I've decided to make a build log from my efforts to get the Great Wall 1/48 scale TBD-1 Devastator that I building for the Midway campaign.

I am time limited on getting this build done, as the campaign ends in less than a month, but I have been at it a couple weeks already.

First, the kit:



It really is a very lovely kit. My first quibble about it is rather ironic - for all the effort people have put into getting the Chinese model manufacturers to stop putting overblown rivet detail on aircraft kits, the exceptionally petite rivet detail on this kit (that would normally be ideal for most airfraft) is WAY too petite for this aircraft - rivets on this plane are numerous, bold, and show up in pictures way more than panel lines do. Oh well, I'd rather have this kit not have enough rivet detail than deal with more kits that have far too much.

Basic build-up of cockpit, totally box-stock and unpainted thus far. Looks very nice. I am pretty sure some of the photo etch is for brackets that should have had more instrumentation on them, but no matter - finding pictures of a fully equipped TBD cockpit is difficult. Th ones I can find do have labels for the instruments that are supposed to be mounted on those brackets tho). Great Wall can in no way be faulted for not supplying what goes on those brackets if there is no good evidence for what it really is around anywhere.

I do think that a lever here and there is overdone, and the fire extinguisher for the rear crew position is absent (the kit supplies the two for the 2 other crew positions).

also, the covers for the boarding steps are missing and left appearing as 3 open windows in the side of each fuselage half - easiest to blank these off with scraps of plastic before putting the fuselage halves together.

I also fixed the few spots where ejector pins destroyed the interior ribbing details with other small strips of plastic.

Minor quibbles tho - very nice in general.

Cockpit painted. I was advised that Interior green should be used for the interior color of later TBDs. If i recall correctly (and I may not by now), the instructions call for chromate green, which appears to be incorrect.

I haven't added the seat belts yet. the kit supplies these as photo etch - Thank you! they also supply shoulder harnesses, but this is incorrect for any TBDs as far as I know. The USN initially did not use shoulder harnesses at the start of WWII, and the TBD did not serve long enough to ever be upgraded with them.

The instrument panels are not terribly easy to complete, as each instrument is a separate decal - but with careful attention and patience, it can wind up looking really nice (dots of gloss-coat on instrument faces applied over the painted, decalled and flat-coated kit parts).



I had no confidence that I would be able to attach the lower instrument panel to the very small amount of plastic provided for it to sit on, so I elected to avoid frustration by adding some scrap plastic to secure it to the firewall at the proper distance. I am quite sure I saved myself some cursing and stress-lines in my forehead by doing this.

Great work can't wait to see more

I just started mine--glad to see with the green as I am doing the same--look forward to your build
Pat Jones

Beautiful work! Though seatbelts would be nice.

They are coming! just got a little excited and forgot about them in the rush.

Got the fuselage halves together and central wing section on. While it was a bit of a struggle, it was nothing terrifying. Most of the effort comes in trying to line up all the cockpit parts on each side. The lower wing section did take quite a bit of convincing to sit properly - had to really squeeze the fuselage haves together and the fit has a lot of up/down wiggle room, but if you take the effort to get everything lined up properly, everything matches spot on with almost no call for filler.

I failed to notice a mismatch in the rear fuselage right behind the wing section before the glue set, but that was my bad - even that would not have required any filler had i paid attention to it. In the event of it, I used CA glue to blend it.

Seatbelts and upper instrument panel still coming - seatbelt i just plain forgot in the rush to get the fuselage together, the upper instrument panel i elected to install later to ensure better alignment.





There is a complete lack of detail in the weapons bay and the wheel wells. I am hoping the wooden tailfin of the torpedo will make it so the weapons bay is not visible. I am currently working on my best guess as to what the wheel wells look like.

another update coming this evening or tomorrow after i finish making some details for the wheel wells

coming along real nice,looks great

This weekend's project was detailing the wheel wells. The kit provides almost literally zero detail here, but then again there is almost no photographic evidence as to what it should look like anyway. The one picture I found only confirmed that it was essentially just the space between two wing ribs, so I made up something to go along with that, using the ribs visible at the wing folds and a fuzzy picture of the weapons bay as inspiration.

What the kit does supply is one cross beam where the strut folds back, but it is in the wrong place so I chopped it off. The beam that is visible in this area is the main wing spar, and that is a bit further forward (the panel lines helped with placement of the spar)


I fashioned the bordering wing ribs to either side basically by trial and error, fist getting the shape, then devising a pattern for lightening holes.


Placement of the wing ribs along with the main wing spar.


and the rest of the details, mostly made up, using some bits from the scrap parts box and plastic strips and rod. The strips on the tops of the wings are actually C channel, but look solid in the photo unfortunately. I'll be adding some representation of the fuel tanks just inboard of the inner spars after I get the basic paint on.


That is my work for the weekend. I just finished spraying all that in silver lacquer. While i am not definitely positive about that being the proper color, I do know Douglas Aircraft Company had previously finished the cockpits of the TBDs in silver until the USN requested otherwise and also the very early SBD Dauntless aircraft, also from Douglas, had silver lacquer sprayed throughout the interior. Since I doubt whoever repainted these aircraft bothered to get way up into the wing ribs and spars thru the small gear opening with paint, my best guess is silver lacquer is the color for this area (which has nicely highlighted all my mistakes).

here is what the finished wheel wells look like:

Hi Vance,

Looks excellent! I'll try to do the same one mine when I will build it...

Jean-Luc

Nice work, Vance- those wheel wells are a vast improvement. Cheers!

Nice work and great improvement over the hole that gave GW. There's not much info on the Devastator's wells, but from that few photos I have, it can be seen that walls of the wells had no lightening holes.






Sergey.

yup, those pics would have been handy last week. oh well.

also, it does actually look like they were in the underside color. at least i can get that right. thanks.

Hi Vance-
My father's uncle's best friend's former roommate was a mechanic on the USS Hornet, and HE said that just before Midway, they cut lightening holes into the wheel wells of their TBD's to save weight. There just aren't any photos, since all the aircraft of VT-8 were shot down.

So don't worry, your model is correct.


(Looking good so far!)

Tom

LOL!

thanks tom, I needed that!