Finally, I've been able to make some serious headway on my 1/48 scale GWM Douglas TBD_1 Devastator build for the Douglas Propeller Campaign. As with most kits, I like to start out with the cockpit.

Here lies the 1st issue I had to deal with, as what color to paint the interior. Research has shown that all Naval aircraft interior colors were aluminum lacquer for pre-war early production models of the Vindicator, Devastator, & Dauntless. After the Pearl Harbor attack, through the Battle of the Coral Sea, and up to Midway, all Naval aircraft were repainted. That included the interiors to what is commonly called Bronze/Interior Green.

The issue is that not all planes were painted, and certainly not all the interiors were converted according to the allotted time schedule. I'm going on the assumption that both depicted aircraft in the kit were repainted to Bronze/Interior Green, when they painted the exteriors to the two tone Intermediate Blue/Gray top & neutral Gray bottom.

Before I started my painting procedures, I had to do a little PE work. Two hinges and a bracket for the radio were added, and the large front fuselage section that when the two doors were opened, it allowed the pilot to see out of a large bottom window.





I primed the interior of the fuselage halves, as well as all the interior cockpit parts flat black, to help with color modulation and shading.



I next airbrushed the same parts a custom mixture of Tamiya Acrylic XF-4 & XF-5 thinned 2 parts thinner to 1 part paint. I used good old store lacquer thinner. The mixture flowed like when I used enamels in the old days. Applying several light coats gave me the finish I was looking for. Unfortunately, this set of pictures, I once again took the easy way out and used the pop up flash, which just killed the dry brushing and the dark interior green color. My next series of pictures I'm going back to natural light and a tripod for the proper effect. So please bare with me on the colors. They're just way too bright and somewhat washed out.





Next I glued up the PE section for the lower fuselage. Hindsight would have made it a lot easier to glue it up, then paint it, as I'm doing some needed putty and sanding that will destroy the paint anyway.



Finally, I painted both instrument panels flat black, then installed each decal instrument, and used Pledge to make the clear gloss lenses.



Thanks for taking the time to look,
Joel

Nice build so far the gauges came out good! New follower

looking good Joel, keep it up!

Justin & Pedro, that's for the comments, and welcome to my build blog. Nothing special this time, as I'm concentrating on the paint and weathering. The kit is so well detailed/engineered, that there just isn't much needed unless I want to reposition all the fixed flying surfaces, which I see no reason to do.

One thing that I noticed to my dismay, is that I completely screwed up the pilots seat bracket. It's upside down. The instructions have it correctly positioned. So I'm claiming another senior moment.





The end result is that the seat tilts forward. With the top plate on, you can hardly see it, but I can. So I removed the seat, & popped off the bracket. Naturally, I broke the bracket just to make it more interesting. Did the repairs, re-installed the bracket correctly, and still left it aluminum in color, which I think is wrong, but have no pictures to prove it one way the other, and then glued the seat in its correct position. Looks a million time better.



Joel

Joel, I've noticed you do a great job on all your cockpit efforts. This is no exception; well done.
Don't feel bad; all of us make upside down part errors. It seems the more experience you get, the less you read the instructions.

Ben, thanks for those kind words. I guess it's like you said, with experience we, at least me, tend not to study the instruction nearly well enough.

I just edited my original error post, and included a picture of the correction. Of course I still haven't cleaned the dust and sanding particles out.

Joel

Hi my name is justin and I'm guilty of glueing things in backwards

Outstanding

Joel,

Senior moments happen a lot lately to yours truly so i hear you

Maybe we should ask to have a seniors forum. Just remembering that we have a build blog there should qualify for a special ribbon.

Joel

Looks like the TBD-1 is going on permanent hold. I wanted to test fit the engine cowling to the fuselage after I glued the fuselage halves together, and I can't find the cowl! It's a separate part, not on a sprue. Looked everywhere, and I can't find it. Not sure if it was ever in the box, but I'm sure it was.

Does anyone know how to get in touch with Great Wall Hobby, as there is no address that I can find in the box, the instructions, or online?

Thanks
Joel

Update: Been in touch with Lionroar the parent company of GMW, and they told me to contact DragonUSA which I did. Got an auto response, and a4-6 wk time frame just to hear from them :-(. At that time, Lionroar said that if I don't get a positive response to re-contact them for the part replacement from China.

Then I check my email inbox, and there is a email notification from Guido, who was contacted by Rowan that I was in need of a part. Guido is the GMW customer service rep for Europe, and stepped up with an offer for help. Just have to pay for shipping. Already sent my address.

Just can't believe how great the Aeroscale site is, and continues to be even better.

Joel

One glaring issue with the GWH TBD-1 kit, is that the main wheel wells have absolutely no detail, none, just a completely open area that you can see the fuselage main spar on one side, and the spar at the point where the wings fold in the opposite direction. Doing more and more research, I came across a Build Blog by Vance from 5/11/12. He posted about this very issue, and supplied several B&W pictures of the lower wings and landing gear. His solution was to box in the wheel wells, which I'm just about finished doing. Still have the ribs to glue into the other wheel well.





Now the issue is just what color to paint it. Pre-WW11 Devastators with the Chrome Yellow wings, then Neutrality Overall Gray; interiors & wheel wells were painted Aluminum Lacquer. By Dec.1941, the scheme was changed to Intermediate Blue/Lite Gray, After The Battle of the Coral Sea other changes consisted of removal of the Red Meatball and the White & Red paint on the rudders. When the paint scheme changed to the blue/lt gray, the interiors were repainted to what we refer to now as interior Green. The question is what were the wheels repainted to? As an example, F4F Wildcats & SBD Dauntlesses had their wheel wells painted the same color as the bottom of the aircraft.
Were the wheel wells left Aluminum Lacquer, painted Interior Green, or paint lite Gray to match the bottom of the aircraft? My take since the wheel wells are open having them the same color as the bottom of the aircraft makes the most sense. The Aluminum Lacquer would reflect light like a mirror making it an easier target to hone in on, and the interior Green would also be so contrasting as to have a similar effect.
Does anyone know the proper color the wheel wells were painted?
Joel

Found an article: USN & USMC Aircraft Interiors of WWII
by William Reece

Mr. Reese has written several articles on WW11 Corsairs, and Naval aircraft colors. He states that the wheel wheels should be painted the same color as the bottom of the aircraft for that period.
At this point I think I'm really leaning that way.

Joel

JA
Super work on the wheel wells. Of course, I noticed something was missing about the cowl debacle.
Bro

that interiors looking really nice Joel. Go with the pre-war scheme - it males a really attractive looking model.

Steve,
Thanks for the positive comments. Unfortunately, I can't go with the pre-war paint scheme. The interior has been painted Interior Green, and the Wheel Wells Medium Neutral Gray. Those are the colors for the 2 tone Intermediate Neutral Gray schemes. The pre-war colors would have been Aluminum lacquer for the interior and wheel Wells.

Joel

Finally finished the main wheel wells. I decided just to go with Tamiya Medium Gray XF-20 with a few drops of Flat white XF-2. Once the wing halves were glued together, you really can't see very much of the wheel well. And since I'm planning on having the wings folded, the odds of ever turning the model over for viewing other for the Build blog pictures is slim to none. The red tint you see is what's left of my blood after I missed with a brand new #11 Exacto blade. Here's a picture of one of the Wheel wells:





The bottom front of the fuselage has a compartment with doors, which allows the pilot to look down through a very large window. The compartment is made from one large piece of PE, that I glued in with CCA the. Squadron Green stuff was used to blend in my less then stellar PE work. The two doors are just test fitted loosely in the open position. The doors are comprised of a plastic outer skin, and a PE inner skin to form the complex shape. I also used Green Stuff to blend in the PE to the plastic as my PE work is constantly less then average . There are 3 hinges on each door that is used only when you opt to have the doors closed. I'm going to have them in the open position. The instructions call to remove the rear most hinge from each door, which I did. Research information isn't easy to come by on the Devastator, so I'm just going to assume that they did their homework, and the 2 hinge assembly is correct.





Until my next update. That's for stopping by for a progress check.

Joel

Good job with the wells man its looking good

Justin,
Thanks for the kind words.
Joel

Joel,
parts are on the way.
Nice fix on the wheel wells. I can remember tyring to find photos that are conclusively showing these. I still think that is was better that GWH left them away instead of "guesstimating" some interior, that would have caused some wrong-or-right-riot, because there is no conclusive photo to be found (as of yet). That is one thing about developping kits: Sometimes you have to settle for something or you won't ever get the kit on the market.
Have fun with your TBD.
Cheers,
Guido

Guido, thank you so much for coming to my rescue.

I searched and searched for some reference material that would support a simple set of ribs, and found two pictures. GWH has already detailed the main landing gear with hydraulic lines so that issue has been taken care of. Apparently, the landing gear is retracted by a mechanical cable system, and that cable is shown in the 2nd picture, which I will be including.

GWH certainly has produced a excellent kit, with exceptional detail. It's been really a fun and enjoyable build to date, with my only issue being the engine cowl with I'm sure I lost.

Right now I'm starting the process of planning out the process of the folding wings, and they even thought of including the folding brackets made out of white metal for strength and longevity.

I did find one issue on the instructions. They call out for the color 351, which is Interior Green, but they left it off of the color/paint chart. Actually, I found that really funny, as I'm sure that's most likely the one thing that wasn't double checked, then checked again.

Joel

Been working on sanding and cleaning up the fuselage & wing joint seams. I used like always, my go to glue: Tamiya Xtra Thin, but ran into a issue I haven't really seen before. The Xtra thin is a hotter glue, really melting the surface plastic so that the parts are fused together. This time, it did the job too well. Besides the usual plastic little globs that you sand off, I also found a ton of little pin holes that needed filling. This I guess is caused by a carbon based gas being formed in the fusing process. GWH uses a rather softer plastic then Tamiya or Hasegawa, that is very easy to work with, & sands easily.

It was very easy to solve this issue by simply switching to Tamiya Orange glue, and Testors thin liquid glue which is has the same consistency of the Orange. Only difference is that is doesn't dry nearly as fast.
Joel

De nada, Joel!
Keep up the good work!
Cheers!

Nice job so far Joel! I have a question regarding the color of the cockpit. I'm planing on building one of the TBD-1s of VT-2 flying of USS Lexington during the Battle of the Coral Sea. What would be the most probable, that it was repainted green or that it was aluminum? I understand that it is an educated guess but yours probably way better than mine. According to http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/Airgroups/CV-2.html the aircraft would be painted in this scheme
TIA

Jakob