Being a rather anal retentive type with all things I do I took the time to dry fit everything on this kit. It's AM's 1/48th scale SBD-5. At a glance this kit is marvelously detailed inside and out but that's where the "accuracy" of this kit ceases.
The fuselage sides are of unequal thickness. That happens and can be resolved. However, due to the extent of the detail moldings for interior (cockpit) parts much trimming has to be done to ensure the fuselage sides and wing bottom correctly fit and I use "correctly" with much tongue-in-cheek with regard to this entire kit. Nothing fits, period. By the time all trimming is completed and major assemblies can be brought together to fit without forcing anything one wing dihedral is excessively high (right wing) and the upper wing panel lines do not line up with the fuselage lines on the right side. This was checked and rechecked to ensure proper alignment with the wing bottom by tack-gluing rather than taping. I tack-glued everything on this kit because much has to be installed and lined up for final assembly. Basically, I loosely built the kit to check alignment.
The extent of attention to cockpit and exterior detail is, again, well thought out and with much work this kit can be a nice representation of the original airplane. However, due to the fact that nothing is straight forward with this particular kit I do not suggest it to anyone except experienced builders who have much of their own reference material on the particular airplane. The instructions are woefully inadequate regarding specific placement of interior detail parts. Painting details are also lacking in accuracy and scope and detail. Most kits are like that so I discount that aspect of this one.
The dive flaps are very much a joke. The holes should be symmetrically aligned top-bottom and are not once the individual flaps have been located to their respective positions. This means that the row of holes on the upper and lower trailing edges will mismatch when they should be aligned. Each flap will require trimming on one end and material added on the other to align the holes. The right wing panel will require added material at the upper wing-to-body joint to give symmetrical dihedral. The center bottom flap, once the wing is in alignment and wing flaps installed, will require additional material added to both sides to meet with the wing flaps. The wing bottom aft center extension is molded in the wrong angle and will require heat-bending. It will then require trimming to make it match the fuselage cut-out to prevent large gaps. The cockpit floor will not seat into the fuselage because the right side of the fuselage is molded too thick and the fuselage sidewall details are too long. The pilot's armored bulkhead does not fit into the roll-over structure at all for the same reason and will require reshaping to fit. The fuselage forward firing guns fairing won't fit because it was not properly molded to fit over the instrument panel. Also, it is externally inaccurate in contour from the gun breech area to the barrel area. It's stepped and shouldn't be.
Basically this kit is for advanced modelers only if they choose to take advantage of a pretty good scale representation of the real airplane. Nothing about the kit is straight forward for a correct build OOB. I thoroughly enjoy modeling and find most of it involves the interior/exterior finishes. This kit does not look like an enjoyable undertaking for me and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I check the fit of model brands I have no prior experience with and this is my first Accurate Miniatures kit. I'm glad I checked. I will not build this kit any time soon, if ever, as it does not fit my idea of an enjoyable leisure time activity.
Joe
The fuselage sides are of unequal thickness. That happens and can be resolved. However, due to the extent of the detail moldings for interior (cockpit) parts much trimming has to be done to ensure the fuselage sides and wing bottom correctly fit and I use "correctly" with much tongue-in-cheek with regard to this entire kit. Nothing fits, period. By the time all trimming is completed and major assemblies can be brought together to fit without forcing anything one wing dihedral is excessively high (right wing) and the upper wing panel lines do not line up with the fuselage lines on the right side. This was checked and rechecked to ensure proper alignment with the wing bottom by tack-gluing rather than taping. I tack-glued everything on this kit because much has to be installed and lined up for final assembly. Basically, I loosely built the kit to check alignment.
The extent of attention to cockpit and exterior detail is, again, well thought out and with much work this kit can be a nice representation of the original airplane. However, due to the fact that nothing is straight forward with this particular kit I do not suggest it to anyone except experienced builders who have much of their own reference material on the particular airplane. The instructions are woefully inadequate regarding specific placement of interior detail parts. Painting details are also lacking in accuracy and scope and detail. Most kits are like that so I discount that aspect of this one.
The dive flaps are very much a joke. The holes should be symmetrically aligned top-bottom and are not once the individual flaps have been located to their respective positions. This means that the row of holes on the upper and lower trailing edges will mismatch when they should be aligned. Each flap will require trimming on one end and material added on the other to align the holes. The right wing panel will require added material at the upper wing-to-body joint to give symmetrical dihedral. The center bottom flap, once the wing is in alignment and wing flaps installed, will require additional material added to both sides to meet with the wing flaps. The wing bottom aft center extension is molded in the wrong angle and will require heat-bending. It will then require trimming to make it match the fuselage cut-out to prevent large gaps. The cockpit floor will not seat into the fuselage because the right side of the fuselage is molded too thick and the fuselage sidewall details are too long. The pilot's armored bulkhead does not fit into the roll-over structure at all for the same reason and will require reshaping to fit. The fuselage forward firing guns fairing won't fit because it was not properly molded to fit over the instrument panel. Also, it is externally inaccurate in contour from the gun breech area to the barrel area. It's stepped and shouldn't be.
Basically this kit is for advanced modelers only if they choose to take advantage of a pretty good scale representation of the real airplane. Nothing about the kit is straight forward for a correct build OOB. I thoroughly enjoy modeling and find most of it involves the interior/exterior finishes. This kit does not look like an enjoyable undertaking for me and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I check the fit of model brands I have no prior experience with and this is my first Accurate Miniatures kit. I'm glad I checked. I will not build this kit any time soon, if ever, as it does not fit my idea of an enjoyable leisure time activity.
Joe