. :-)

All the best

Rowan

Although this is a -5 not an -3, it is still a good study in shipboard weathering of Dauntlesses. Land based ones, on islands that were of crushed coral, would have been more severe.

You can achieve this effect at your wing roots by going over them lightly and slowly with 0000 steel wool. The oil and exhaust staining is also typical of what I have seen in other photos.

Good Luck!

Almost done!!!




Just in luck... weathering will come forth tomorrow and also with the best final pics.

Those AM SBDs are still my favorite kit of all. I build 'em when I need a break from building models...

A couple of things tho... (and I'll go easy). First thing that struck me-the wing walk decals are on backwards The notched end fits into the wing root. Maybe you can hit the end with some black paint or something. Another thing (which really isn't a fault of yours) is the tendancy of the flaps in the AM kits to be warped. I got lucky and found myself with an extra tree or two with the flaps on it so I could pick and choose the best ones. I've been using boiling water to straighten warps, but I don't know how well the flaps in this kit will handle it.

And of course, the weathering. But you've heard enough of that, I think

Take care
Ken