A few years ago I purchased the Hasegawa 1/48 scale SBD-4 Dauntless, and after opening the box to check it out. It was back into my small stash as I had other projects already lined up. A few weeks ago, I decided to pull it out of my stash and build it. When I went to start the kit, I couldn't find the Edward PE set for the dive laps anywhere. I thought I put them back in the box, but I guess not. Wanting to do my build with the dive flaps in the lowered position, work started by cutting out the dive flaps the top and lower wings. Next up was drilling out 300 holes. A monumental task. Took forever it seemed.



Then using .011 x .33 plastic strips, I built the small ribs and cross supports.





Next up was the start of the cockpit. Hasegawa's is Ok, but lacks a lot of details, and isn't exactly accurate. The main bulkhead needed the pilots seat support, so I added it out of sheet strip. Since you won't see 90% of it, it's there just to add a little detail when viewing from the side.



The pilots seat, while nicely molded, lacks the pan insert, and is on the thick side. So I fashioned the pan insert out of sheet plastic.



Finally, I sanded the seat down to a more realistic thickness.



The cockpit floor just aft of the pilot's bulkhead should be the top of the wing, but Hasegawa just made it a one step cockpit floor. After test fitting, I realized that you would see almost none of the floor, so I left it as is. The rear bulkhead with the ammo containers and belt holders is some fabrication by the kit designers. So I cut it off, and modified the kit part and made the small belt container (?) on the bottom of the bulkhead. The gunner's rudder peddles were just two blobs of plastic, so I cut them off and fashioned new ones. His Joystick is connected to the pilots joystick which I fashioned out of plastic rod and sheet plastic. Also scratch built the levers next to the pilots seat. The final scratched out part is the tray that the twin machine guns are stored in.



That brings you up to date till my next update.

Joel

Hey Joel, Eduard who? My friend your scatchbuilt work is outstanding. Very nice work for sure, thank you for sharing! I'm looking forward to watching your build as it progresses. Take care, Jim

Jim,
Thanks so much for your kind words. What I'm doing really isn't that hard. Finding good research material was. Things changed more then I realized from version to version.

Joel

very nice start Joel - looks great when you add the extra touches and detailing.

best
Mark

Mark, thanks so much for the positive comments.

Finally got the point where it was time to start the painting process of the cockpit. Using Tamiya Acrylic paints, I mixed XF-4 & XF-5 1:1 with a few drops of flat black to make Interior Green.

The seatbelts are Edward pre-painted PE. There are no shoulder harnesses, since all my reference material had none showing.





I let the paint dry for 24 hours, then applied a wash of Flory Dark wash to dirty it up some. Followed by some dry brushing with light Gray.







Thanks for looking.
Joel

Great looking office Joel, well done!

Cheers, D

Damiam, Thanks for the positive comment.

Joel

Off to a strong start in the pit man. As for the scratch building... "say whaaat" "how is he doing this??" etc were heard to be said.

Richard, thanks so much for the kind words. The scratch building isn't exactly my strong point, and I'm moving a long at a snails pace just trying to figure things out on a need to do basis.

Joel

working the overnight shift this week, so I have plenty of time to get some extra bench time in. I finished up all the little bits and pieces for the cockpit, and glued up the sides of the tub. Test fitted it into the fuselage, and it fits like a glove.

Here's a few pictures to bring you up to date.

Joel

Well done, Joel!!

Franky, when the fuse halves are taped up like that, the pit interior looks a little too new and pristine for my beat-up liking.. In the great scheme of things, though, that can only be a matter of personal taste. Your doing a wonderful job!!

Joel - interior paint work looks good ! Im impressed with the Hasegawa design having that tub for the interior - the fact that its a good fit obviously saves a lot of heartache ! well done

best
Mark

Ben, Actually the interior is quite weathered between dry brushing and a few washes with Flory Dark. The problem is my photography technique. The Flash is still too strong even though I've decreased it's intensity, so the washes get a little washed out. The interior is actually quite dark at this point.

Mark, I was quite pleased at the fit of the tub into the fuselage. I was prepared for it being rather sloppy, but in fact, it fits very snuggly, and right where it was intended to be. My only complaint if you can call it that, is that it wasn't nearly as detailed as what we've come to expect with the latest 1/48 scale releases.

Thanks guys for taking the time to post your thoughts and comments.

Joel

Hi Joel,

Love the Speedy D! The dive brakes are commendable, as is the effort you are putting into the entire model.

The instrument panel - decal of brushed? It looks like you drybrushed the dials to an excellent effect.

Being a -4, are you painting it M-485 Blue Gray/
M-495 Light Gray, or the later tri-color (If so, hopefully with the red bordered national insignia )?

Frederick, Thanks for the positive and in-depth comments. I really struggled with the dive brakes. They came out ok, but not great. Still recuperating from drilling over 300 holes, not to mention that the alignment was always an issue in two planes.

The instrument panel is comprised of 3 kit decals. Glossed, then dry brushed.

The planned paint scheme is the two tone Intermediate blue/gray, and lite gray bottom. Mixing both colors to match the Ana color chip for 1939-1945 Navy colors the best I can.

Haven't even thought too much about markings and decals at this point, other then I know I don't want to use the Hasegawa decals. Way too thick, and just will never look enough like paint. Haven't found a decent AM decal set, so that this point I'm going to mix and match AM and Cartograph decals.

Joel

Hi Joel,

Cross-eyed yet!? I would be. The outcome is impressive.

Frederick, I'd settle for cross eyed at this point. Technically I'm blind in the left eye. No depth perception at all. I'm still amazed I got through all those holes.

Joel

It's hard to believe, but I finally finished the interior. The last step that needed to be started and completed is the access hatch behind the cockpit tub. It's nothing more then a hatch door that allows for some storage, and access to the oxygen tanks located next to those planks. I started out by making the interior frames and stringers out of .011 strip plastic. Here's a picture of the frames. Unfortunately I can't find the pictures of the stringers installed, and the fuselage is already glued up.



Next I cut out the access hatch and file/sanded to shape.



I then made the two cross braces out of .060 strip.

The hatch cover was made from 2 pieces of .030 sheet plastic, and the hinge out of .025 rod.



I test fitted the access cover.



I then air brushed the fuselage interior halves with my Tamiya Acrylic mix of Interior Green, glued in the cockpit tub, the two oxygen tanks made out of plastic rod, and then glued the fuselage halves together.

Joel

The cockpit looks great and like the extra details your adding Have fun Phil

Super job! Looking forward to seeing the updates, Joel.

Phil, Thanks so much for stopping by and your positive comments.
Joel

Dan, thanks for stopping by. Next update isn't too far away. I've been working on the Wright Cyclone engine. Well, to be more exact, the engine itself has been replaced with a resin one from Outboost. I've detailed it with pushrods, ignition manifold, and ignition wires. Just primed it, and painting will start over the weekend.

The difference from the kit supplied engine is like night and day.

Joel

As I posted earlier, I've been working on the Wright Cyclone R1820 engine. The kit engine was replaced with an up grade Resin engine from Outboost. While there is no comparison between the kit engine and the Outboost engine in terms of detail, the resin replacement had some major issues.

The rock covers where the push rod casing slide into are at a weird angle. Makes no sense, and I can't find any photographs that show a similar angle. The ignition manifold is molded to far back on the crankcase cover, so that the pushrod casing mounting points are actually in front of it. It should be the other way around. I had to make a new manifold out of wire to correct this issue. Also the engine has a solid backing plate used for mounting on to another plate that glues up to the engine mount. That plate is very difficult to paint black. Can't understand why they just didn't mold the engine like nearly all of their other offerings without that plate. A small mounting area is all that is needed.

Here's as series of pictures to take you through the build process.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Joel

The Outboost Resin and Hasegawa engines.


Engine with all the pushrod casings installed. They were made from .025 plastic rod. Notice the weird angle where the casings attach to the rocker arm casings. New inginition wire manifold made from scrap copper wire.


Started to wire up each cylinder. 1st two cylinders were done with stretched sprue. Just too time consuming. The rest were done with .022 magnet wire.




The completed engine primed with Tamiya Gray Lacquer primer


engine cowl test fitted. Notice that the tops of the cylinders are hidden.




engine painted and lightly weathered with Flory Dark Wash.


Cowl test fitted.

Very nice work Joel, loving the engine!


Kind regards.