1/48 Monovell (A-24 Banshee conversion) SBD Dauntless

Looking good! Decided on markings yet?

Leaning heavily towards the New Zealand markings actually.

That is one of the great classic kits. My approach to it in a minute.

There are a nice series of Monogram kits from that era.

Besides the SBD, The OS2U Kingfish, a joy to build.

As for the Dauntless, I suggest you look at the various Monogram Mafia builds over the years.

Drill out the dive flaps, rather than spending the bucks on PE.

The new Midway movie and the Dauntless movie should be good.

Somewhere Shep is smiling.

Oh, I have drooled over many of the builds in the Monogram Mafia thread and I've been impressed with how this kit can turn out.

I've already begun drilling out the holes for the dive flaps. That's a no-brainer. I don't buy AM stuff these kits. Just scratch build it myself lol.

However, I will be looking up more reference material as I go, G. There is a lot of stuff missing form the pit, such as.... seats. Why are there no seats?! Pilots on pegs (facepalm) I can fix that.

Nice looking build so far. I agree with you, the Monogram kits are fun kits to build.

"Interior? We ain't got no interior. We don't need no interior. I'll scratch-build my stinkin' interior!" 

You, sir, are a steely-eyed modeling man!

Gary

IIRC the kit has Coral Sea markings- red dot in the star.

Lexington 2-S Squadron.

It's quite a story. In early 1942 on Lexington and the other carriers; fighters and torpedo bombers were each one squadron. Scout bombers were a third and bombers were a fourth. The SBD in other words was one squadron for attack bomber and one for torpedo attackand combat air patrol defence.

That quickly changed after Lexington was sunk at Coral Sea and Hornet came on line.

After Midway in June 1942, Yorktown was sunk, the TBD was out of the question as a bomber. Fighters became a full 50% of the air power on carriers. The SBD was then a scout bomber, the torpedo attack was with TBFs.

JohnnyK

Nice looking build so far. I agree with you, the Monogram kits are fun kits to build.

 

Yes indeed they are. So far my favorite it the P-40. Just hands down my all time favorite kit. I've built it so many times over the last 30 years. I've only got one to show for it anymore though.

I love how that build turned out.

GAF

"Interior? We ain't got no interior. We don't need no interior. I'll scratch-build my stinkin' interior!" 

You, sir, are a steely-eyed modeling man!

Gary

 

 

Lol thanks Gary. I sometimes get the scratch building bug. Makes the build take a lot longer, but it feels so much more rewarding when you know you did it all yourself. Especially if it actually looks good lmao!

GMorrison

IIRC the kit has Coral Sea markings- red dot in the star.

Lexington 2-S Squadron.

It's quite a story. In early 1942 on Lexington and the other carriers; fighters and torpedo bombers were each one squadron. Scout bombers were a third and bombers were a fourth. The SBD in other words was one squadron for attack bomber and one for torpedo attackand combat air patrol defence.

That quickly changed after Lexington was sunk at Coral Sea and Hornet came on line.

After Midway in June 1942, Yorktown was sunk, the TBD was out of the question as a bomber. Fighters became a full 50% of the air power on carriers. The SBD was then a scout bomber, the torpedo attack was with TBFs.

 

 

 

 

I'll double check, but I think this kit has the Operation Torch markings. Overall Neutral Grey with the oddly partial painted roundels and the missing red dots. 

I don't find that to be a very attractive scheme. The NZ markings are the Dark Blue/Medium Blue with Light Grey on the bottom.

Since I don't have any aircraft from NZ I'm leaning in that direction. 

M. Brindos

 

 

GAF

"Interior? We ain't got no interior. We don't need no interior. I'll scratch-build my stinkin' interior!" 

You, sir, are a steely-eyed modeling man!

Gary

 

 

 

 

 

Lol thanks Gary. I sometimes get the scratch building bug. Makes the build take a lot longer, but it feels so much more rewarding when you know you did it all yourself. Especially if it actually looks good lmao!

 

Scratch-building makes me feel like a "modeler" and not just an "assembler". 

In the meantime, I hope you post some WIP photos as I was looking at my own Revellogram SBD and thinking of breaking it out.  I finished up the Revellogram P-40 not long ago, and am working on a Hasegawa A6M2b Zero (both in Pearl Harbor markings), so I thought that a Midway SBD might be a good follow-up. 

Gary

Gary, I think it's your P-40 that is making me consider using the same Airfix markings on my Monovell P-40. The British markings are the only ones I've never used in that kit. Oddly enough, they are the most accurate markings in the kit. Only being off by one number on the tail.

I will be adding more pictures of the process as I go. I lengthened the cuts I made along the cowl to give it a false impression that the cowl is not connected in one piece. I deepened the vents on the sides of the fuse, and I added new exhaust pipes. That's all I got done today before work. I'll post pictures later as I didn't get any before leaving.

Thanks for following, gents!

The decals are a mixed bag.  For the Revell/Monogram, I'm not sure anything is entirely accurate.  The British code letters for the fuselage should be light grey, not white.  I think I noted that I was orginally going to do an early British P-40, but decided instead on the Pearl Harbor version once I got the Airfix kit.  However, there's something odd about the Airfix decals I should mention.  The tail numbers have the "15th PG", but the squadron number just above it is missing.  Perhaps they don't know what squadron "160" belonged to, but I find it odd.

Anyway, look forward to more updates!

Gary

Oh, my. Yeah the infamous Flying Tigers markings in the kit are a mixed bag of all three squadrons. 

Now that you mention it, the squadron number is missing. 

Updated progress pictures;

Now to get back to the office.

Here is the start of the new office. I've added knobs and levers. 

Of course this is just the start. I've got to let this glue cure overnight before I can shape these and add handles.

The fact that these kits could be put together easily and played with is why my allowance was often spent on Monogram plastic! 

Looking good, Mike!  I found that by rolling small pieces of clay or putty beteen your fingers you can make some passable knobs for the levers.  YMMV. 

PS> I found that Taylor and Welsh were from the 47th Pursuit Squadron, so the P-40s they flew were probably from that squadron.  However, I ran across this photo (see bottom of page):  https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/47th-pursuit-squadron/

Note that all of them say "18th" PG, including the "47" number.  Rather odd.  Perhaps a case of censorship (even though the photo was taken in August, 1941)?  Or perhaps those numbers don't actually refer to the squadron?

Mopar Madness

The fact that these kits could be put together easily and played with is why my allowance was often spent on Monogram plastic! 

 

Around here Monogram, Testors, and Revell were the only kits you could find in most stores. 

I didn't know about Tamiya, Hasagawa, Airfix, or even Matchbox kits til I was in Jr high lol.

GAF

Looking good, Mike!  I found that by rolling small pieces of clay or putty beteen your fingers you can make some passable knobs for the levers.  YMMV. 

 

PS> I found that Taylor and Welsh were from the 47th Pursuit Squadron, so the P-40s they flew were probably from that squadron.  However, I ran across this photo (see bottom of page):  https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/47th-pursuit-squadron/

Note that all of them say "18th" PG, including the "47" number.  Rather odd.  Perhaps a case of censorship (even though the photo was taken in August, 1941)?  Or perhaps those numbers don't actually refer to the squadron?

 

Thanks, Gary. I've got some Citadel paint that's on the thick side for making small knobs on levers. Citadel works great for that. 

Markings, before the reorganization that happened after Pearl, still don't make any clear sense to me. They are confusing.

Hoss WA

Looking great so far. Nice transformation with the extra detail work. Timing for this one is perfect with the Midway movie coming out soon. Looking forward to the next update.

 

Thanks, Hoss. I'm not aware of any Midway movie. 

JoJo Rabbit looks funny though.

The last issue of this kit came with markings for USS Wasp at Guadalcanal. 

You're doing great work dressing up the old girl. I have an older issue (“Ghost Squadron” boxing, VB-2 markings) of this same kit stalled out where I’ve been doing a dress up as well. Added lots of tidbits salvaged off an old scrapped TBD build to dress up the cockpit. Plus some scratch built alterations and mods here and there...

The new Midway movie comes out next month. There is a thread in the Ready Room forum here about the previews and such.

GAF

Looking good, Mike!  I found that by rolling small pieces of clay or putty beteen your fingers you can make some passable knobs for the levers.  YMMV. 

 

PS> I found that Taylor and Welsh were from the 47th Pursuit Squadron, so the P-40s they flew were probably from that squadron.  However, I ran across this photo (see bottom of page):  https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/47th-pursuit-squadron/

Note that all of them say "18th" PG, including the "47" number.  Rather odd.  Perhaps a case of censorship (even though the photo was taken in August, 1941)?  Or perhaps those numbers don't actually refer to the squadron?

 

That photo is of planes of the 44th Pursuit Squadron.  The 44th PS is but one of the squadrons of the 18th Pursuit Group.  There were two groups of P-40's on Oahu.  The other group was the 15th Pursuit Group which consisted of the 45th, 46th, and the 47th Pursuit Squadron.  Welch and Taylor were from the 47th PS.  The 18th PG used small black numbers on the tail showing plane-in-group numbers with each squadron being assigned a certain block of numbers.  For the 44th PS, this would seem to be 41 to maybe 60, as the the photo shows 41, 47, 51, 53.  For the 15th PG, it used large white three digit numbers on the fuselage with Welch and Taylor's being 155 and 160, it seems.  As extra info, 2nd Lt. Francis "Gabby" Gabreski was a member of the 45th PS at Wheeler.

Nice info, Rich! That's clears it up better for me. Thank you for sharing that!

Levers and knobs. I can't wait to see how it looks with paint!

I'm thinking about making this into the Army A-24 version. I've already started looking into the differences, but not finding much from the start.

Thoughts? Opinions?

You don't see too many of these variants modeled. I saw Hasagawa makes a kit, but markings are few and I've not seen any info on how they were assigned yet. I have enough extra decals to fake it though.

Basically the same as a -3 as the A-24 Banshee.  It deleted the carrier hook and had a tube rubber rear tire instead of the Navy hard rubber one.  The A-24A was the same as the -4, and the B was the same as the -5,  except for the afore mentioned items.  You could do a Louisiana Maneouvers 1941 USAAF one. 

Well dang, Rich, that makes it simple. Delete the tail hook and change the tail wheel. 

O.D. on top and Grey on bottom. As I said, I have enough spares decals to fake it.

I think I'm going to go for it. Thank you!

Just in case you're curious, this kit is something of a hybrid. The propellor is for a -4. The gunner station is a simplified -2, or early -3. Modification to a -5 takes a little more effort to the windscreen, cowl, and such.