To those of you who have built this kit before, I'm going to be building Accurate Miniature's SBD-3 kit for the "Rumblein the East Asian Sky" campaign, and I was wondering if it is worthwhile to buy any AM parts for it. It seems very well detailed, except for the wheels, which I would probably replace with the True Details set. I know VLS makes a resin detail set, but that one is very expensive, and Tom's modelworks makes a naval aircraft PE set that could be applicable (according to Bert Kinzey in his Detail and Scale book).

Thanks!

Hi Sweaver, I built this kit over a twelve month period, ending last Feb, and while it wasn't that easy a build (very tightly engineered), I am very, very happy with the result. I see you're using Kinzey - that was my Bible, couldn't have done a thing without it! As for aftermarket, I used bits and bobs, but no dedicated set - the kit is really pretty complete as is. I did buy the Waldron SBD cockpit set, but only ended up using a few placards (which were very good) - but if doing the kit again, would use the ones from Mike Grant's WWII cockpit decal and placard sheet instead. I used a few spare photo etch levers and knobs to round out the cockpit, added some cockpit cabling from stretched sprue, and added rib detail on the central lower fuselage (above the central lower dive flap) with evergreen strip, as that area is a bit lacking. Finally, I used replacement Moskit exhausts (excellent) and brass tubing for the cowling machine guns. I would be interested to know what boxing you are doing - I did the "newer" VB-3 Yorktown boxing, which had a few issues with out-of-register decals and inappropriate sprues (ie SBD-5 instead of SBD-3), which necessitated requests for help to Accurate Miniatures. Hope this helps, Brad (Buggalugs)

Thanks for the help, Brad.



Same here. I love it!

Here is a picture of the box to my kit. Seems it is the newer boxing.



Could I see some pics of yours?

Thanks again for your help!

Hi Samuel, will post some pics of mine when I sort out the technology !!(have not posted pictures before!) Thanks for the pic of your box - it is the same boxing that I had. As I said, beware of the decals - specifically, the national insignia, which are beautifully done with the painted-over red centre, but on my example were unfortunately so far out of register as to be unusable - which of course I didn't notice till the two lower wing ones were on! I scraped them off and replaced them with Yellow Wings pre-WWII national insignia, with the red centres covered over with the white circles supplied with the AM Midway Vindicator boxing. The rest of the kit decals (including the potentially tricky painted-over rudder markings) went on beautifully. Also - check to see if you have the right sprues for the SBD-3 - mine included the incorrect SBD-5 cowl top and nose gun cover, which just didn't fit to the SBD-3 fuselage and cowl. At first I thought it was my ham-fisted modelling, but Kinzey came to my rescue and I realised it was the kit!! Linda at Accurate Miniatures also came to the rescue, with replacement parts sent to me here in Australia very very quickly. For more info on this problem, go to http://www.accurate-miniatures.com/news.shtml, which was posted by AM to deal with increasing numbers of inquiries from customers like me! Sorry to be so long winded, but hope this helps. cheers, Brad

Thanks for all the help. Having someone who has built the kit coach me along is very helpful!

BTW, how good is the fit overall? Will it take a lot of filling?




What do you mean by "out of register"?




It seems that I have the wrong ones, at least they have no air scoop over the cowl. BTW, did you have to pay for the replacement parts from AM?

Thanks

The fit was generally very good, and I didn't use much filler at all - with the exception of the lower wing/fuselage join, which was a bear. I suspect the fault was mine, and flowed from something I did in the cockpit that was slightly out of kilter, but don't ask me what it was! I used lashings of putty and still didn't get the join right; in hindsight, I should have sanded it right down and rescribed all adjacent panel lines, but I tried to preserve them, and ended up with a bit of a bump between the lower wing and rear fuselage; nothing major, but it is there.

As for the decals, by out-of-register I mean that the top colours on the decals (the blue, red and white) were not centred exacty over the white base on to which they had been applied by the manufacturer, which wasn't obvious on the sheet, but became so when they were on the model - there was a thin but very apparent white "crescent" about half way around the edge of the insignia, which stuck out like a sore thumb.

No I didn't have to pay for the replacement parts - AM was really very good about this, given that I ended up making two separate requests because I hadn't realised I had the wrong cowl top as well as the wrong gun cover. Also check that you have a prop spinner - from what you have said you probably don't - and ask AM for another one of those. I didn't, because some Midway SBDs had them, and some didn't, and I couldn't find a photo ref of the plane I was building (Max Leslie's) so I took the easy option - but I suspect it probably should have one... cheers Brad

Thanks, Brad. You have been a great help.

Hi there again Samuel, here are a few photos of my SBD. Apologies for the crummy photography, but as you can see, it builds up OK. cheers Brad

Great model, Brad! Thanks for the pics.

A few questions: what color did you use for the blue, how did you do the seatbelts, and did you use pencils or washes for the panel lines?

Thanks for all your help!

Hi Brad

Welcome to Aeroscale. That's a superb build - you really should submit pics of it for an On Display.

All the best - and really looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Rowan

Hi Samuel, re your questions -

For the blue, I used a 3:5 mix of Gunze H42 (blue grey) and Gunze H57 (aircraft gray) as the base colour, with panel edges then sprayed with a darker 1:1 mix of the same colours, and panel centres a lighter 1:2 mix of the same, before blending it all in again with a gentle overspray of the original 3:5 base mix. This was quite a lot of fun, and pretty satisfying!

For the seatbelts, I used Eduard's 1/48 pre-painted USN seatbelts (early). The set contains both tan and green - I used tan because it seemed most accurate for the SBD. They were a cow to assemble (a real tendency to pop apart after the cyano had set and I was trying to bend them to shape), but the end result is great, especially after a brown/black wash to grubby them up a bit and make the detail stand out.

Finally, for the panel lines, I used a 1:1 mix of Tamiya acrylic red brown and flat black, thinned about 80-90 % with water and a drop of dishwashing liquid (with acknowledgments to Brett Green at Hyperscale). I ran it into the lines with a thin brush and then wiped out the excess immediately (it dries pretty quickly and then doesn't want to come off), though I often had to reapply it a couple of times to get the right depth of colour. It's a technique I've tried a couple of times so far, and it has always worked out OK. Hope this helps, cheers Brad

Thanks Rowan. My current projects are a Classic Airframes Canberra B.20, which I plan on finishing in the RAAF's 1960s white/silver scheme with big kangaroo roundels, and a 1/48 Hasegawa A6M3 that will be finished as a captured machine in US markings, which I'm doing as a bit of a sabbatical from the Canberra....Will post some pics of these when they are finished....Whenever that is!

cheers Brad

Thanks for the help, Brad. Your work is very inspiring.