1/48 SB2C-4E Helldiver, White 80 of VB-85, U.S.S. Shangri-La

[zaxos345]

Good evening guys, new model on the work bench and this time it is Revell's 1/48 SB2C-4E Helldiver. I have been working on that for the last month, nothing serious to show you until now.

The profile i chose to replicate is the White 80 of VB-85, U.S.S. Shangri-La

It is not going to be an OOB build, i will try to upgrade it as much as i can having as a guide the great build of Chuck Wojtkiewicz in Aeroscale (i have the link but i dont know if the forum rules permit me to post it)

The aftermarket i am going to use are the Big Edition from Eduard

some stuff from Part,

engine from Vector, seats from ultracast

Aeromaster stencils and the KAM set from Montex

First i removed all the detail from the bomb bay

I cut the real wheel in order to shorten it, as Chuck i s right about that, Revell gives the wheel fully extended as in flight condition, normally when in ground it should be compressed.

After a lot of thinking i decided to lower the turtle back, so i took the courage and the razor and i started...

Not bad for my first time...

I continued working with Part PE, the part that covers the fuselage under the turtle back, not bad ...

Here dry fitted

Later i took my time on the turtleback. This is the Part's PE for that

No way could i make it to be at the lowered position, so i took my folding tool and i cut it to 5 pieces. I tried to do the job with them but some of them proved to be too big, so knife again and i made some new ones from styrene sheet. This is the final outcome including some more detail things

The folding parts from the turtle back are not glued together, instead i tape them together by two with a foil adhesive tape from 3M (stole the idea from Chuck, great tip in order to have them together and fully functional).

Unfortunately i dont have a photo from the dry fit i did but i will show it eventually. After i had made my mind about the turtle back i moved to bomb bay and i added the PE from Eduard, great detail indeed.

I removed all the details from inside the fuselage and i add some of mine, painted them and here they are...

and here with the bomb bay dry fitted...

Thats all for now guys, hope you like it so far,

John

 

[Wurger]

 

[brucejscott]

Nice work.

 

[Airframes]

Really nice work so far. Is this a 'new tool' kit, or the old Monogram moulding, from the 1960s, with folding wings, retracting landing gear etc?

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Excellent start John!

 

[zaxos345]

Thanks for your comments guys, Terry yes it is a reissue of the promodeler's old kit but not with folding wings.

John

 

[chukw]

Looks great, John- cheers! I wish I'd had those Part sets when I was hammering mine together. ;D

chuk

 

[Airframes]

Thanks John - I thought maybe it was the early kit, part toy, part model, which I built back in about 1963. Still a kit that can be 'worked on', but obviously not as good as the Promodeller.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good start John. Let me know if you'd like me to post a few detail pics I took.

 

[zaxos345]

Good start John. Let me know if you'd like me to post a few detail pics I took.

I 'd love to Andy, i dont have a lot of them, looking forward.

John

 

[Wayne Little]

Very Nice!

 

[Crimea_River]

Hi John, I forgot that I posted them already elsewhere on this site. Go here

 

[Lucky13]

Very nice indeed!

 

[Totalize]

Awesome start John,

looking forward to seeing more.

 

[javlin]

Nice stuff John just can't leave well enough alone can ya and do an OOB.Cheers Kevin

 

[zaxos345]

Good evening guys, nice to be back after Easter vacations (during which in fact everybody in the family were sick). Well at least i will pay you back with some progress of the ''beast''.
Well these are the kit covers of the landing gear corrected for the mold marks. They are not going to be used but they are going to be the ''plan b'' in case something happens with the PE.

...and here you can see the ones that Part provides, excellent detail dont you think?

Some small items corrected on the kit gear legs some others were added and you can also see the kits wheels which have nothing to be jealous of the resign ones, great detail.

Next are the bomb bay doors, also here Part rules, better detailed than the Eduard's ones, the only remark is the absence of the small access door in one of them, but that was easily fixed with a part of adhesive aluminum tape.

Here dry fitted, each part of the doors have to be painted separately in order to avoid any misspaintings.

Next it was time for a little surgery on thw wings, the plastic flaps heve to be cut in order for the Eduard ones to be placed later.

Unfortunately a quick dry fit revealed a major problem which i will have to face when the time comes. Eduard provides the flaps, landing and dive ones, to be positioned, in most cases, both in the open position. I want to build the aircraft ready for take of, so i will place the dive flaps in the closed position but as you can see the dive ones are a bit shorter than they should be.

Next it was time for the wheel wells, this is how they looked like before

I sanded all the detail and i begun to place the Eduard ones...

Pretty detailed dont you think? After that i dealt with the hydraulic lines, i did not like the Eduard ones so i started build my own

Using the Eduard ones as a guide...

For each line i measured, marked with a pencil and finally bend it using a homemade jig, an idea that i stole from a good guy named Chuck...

So i finally made this...

...but i did not like it so i started all over again using a different method regarding the distance and measurements. I squeezed a bit of 0.3mm solder wire, i taped it down on the table and using the same method as above i started to construct the lines. Each one was glued on the solder wire and finally after i had finished all 6 of them i used the solder to make a brace over them.

The result...

And a dry fit inside the well, of course also these parts have to be panted separately!!!

Thats all for now guys, hope you like it so far, waiting for your comments and remarks.

John

 

[Airframes]

Very nice work John.

 

[Crimea_River]

WOW!

 

[zaxos345]

Terry, Andy, thank you very much guys

John

 

[vajled]

some really fantastic work here...
Thx for pictures and step by step infos

Roman