Hermon, while I was stationed at Patuxent River Maryland (NATTC) for aircrew/maintenance on P3's the S3 was also being tested for fleet service trials. I had a family aquaintence that worked with Vought who was doing the electronics and I was able to see the early S3 in the hangers while they were in various stages of paint/primer and while the engines were in testing. At the time scuttlebut was that the fleet Admirals and the VP squadron commanders were not convinced that the S3 was needed or wanted. The $ that it took away from the established squadrons and carrier funds was in question. This was back in late 1972 early 1973.

Bob

I spent a year in LA while my dad designed the hydralics on the S-3. That was 68-69. He was a Vought employee, but the entire hydraulics group had been Shanghaied for the project.

Finally started my Dauntless. Here is a few hours worth of work.



This would have to be one of the nicest out of the box cockpits there is IMHO. This one is going to be totally OOB.

Cheers
Warren

Bob, Mark, that's one of the most amazing things about Aeroscale. All these little tid bits of information you get while building a kit make it all the more fun. The closest I've gotten to an S-3 is climbing around on the one on display down in Charleston at Patriots Point. After spending an hour looking at it I decided to build one for this campaign. The S-3 on display had the markings of VS-33 Screwbirds.


Here is a pic of something that will undoubtedly give me many headaches as this build progresses. There are no less than 6 antenna molded into the fuselage halves. Not only are they a pain to sand around but the likelyhood of them surviving the build is not good.



Also, since our infamous leader has decided that all torpedos must be visible I'm gonna have to spruce up the detailess bombay. As you can see in the photo there is basically nothing there right now.



I'll just go ahead and let you guys know that all the added scratchbuilding I plan on doing in the bombay will be entirely of my own design. Nothing will be even close to historically accurate.


Hermon

Henceforth to be known as "Hysterically accurate" !

After an hour of "hysterically accurate" cutting and glueing, I'm satisfied. Besides, I live on a farm 30 miles from the nearest 2 lane highway. None of my friends and neighbors will know I made up all the gizmos in the bombay and wheel wells.

Before:



And After:



I think after painting and a good oil wash it'll look OK. Now I'll see if I can make the seam lines around all those antenna dissappear.


Hermon

Looking good Hermon!

Here are some progress shots of my Dauntless.






This has been worn as far as I want it to be worn. You can't see the effects of the washes etc in the pictures here. Before the dirt lovers come out of the woodwork remember I am modelling an aircraft that was flying from the carriers in 1940, well before the USA entered the war and the aircraft would have recieved a lot more tender loving care than they would a few years later after the US entered the war. Hence the relative cleanliness of the cockpit.

Nice work H. Since you live so far off the paved road, are you sure all of the neighbor's cars will start in the morning after you collected all those gizmos?

Great work guys! That Dauntless is progressing quickly Warren. Better get back away from the PC and work on my B7A2....

Mark

A few quick update pics.

Engine nacelles had sink marks in them that had to be filled and smoothed. 1st pic is before, during, and after.


A shot of the cockpit. Not much detail but the canopy is very dark tinted so little will be seen when the build is complete.


I'm finding quit a few little gaps here and there that will have to be filled with styrene strips. This one is at the radome door.


I'm gonna get as much as I can done tonight since I have to go back to work tomorrow.


Hermon

Hermon, from the too little to late department; could you have filled those ejector dimples with punched out styrene?

Looking good Hermon, I'm sure those gaps will get the "mad skills" treatment and soon be totally invisible !

Along with Mark I'll join the maybe too late club, but I find it easy to use a paintbrush and put a drop of Mr Surfacer 500 in those ejector pin holes and fill them flush with the surrounds. If you do it just right you don't even need to sand.

Either way, keep it cooking mate.

Cheers, D

Ya know............I'm entering my 6th year of modeling since I rejoined the hobby and I've learned alot......but I never even thought about doing it the way you suggested.
Makes way more sense your way though.
Anyhoo.......I'm at work today and then I have 5 days in a row off so I'm looking forward to getting back to the viking.


Hermon

Good things happening here, gentlemen!
It's a lot of fun follwoing his thread.

Of cause during the holidays there wasn't as much modelling time as I would have wished for, however I made some progress mainly today.
I applied the last batch of decals and sealed off the surface with yet another layer of Future.









The decals were quite nice, but a tad bit brittle. I used Mr. Mark Softener and Mr. Mark Setter, where appropriate.







Later I started a bit of after shading using washes. I am trying different things on one side and will document my proceedings and findings in a coupel of days.





I didn't quite know which one to post so I went on posting all of them. Sorry for wasting up so much board space! I made quite a few craftsmanship errors and am learning along the way.

Cheers,
Guido

@ Mark: did your dad have a hang over and sore head after the Shanghai

@ Hermon: I would have rather been and aircrew on the S3, it is a sexy a/c and the adventure for a 20 year old was enticing. Your build is interesting are there any issues?

@ Guido: I am amazed at the panel method that you shared with us, your build is looking really good.

Bob

Guido, outstanding job! The decals look like they snugged down nicely and the demarkation lines between the two colors are nice and crisp. That dual prop is flawless. Really nice job all around.


Hermon

Wow this thread is moving along! Great looking builds too! It'll be a while before I can start mine, but I'll give you all a quick peek at what I'm going to be building if I can get my hands on the camera again...

Got in a little bench time tonight and the Viking is mooooving right along. So far I've only run into a couple of little problems, but tonight I found a rathar large one.




The top of the wing/fuselage joint is perfect, however on the bottom side there seems to be about a 3 meter gap...........well actually only 1mm. I'll have glue on a strip of thin styrene then sand it down accordingly to fill said gap. Not tonight though.


Hermon




ps: Jeremy, I have to steal my wifes Nikon to do all my pic's. If you'll hold your kit up real high I'll snap a pic of it for ya.

Hello again.

That Wyvern looks great Guido! All it needs is a canopy....

Here are some more in progress shots of the SBD-1/2 Dauntless.


The power egg...



And the left and right sides of the fuselage just before I start to button her up.

So far no problems, oh except that the instructions were not clear as to where the exhausts went and I had to remove them and re-glue them.

On on on!

Warren

Warren, for a while I wondered how you could crank out these beautiful kits so fast...........then I remembered you're 12 hours ahead of me.

Really nice. The cockpit looks great and shows a very steady hand.

Hermon

My first completed build is up in the gallery for this campaign. I have a couple more to take some pics of and several more to build!

thanks
Mike

Almost ready for paint. Yes, the panel lines are done with a Sharpie fine tip marker and yes, I know you're not supposed to do that. I only use this technique when I follow it up with enamel paints, never acrylic. So far in the last 5 years I've had no problems and NO ink bleed-through.




I'm leaving the engines off until after painting since it would be almost impossible to paint the inboard sections once installed.


Hermon

Score! Looks like you got it, thanks Hermon


And here she is all nice and freshly packaged inside

That is a new technique for me, Hermon. Very interesting. Looks very sharp now - I look forward to see how it looks under a coat of paint.

Hermon, I need some photos taken can ya do them for me? Around (113) should do me, maybe more.

Bob