Monogram SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber

[mustang1989]

This SBD is a Confederate Air Force Edition Monogram 1/48 scale SBD Dauntless that was boxed in 1988. The only thing different about this kit from prior boxings is the decal sheet really. I decided to take this kit on largely because I built this thing when I was 12 years old( as I'm sure a lot of us have if we are aircraft buffs) using minimal paint which consisted only of "no name" acrylic black and "green apple green" (no zinc chromate but it was real close), silver enamel, acrylic yellow for the prop tips, some enamel red for the dive flaps, and an enamel grey for the undersides, thinner (which consisted of gasoline-hey gimme a break here, my dad was a mechanic) , and basic model glue. I swabbed the paint on the interior (what little it had) and the undersides. No paint on the top because it was molded in blue, didn't paint the tires or the prop(except for the yellow ends and the silver hub) because they were already molded in black and I guess I did try my hand at painting the canopy frames with some blue paint that I ended up with. Back then I was as happy as a clam! By these days standards it was a disaster! Hasegawa has a hand in this, even though it too has some inaccuracies, because the cockpit is SO lacking. I robbed a lot of parts from this spare Hasegawa kit and used decals from it and some decals from Yellow Wings as well. Was it my best build?? No. But I had fun taking a trip down memory lane building this plane.

Almost the whole cockpit is from the Hasegawa boxing as well as the forward firing gun barrels and main landing gear wheels. There is some PE from Toms Modelworks and the rear gun ammo belts were donated by a fella by the name of Stikpusher back when FSM was the only modeling forum that I was aware of. Awesome guy . Thanks Carlos. I drilled out the dive flap holes and did some scratch building throughout the build. This build fairly instrumental to me because it was the first build where I really started getting comfortable with my airbrushing. All exterior paints were Vallejo and interior paints were Model Master.









A small comment about the next picture. I took this one with the purpose of showing the model/ replication of 22-C-14 after it was first loaded onto the carrier Independence. I tried to get the paint scheme as close to this bird as possible so I'll have this pic and then following that the actual pic of the plane(which you all have seen here already but not right next to one another). The now so obvious thing that sticks out to me like a sore thumb is the fact that there is actually only one roundel on the upper wing surface on the port wing. I ain't going to worry about it now. If this would have been a build for extreme accuracy I wouldn't have been very happy. Pictures offer great help in modeling I continue to find out.





and then finally the cockpit with most of the upgrades from Hasegawa's SBD-4 kit, Toms Modelworks and PE ammo belts for the rear flex gun:



All in all this was a fun build for me. Accuracy was really only there in the paint and there are flaws throughout the build that I would normally take care of. With fun in mind I mixed accuracy with original Monogram intent,however, none of the features that I wanted to work in the beginning of the build work in the name of getting things to fit right and proper so I left alot of Monogram signatures on the aircraft such as the copyright year on the elevators, part numbers in the middle inside portion of the dive flaps and the incorrect centerline bomb and bomb strut.

This was the cockpit from the Monogram kit. The only other thing the kit had in the box was a pilot that had a seat molded to his ass. wow.



Then the rear gun. OMG!!!



Here is the cockpit flooring and related parts as well as the gunners ring with the twin .30 cal setup. I first painted the seat with "rattle can" Testors Metallic Silver enamel followed by a coat of Model Master acrylic Zinc Chromate Green. I then took a toothpick and chipped the Chromate as to provide a scratched seat back surface from parachute buckle and seat belt buckle contact for that worn in look. The seat belts were made out of lead foil with PE buckles from Tom's Modelworks. I must have worn that stupid visor for 30 minutes trying to feed those belts through the buckles and through the seat belt end latches! I painted the seat belts a linen color from Humbrol and after the paint cured out hit them with a dry brushing of ground up black pastel to dirty them up. I also applied a black wash to the cockpit tub for the used effect as well. I had to be careful with that because carrier based aircraft are usually corroded and not dirty. The raised detail on the side consoles was completed by using a white lead pencil to bring out the details. The gunners ring , while not totally accurate, at least resembles the reference!!! Seat belts for the gunners seat were made from lead foil as well with PE belt latches/ ends.





As you can see, this is a FAR cry from the out of box offering that the Monogram kit offers!! The only thing missing from the gun at this point is the PE gun ring sight and the PE .30 cal ammo leading from the ammo boxes to the guns. Those got installed later with parts from the Hasegawa boxing.

[LSP_K2]

Very cool, Joe. As you suggested, I too built a bunch of the Monogram kits, my favorite of the lot being the tank buster Stuka, though I also liked the P-38 kit quite a bit.

[mustang1989]

5 hours ago, LSP_K2 said:

Very cool, Joe. As you suggested, I too built a bunch of the Monogram kits, my favorite of the lot being the tank buster Stuka, though I also liked the P-38 kit quite a bit.

 

Thanks Kevin. I actually had that Stuka in my stash until late last year. It was a cool kit as a kid. I never did have the P-38 kit though. '

 

One clear and glaring thing that I obviously got wrong on this build was the use of insignia on the starboard wing. Don't know quite how I let that one slip but I aint going back now. lol. 

I do want to build another Dauntless and although I had alot of fun with this build here, I won't be going with Monogram the next time around. 

Edited March 13, 2019 by mustang1989

[LSP_K2]

2 hours ago, mustang1989 said:

 

Thanks Kevin. I actually had that Stuka in my stash until late last year. It was a cool kit as a kid. I never did have the P-38 kit though. '

 

One clear and glaring thing that I obviously got wrong on this build was the use of insignia on the starboard wing. Don't know quite how I let that one slip but I aint going back now. lol. 

I do want to build another Dauntless and although I had alot of fun with this build here, I won't be going with Monogram the next time around. 

 

If you want a joyful experience in 1:48 scale, chase down an Accurate Miniatures Dauntless kit.

[Wolf Buddee]

Nice! Those ol' Monogram kits still build up really nice. Nice to see the raised rivet detail too. Those SBDs were anything but smooth so the model looks as it should.

 

Well done Tom.

 

Cheers,

Wolf

[Gazzas]

Joe,

    That looks fantastic!  I'm glad to see it.  The .30 cals are particularly impressive!

 

Great job!!

 

Gaz

[mustang1989]

11 hours ago, LSP_K2 said:

 

If you want a joyful experience in 1:48 scale, chase down an Accurate Miniatures Dauntless kit.

 

Already have one in the stash good buddy. 

[mustang1989]

11 hours ago, Wolf Buddee said:

Nice! Those ol' Monogram kits still build up really nice. Nice to see the raised rivet detail too. Those SBDs were anything but smooth so the model looks as it should.

 

Well done Tom.

 

Cheers,

Wolf

 

Thanks Wolf, 

 That is one good attribute about these old Revellogram molds. Lots of exterior details. 

[mustang1989]

9 hours ago, Gazzas said:

Joe,

    That looks fantastic!  I'm glad to see it.  The .30 cals are particularly impressive!

 

Great job!!

 

Gaz

 

Thanks Gaz! That Hasegawa kit was good for something. lol 

[mustang1989]

On 6/29/2019 at 7:57 AM, MARU5137 said:

Super Duper work.

  must bring back memories from when you were 12 building this right now.

 

STUUNER of a model.

 

 

Thanks Maru. I really appreciate the comments and yes.....I had plenty of flashbacks.