¹⁄35

SBD 1/2 Dauntless

Breaking Earth

There is a bewildering breadth of thought when it comes to Trumpeter's kit and its qualities and perceived weaknesses, however I firmly believe that aside from its staggering price, this is one of the nicer 1/32nd scale kits I have ever seen.

The detail comes under fire from some elements of the hobby, for being recessed when they rivets were raised on this particular aircraft, however one can only imagine the uproar had Trumpeter released a kit with raised detail regardless of it’s accuracy. I personally look at rivets as an “effect” on a model as opposed to a representation and thus the ability to portray them as shadow with a good wash, is very important for me. So thumbs up from this guy to Trumpeter for the rivets.

The interior detail is very well represented and I was extremely pleased with the layout of the components for the construction of the cockpit, gunners position, as well as the engine. There is great scope for additional detail with particularly good prospects in the firewall area, where a myriad of wiring, tubing, and even floatation devices ( on earlier SBD variants ) can be added.

The decals are a bit of a let down as is the norm for Trumpeter kits since they decided not to work with Cartograph any longer, and after I built this model it was brought to my attention that the blue is not deep enough on the insignia, and I noticed that the tail “SBD-2” decals don’t actually say that... - they read “SBD-3” which is a tad bizarre considering the box art claims this is an SBD 1 or 2….

Adding glue and stuff

Of this entire build there were only two or three points where I felt the fit was less than perfect. There is a seam that appears on the somewhat over engineered engine cowling, however removing this is not all that difficult. The largest amount of work I found, was filling the ½ cm gap that appeared just aft of the rear gunners position, as there is a hinge on the doors for the gun stowage, and that meant filling then re-scribing a line in there.

The canopies also require some work if you plan on displaying them in the open position, as fitting them one on top of the other is going to take some sanding. The bottoms need to be shaved in increasing increments as you work your way to the smaller frames on the inside. As far as additional detail goes, this project received very little in that department. Consisting of the addition of Eduards 32nd scale pre-painted US seatbelts (ED32506), and some scratch-building in the engine area, as well as a lycra thread aerial, there wasn’t a lot added as this model doesn’t really need it.

Out with the tar brush

I decided I would try out White Ensigns Colourcoats for this project, and while I have used them before I was very pleased with my decision to use them here. They have identical spraying qualities to Xtracolor, and anyone who has used either before will be fully aware of just how good these paints are. With silk-like spraying capabilities, and a drying time that favours shading techniques, I will not waste my time with anything else, aside from the odd Humbrol colour and, of course, some Model Master enamels.

I used post shading techniques to achieve the subtle variations in colour on the model, and the weathering process begins with the addition of paint and ends with the application of pigments. I find that by incorporating the logic from the very beginning helps the weathering achieve a level of effectiveness that I am very pleased with.

So there you have it. My first article for Aeroscale and I hope you guys like it. If you wish to see more please find a copy of Model Airplane International issue 14 as the full build article of this project will appear in there! Thanks for looking in.

My thanks to Pocket Bond for the kit, and to John Snyder of White Ensign Models for the paint.
White Ensign Models
Pocket Bond ( not a lot to see there as it is under construction…)