bdefen
Senior Airman
Had acquired this kit last spring. A fairly simple model, and its assembly scheme differed from other makers I've assembled, like Tamiya, Hasegawa, etc. Namely, the radio aerial had to be installed before the fuselage halves were put together, and the landing gear struts had to be installed when the wings were assembled, before attaching them to the fuselage. The already-in-place aerial had the potential of being broken off or bent by Mr. Clumsy here during assembly, masking, painting, etc, and the early-installed landing gear struts made for some extra effort in the masking, painting, and re-painting steps. But, somehow I managed to keep the parts and my wits intact. Also, the engine part was not a separate unit, but was simply cast into the front cowling, and the propeller had to be installed before attaching the cowling. These differences made for rearranging my normal build steps and order, but it was enjoyable.
I painted the crew flat black, ala a museum mannequin staging. There was no way I'd be able to hand paint the figures in any reasonable, not-ridiculously-awful manner, so flat black, they became. Oh, and the action toy feature of the kit, the ability to drop the 500 lb bomb, was deleted and the bomb was glued in place. I can dance around my rec-room making engine sounds, model in hand, attacking the Japanese Imperial Fleet some other time with another kit. (I do that enough, as it is)
The decals included with the model had New Zealand insignia, and the USN marking, with roundels colored with that irregular blue outer edge shown on the model box. At first, I thought that was an attempt by Revell to emulate "weathering", and I didn't care for it. Turns out it's of some historical slant, as SBD's in some Pacific battles actually had their roundels enlarged by paint applied by ship/ground crews. Perhaps to remedy fading, or to make them more recognizable. Anyway I went with Midway battle decals from Starfighter.
Paint is from Vallejo's Air War Series, USN and USMC, 1940 -1945. This kit is an early SBD, and has the single .30 cal machine gun firing rearward. Probably not authentic to the Midway battle. Been back at modeling for three years, and it's still fun.
I painted the crew flat black, ala a museum mannequin staging. There was no way I'd be able to hand paint the figures in any reasonable, not-ridiculously-awful manner, so flat black, they became. Oh, and the action toy feature of the kit, the ability to drop the 500 lb bomb, was deleted and the bomb was glued in place. I can dance around my rec-room making engine sounds, model in hand, attacking the Japanese Imperial Fleet some other time with another kit. (I do that enough, as it is)
The decals included with the model had New Zealand insignia, and the USN marking, with roundels colored with that irregular blue outer edge shown on the model box. At first, I thought that was an attempt by Revell to emulate "weathering", and I didn't care for it. Turns out it's of some historical slant, as SBD's in some Pacific battles actually had their roundels enlarged by paint applied by ship/ground crews. Perhaps to remedy fading, or to make them more recognizable. Anyway I went with Midway battle decals from Starfighter.
Paint is from Vallejo's Air War Series, USN and USMC, 1940 -1945. This kit is an early SBD, and has the single .30 cal machine gun firing rearward. Probably not authentic to the Midway battle. Been back at modeling for three years, and it's still fun.
