1/48 AM SBD-2 (semi-WIP)

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Luftace43

Senior Airman
315
133
Mar 16, 2018
Hi all!

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything, life has just been busy is all. Here I will share my build of the Accurate Miniatures 1/48 SBD-2 I finished a few months back as an aircraft of VB-2 from the USS Lexington at the Coral Sea battle. Most of this thread will focus mainly on the interiors and related details as to be honest I got lazy and didn't take any pictures of the exterior painting process. Sorry for that, but I do hope that this will still be of some use to anyone wanting to build a Coral Sea SBD or any SBD in general. Without further ado, let's get started.

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I started with the instrument panel. The panel and rudder pedals are molded as a single clear plastic piece in the AM kit. Since the panel had raised dial details I chose to pick out the details with paint instead of using the decals offered for the instrument faces. The the panel was painted with Model Master Acrylics, Grimy Black and US Interior Green. The dials were painted flat black and the dial details were carefully picked out with a very light tan from one of the little square Testors acrylic bottles that I had lying around. The panel was given a dark brown oil wash, the excess cleaned up with a q-tip after the wash had mostly dried. Next was drybrushing with a few varying shades of gray for the black panels and yellows and greens for the interior green parts. Selector switches and some knobs were picked out with MM enamel chrome silver and a few in Testors acryl gloss red. The wear on the rudder pedals were also done with the chrome silver and a fine brush. A drop of Future was added to each dial after all painting was completed. Note that in the picture the excess plastic bit was left between the rudder pedals on purpose to help prevent accidentally breaking them off while handling. This was later snipped off and the attachment point touched up just prior to installation later on.

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Starboard gunner sidewall details

I then began working on the sidewall details for the pilot and gunner stations. Each area has separate sidewall pieces for each side, four in total, all rather nicely done.
This is the the starboard gunner's sidewall piece. After I cleaned up the very minimal mold lines here and there I simply painted it MM Acryl Interior Green and instruments and hardware in Grimy Black. Dark brown oil wash applied followed by drybrushing again with yellow and green oil paints, light gray for the black areas, with a tiny bit of chrome silver very lightly drybrushed on the equipment ro make it "pop" a bit. Easy peasy. The rectangular upright object is the soda oxygen filter tank. It got a coat of MM Acryl Chromate Green to make it stand out from the rest of the cockpit green. The canvas straps have not been painted yet as well as other details are missing that I will later scratchbuild, such as the oxygen hose and extraction handle.

That's all for now. Again, apologies for not having many progression photos of each assembly/painting step but I hope the descriptions will make up for that atleast a little. More to come soon. This model is already finished, so no worries with an unfinished build this time around. Gonna spread out the postings over the next few days though.

Chad
 
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Starboard gunner's sidewall

Here is the sidewall and rear bulkhead attached to the starboard fuselage half.

1. Oxygen system cylinder made from round styrene stock and punched styrene disks with a small piece of square stock to approximate the component seen in reference photos. (It has been several months since I built this so I don't remember all the names of the various pieces of equipment at this time.) Painted MM Acryl Green Zinc Chromate with an information label represented on the side of the cylinder with an off-white color. Dark brown oil wash applied followed by a drybrush of light green oil paint. The canvas straps on the oxygen filter were painted with PollyScale French Khaki that I still have.

2. Handle added from copper wire.

3. Oxygen hose made from lead wire wrapped around copper wire. The end is a small tube created from a stretched plastic cotton swab slipped over the protruding copper wire. Painted the hose green drab with an oil paint drybrush of a light greenish gray.

The rear bulk head and fuselage side was painted MM Acryl US Interior Green and recieved the same wash and drybrush treatment as the other parts. The .30 cal ammo boxes stowed in the top rack were painted MM Acryl Green Drab.

Chad
 
Thanks Andy! Which SBD will you be tackling?

It's the SBD-1 kit from 1997 Chad. Not yet sure if I will do this one for GB48 but it's possible. I don't know what I'm dealing with yet for issues/accuracy and need to research this before I commit.

I like what I'm seeing of your build so far.
 
Thanks for the kind words, all. It's great to see you guys again! I'm looking forward to sharing the rest of the build over the next few days.

Chad
 
After a longer than expected delay, I have another update. This time I will be showing the starboard pilots sidewall details.

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Starboard sidewall cockpit details with base colors.

1. Added spare photoetch panels to add detail where it was lacking to better match references of the prototype. The small panel to the right was absent altogether and was a simple matter of adding a small piece of square styrene stock and then gluing the photoetch face onto that.

2. This small pump handle was missing from the kit as well, so i scratchbuilt it from a length of stretched sprue and two small "L" shaped pieces at the back to represent the pivot/attachment point.

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Here is the sidewall detail glued in place with final painting and details added. The oxygen unit was detailed the same as the rear gunner's unit shown previously. The levers are molded on the kit part, I only thinned them down very carefully with a fresh #11 blade. All details were picked out with careful painting. The interior green color was highlighted with oil paints to hopefully add some dimension and contrast to the interior.

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Overall view of the starboard fuselage half interior completed.

Chad
 
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Thanks for the compliments fellas, glad you guys are enjoying this so far.

Next up will be the port fuselage details.
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Here is the port sidewall detail for the rear gunner's station. Base colors have been and the interior green parts have been drybrushed with yellow-green oil paints. Looks pretty rough right now, but I thought that maybe someone may find it useful to see the painting of details at various stages instead of just the end result.

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Port side detail for the pilot's cockpit. Base colors applied and drybrushing started.

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After the sidewall pieces were painted, I glued them in their places on the fuselage half. Now they are ready for the final details to be painted.

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Port side cockpit details finished. Nothing but the kit parts here, believe it or not. Just careful painting with a fine brush and oil paints for the tiniest details such as the dots around the selector switches.

Thats all for now. Next up will be finishing up the gunner's station.

Chad
 
Looking good Chad. I never didn't think to add oxygen hoses to mine and it's probably a bit late now.
 

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