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SBD-3 Guadalcanal done, done and..


Woody V

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  • Woody V changed the title to 1/32 SBD-3 Guadalcanal Gear down and locked.
  • Woody V changed the title to SBD-3 Guadalcanal finished....

….well, almost but more on that later.

 

Undoubtedly the most worrisome nail-biter of this build was getting the rear guns in. I decided to show them in the stowed position which caused a myriad of difficulties, exasperated by extremely limited working space. My first plan was to leave the guns so they could pivot and slide into the stowage space and then glue the assembly in place, but no dice. Then I decided to cut the ends off the barrels leaving just enough to tuck into the fuselage, but of course I cut them about 1mm too short. Luckily the framework of the canopy covers it. Bullet dodged.

 

At this point (too late to change anything) it became apparent that the alignment pin on the gun assembly is down too low to get the gun assembly properly situated if you intend to show them in the stowed position, so if you plan to go this way, I’d strongly suggest adding a new alignment pin just above the factory one. This will drop the gun assembly down into a more natural position.

 

The other problem is the ammo belts. I assume they are designed to fit in the ammo “can” when the guns are in the raised position, but such is not the case in the stowed position so I gust glued them to the guns and let them hang down, but if you do this they should be splayed out a bit, otherwise they hit the rail that the guns move on, severely limiting the amount you can pivot the guns down.

 

Regardless, the rear canopy hides all these problems and in the end, after 3 hours finally getting them in place it’s quite passable.

 

So anyway, here are some grab shots on the bench:171821794.jpg

 

171821796.jpg

 

171821797.jpg

 

The rubber tires turned out pretty decent looking weathered with chalk pastels.

171821800.jpg

 

Which brings up the “Well, almost” part of the story.

171821801.jpg

 

I didn’t have any problems using hairspray chipping in the cockpit, but had zero luck on the fuselage and then this mess on the prop. I scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed and then resorted to scraping the paint loose with my fingernail and wound up with a completely unrealistic looking mess. However, the one blade with the huge chunk missing was just the opposite…. It came off almost by itself, an even bigger mess.

 

So, back to the drawing board and yet more experiments because nothing looks like chipping other than actual chipping and I’m determined to come up with a technique that works. I’m going to strip this off and start over.

 

This has been exhausting, but at least it turned out okay. Some things came out great, some not so much so I guess I’m happy.

 

In closing, thanks for watching and commenting.

Next, I’ll get some glamour shots for the RFI forum.

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  • Woody V changed the title to SBD-3 Guadalcanal done, done and..

... and done.

Took 14 months but it seems longer.

 

From the time I got the chipping thing figured out it took me 12 hours to finish the prop.  

171839754.jpg

 

I doubt I’ll be doing another one so exhausting, besides I’ll be 75 in December so I’m gonna do something simple next time.

So many models, so little time.

 

Look for the glamor shots over in RFI when I post them in a week or two.

 

Again thanks for watching and for leaving all the positive comments.

Edited by Woody V
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  • 4 months later...

I just finished reading it all, I missed this wip, and as with any good read I'm a bit sorry it ended so soon.
I guess your point of view is the opposite, given the time spent and the difficulties encountered.
but the result is spectacular, and you have taught us several things along the way, thanks for that.
I hope to see soon more of your works soon, even if they may be simpler than this one.

again compliments and all the best!

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