Chris,

You know me, I love Italian AC. It is too bad that the Breda BA-65 is a ground attach AC and not a dive bomber. Also some list the IMAM Ro.57 & 58 as Dive Bombers but the were actually designed as interceptors and ground attack as well. I would have done one of them if it fit. And since I cannot find the only true Dive bomber the Italian's had, the Breda Ba.201, I will do this one.

Aichi B7A Grace.

@Jeff-D and Chris, so far the gap has been smaller than pictured after I've cemented the wings, so the putty was enough.

Well done Vincent! The other thought that crossed my mind is that I've used styrene sprue as a spacer to push the fuselage walls out to meet the wings on occasion as well.

Just managed to cement in the tail plane, and then I did a dry fit of the prop/spinner and canopy. You can also see the puttied wing root gap.

Not much of an update yet I'm waiting for a set of masks for the canopy before I commence painting the beast. After seeing the mottle Darren was using I might try something similar on my SB2C-4 to see just how it goes especially on the lighter colours. I've seen browns and dirty greys used to subtly shade panels on US Navy jets. I might try something similar here.

While I wait for the masks for the SB2C-4 to arrive I thought I'd take the opportunity to make a start on Italeri's 1/72nd scale Ju87B2-R2 and just for Jeff I thought I would indulge in the Regia Aeronautica version.

Actually after looking at this scheme I realised that the underside except for the nose of the aircraft is painted night black, it has a rather interesting camo scheme. The top sides are typical Luftwaffe splinter pattern with the Balkan Kreuze painted out. No Luftwaffe call sign painted out on the fuselage sides but Regia Aeronautica numbers instead. Narrow white mediterranean theatre band and the spats are painted splinter camo. The spinner is painted yellow and there is a narrow yellow band around the nose of the Stuka. Although after searching online I begin to wonder if this is correct. Still this is an Italian aircraft done by Italeri you kinda hope they were correct and have more pertinent info than you.

Any way there'll be time to ruminate and look for photographic evidence if I can find any. Here are some progress shots to show where I'm at.

And then after a little research I find this pic and colour profile of my bird!





In the pic it's obvious that the undersides are actually black however it would appear that there was also field camo applied as well. That can be easily seen in the pic on the long range wing tanks. So I'm inclined to agree with Messrs Italeri regarding the camo scheme, and will do it as per their instructions.

My Hanschel for a twin campaign is almost ready, so i am going to start ... another Hanchel
My build for Dive Bomber Campaign is Henschel 123:

it is an old model with nice new resin cockpit. To bad that not much of that will be visible after completing the aircraft...
it has raised panel line, i did not decide yet what/if i am going to do with them.

Awesome Chis!
Looking forward to seeing it.

Found a few images myself.
This is 209 pre-capitulation.


This is it post


This is a squadron mate

Last but not least this is hard to tell what 2?? since it is blacked out.


In most cases captured aircraft were left in their original colors with the deletion of national insignias. Colors were sometimes replaced with Italian camouflage colors, usually Grigio Mimetico or Grigio Azzurro Chiaro 1, depending on the period, for lower surfaces and Verde Mimetico 2 or Verde Oliva Scuro 2 on the upper surfaces.

Only on occasions during specific time did they use Black for night ops.

I should be posting some of my interior images soon.
I have been having issues with my electronics lighting in my Sub I am doing........

Jeff that sucks buddy ... you could say they are "sub" par??

Yep! lol
I decided to cut back and leave out some stuff and remove some fiber optics that I wanted. Maybe next time. It is my first attempt at lighting any of my models.

And OH by the way. Sorry I thought you were doing 209

Small update my masks have arrived for the SB2C-4 and have been applied, time for paint!

Ok Most of my interior is complete. Not many detail images at all of the Grace that I could find mostly relics.

Nice interior Jeff, I'm guessing with the lack of hard photographic evidence then poetic license must come into play.

I've got the preshading done, I'm not to sure how it will turn out but this is a trial run so I'll be filing it away for future reference. And using the experience to refine the process to my satisfaction. Here are the pics of where I'm at with it now.

Chris,

Thanks
Yep Mostly for the wiring. I did redo some kit part from scratch and used some interior images of Kate's and Val's for some ideas.
Seat belts are scratch from foil with some PE buckles I have. Looking at most Japanese AC from the time they all seem to have the doubled layer like this.

Jeff

slow warm weather progress....

Mike,
Looking good, can't wait to see finished product

Accurate Miniatures 1/48 SBD-2 VMSB-241 Midway.

HENDERSON, LOFTON R.
Major, U.S. Marine Corps
Marine Scout-Bombing Squadron 241 (VMSB-241), Marine Aircraft Group 22 (MAG-22), Naval Air Station, Midway
Date of Action: June 4, 1942
Citation:
The Navy Cross is presented to Lofton R. Henderson, Major, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism as Squadron Commander of Marine Scout-Bombing Squadron TWO HUNDRED FORTY-ONE (VMSB- 241), during action against enemy Japanese forces in the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. With utter disregard for his own personal safety, Major Henderson, with keen judgment and courageous aggressiveness in the face of strong enemy fighter opposition, led his squadron in an attack which contributed materially to the defeat of the enemy. He was subsequently reported as missing in action. It is believed he gallantly gave up his life in the service of his country.

That is one great-looking SBD! Love the superior weathering.

Fantastic!

Gaz

I echo Gary's sentiments Mike that's a fine looking SBD and the historical information regarding it's pilot and his noteworthy actions is an added bonus thanks for sharing.

Well I've got the SB2C-4 painted and as expected the white shows the countershading beautifully however with the darker colours it's become washed out and all but invisible. So if this is to work for me I've decided to paint light greys, browns on the darker colours and dark greys, blacks and dark browns for the lighter colours. The contrast idea was originally suggested for grey US Navy aircraft so the dark counter shading works but with the WW2 colour schemes of dark blues, greys and greens an inverse is required. A little further refinement and we'll see what I can come up with.

I then moved onto the decaling which have proved brittle at best, downright unusable at worst. I slid off the national insignias for the fuselage and the left side fractured on contact with the fuselage and the right side literally tried to fly apart. I'm in the midst of remedial work now working out a plan of action. The decals are also reluctant to settle into recessed panel lines and over surface detail. So inflexible as well as brittle which is not really all that surprising, disappointing perhaps but not surprising! The decals are old so I think they've become brittle over time, I'm now coating them with Micro scale decal film before use to hold them together till I can get them positioned correctly. Here a a few progress pics to show where I'm at.

Chris,
Despite your decal issues, your Helldiver is looking great. Love the color scheme! Such an oddly shaped aircraft.

Gaz

Cheers Gaz! Yeah it's all wings and tail and looks rather out of proportion. Fuselage looks way to small for the rest of the airframe, hence the epitaph "Big tailed beast". it suffered from centre of gravity issues and lateral stability (hence the big tail) so simply lengthening the fuselage wasn't an ideal fix as it would have shifted the C.G. further back in an already unstable airframe.

Mike,

Simply Awesome!
That is a great job on the Dauntless.
From start to finish that is a superb job.

BZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally got back to this, hopefully there will be more painting progress next week. I just got done priming and painting yellow on the leading edges.