**** DONE: GB-48 1/48 SBD-1 Dauntless - Carrier & Maritime Patrol A/C of WWII

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There is another option - request a spare part. But of course, that could take some time, although it could be "retro fitted", using the damaged part just for now, temporarily attached with PVA maybe ?
 
True Terry. PVA is not an option though as these stacked canopies need a bit of persuasion to fit over each other. As to requesting another part, it was my stupidity that caused the break and so I would not expect AM to replace it for free. If not free, I don't think it would be worth the cost.

The best replacement would actually be vac-formed parts.
 
OK so I tackled the busted canopy today and am reasonably happy with how it turned out, though it was nip and tuck at times. I had taken a picture of the attempted repair with Future but the picture was blurry and so I didn't bother posting it.

I started by drilling tightly spaced holes along the horizontal frame and then sawing along the curved frames. One of the curved frames didn't survive the sawing as the fracture had progressed through the frame. Fortunately, I was able to find the broken piece after a 5 minute search as it had pinged off to oblivion - almost. The below pic shows the result of the removal operation just after finishing and before cleaning everything up.



After cleanup, the next step was to reinstall the part in the stacked position as seen below. The broken frame was successfully reattached as well. Note that the fit is less than stellar as all these stacked parts, despite my efforts at thinning them along the bottom frames, push the assembly outwards. Given the fragility of these things, I didn't want to mess with it any more.



Finally, the pilot's canopy was installed on top of it all. The missing piece of glazing underneath is practically undetectable and so I consider this fix a success, though I wish the canopy parts fit together better. There's a small nick on the lower frame that I might try to fix with a dab of CA.



Things should move quickly now as I can go ahead with the decals without having to gloss coat anything. Back tomorrow.
 
Thanks gents. With that done, I finished the landing gear but for painting the tiny link between the door and the oleo, which I replaced with stretched sprue. Eduard PE placard can be seen on the front of the leg.



With the older kits in my stash, I'm always wary of the decal quality and so usually start on the bottom in case they disintegrate. They worked alright but didn't respond well to 3 splashes of Solvaset. In the end, I still had to run a scalpel through the recessed panel lines and apply more.



I'm glad the airplane is number "1" because, whereas pics confirm these to be present on the wings. the kit decals don't include them. I cut these to a scale 20 x 3 inches from the wing walk decals.



More decal fun to come.
 
Thanks friends. Glad you are all in agreement.

Well, things had been going more or less swimmingly on the decals.....



....until.....



...the stripes on the rudder decided to thumb their noses at orderly conduct. The one above on the port side broke into three pieces during the installation, split at some of the ribs, and then reacted badly to the setting solution, leaving wrinkles that are now set in the white band. The one on the other side, which I had installed first, only got a few splits on the ribs. I would have elected to painted these stripes instead if it hadn't been for the "SBD-1" stencil which is printed onto the stripes rather than being a separate decal. So now I'm going to need to do some repairs to the wrinkles and paint touch ups where the decals tore and flaked.

Undaunted (see what I did there?) I decided to not risk using the red band decal on the fuselage with the integral "2-MB-1" lettering below.



What I'll do is cut the numbers and letters away from the red band and use that part of the decal over a painted band. And so it was on to forming the mask for the red band using Tamiya bendy tape.



The red was then sprayed on but before spraying red, I always spray a base coat of white.



With the red painted on, I gloss coated the band before removing the masks and it turned out perfectly with no touch-ups needed:



There's a tiny bit of the white showing on the forward edge but it's hardly noticeable. I'll let this job cure overnight and then move on to placing the codes tomorrow. Thanks again for following along.
 

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