Battle of the Coral Sea Group Build 4 May, 2017 - 8 May, 2018

I would say no shoulder harness, lap belts only. Shoulder harnesses were not added until later in the SBD production. I found this photo of a SBD at Midway dated November 1942, and no shoulder harness is visible.

A better shot from the same photo essay

Thanks Stik-based on the photos you posted, I have to agree with you.

Again, thanks

Your welcome Bob. Just an educated guess, but I would surmise that shoulder harnesses were added in the production line after feedback from pilots at war who had ditched and requested such an addition to reduce injuries. Midway saw numerous ditchings due to fuel exhaustion, certainly far more than had occurred in pre combat flight ops over a given period. 

If ya need a good reference on an early War SBD, look at the Naval Aviation Museum's SBD-2, a veteran of Pearl Harbor, the Lae Salamaua raid, and Midway.

here is here history per the museum:

 "Rolling off the Douglas Aircraft Company assembly line in El Segundo, California, in December 1940, SBD-2 Dauntless (BuNo 2106) was delivered to bombing squadron VB-2 at Naval Air Station (NAS) San Diego, California, on the last day of 1940. On 10 March 1942, flown by Lt(jg) Mark T. Whittier with AR2C Forest G. Stanley as his gunner, the aircraft joined 103 other planes from USS Lexington (CV-2) and USS Yorktown (CV-5) in a raid against Japanese shipping at Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea. It was then transferred to Marine scout bombing squadron VMSB-241 on Midway Atoll, arriving there with eighteen other SBD-2s on 26 May 1942, on board the aircraft transport USS Kitty Hawk (APV-1). On the morning of 4 June 1942, with 1st Lt Daniel Iverson as pilot and PF1c Wallace Reid as rear gunner, the aircraft was one of sixteen SBD-2s of VMSB-241 launched to attack Japanese aircraft carriers to the west of Midway. After unsuccessfully attacking the carrier Hiryu, enemy fire holed the plane 219 times. It was one of only eight SBD-2s of VMSB-241 to return from the attack against the Japanese fleet. Returned to the US, it was repaired and eventually assigned to the Carrier Qualification Training Unit (CQTU) at NAS Glenview, Illinois. On the morning of 11 June 1943 Marine 2nd Lt Donald A. Douglas Jr. ditched the aircraft in the waters of Lake Michigan during an errant approach to the training carrier USS Sable (IX-81). Recovered in 1994, the aircraft underwent extensive restoration at the museum before being placed on public display in 2001. Elements of its original paint scheme when delivered to the fleet are still visible on its wings and tail surfaces."

and a link to the museum's webpage which has a virtual tour of the rstored cockpit- superb reference 

http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/attractions/aircraft-exhibits/item/?item=sbd-2_dauntless

Thanks, stik!  A reference I put in "favorites."

I notice the center divebrakes were not painted red, something I'd read--but hadn't seen.

Got some time on the workbench this weekend.  All the subassemblies are done. I put a coat of white primer to check for imperfections and gave the flightdeck a base coat of mahogony.

I am looking forward to start painting the Measure 21 soon.

USS Lexington, CV-2.

I've had a good shot at modeling time this weekend. I glued the top and bottom hull halves together and worked the seam just a little.

I removed the stabilizer fins from the hull, which were a single crude blob on each side. I replaced them with styrene strip in about as accurate  a pattern as I could working from a single side view drawing, and some knowledge of the usual design of those things.

I've roughly masked and painted the anti-fouling, allowing for a little overlap at the waterline.

This is probably the biggest ship I've modeled, at 1/350 it's a monster.

That is a big 'un, GM.  Looks sharp with the hull red painted.  Nice work!

I had a good paint session this weekend.  I like how the colors turned out. I do have a question, there are photos showing a painted wave on the bow, was this actually on the ship?  And was it on at Coral Sea?

Nice work, Scott.  Coming along very well!

I'd have to look it up, to see when they were and weren't there--but the bow waves were gone by the time of Coral Sea.  

Photo of the Lex here doesn't show any.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/020202.jpg

One picture on Navsource dated 10/41 shows bow wave which would be M1/5. Next according to S and S she was M12, I would assume after 12/41. Then she was M21, from early April 42. Amazing to me that we would repaint a 900 foot long ship twice in six months.

That is looking really swell. I'll post some pictures, not quite that far along.

GMorrison

One picture on Navsource dated 10/41 shows bow wave which would be M1/5. Next according to S and S she was M12, I would assume after 12/41. Then she was M21, from early April 42. Amazing to me that we would repaint a 900 foot long ship twice in six months.

That is looking really swell. I'll post some pictures, not quite that far along.

Sorry to include the rest of my life in these pic's, but it takes up the whole room.

That is really big, GM--and looking good!  Nice paintwork!

Thanks for the replies about the bow wave, I realy did not want to try to paint that.

GM, its coming along really nice.  I envy you working on 1/350.

I got a lot done last night.  The hangers and flight deck are installed.  I spent some time assembling all the 28mm and 5" guns.  Those were pesky little buggers to build in 1/700. The Akagi flight deck makes a great staging platform for all those guns. 

To my knowledge, no one makes decals for painted bow waves, and I think it might be a little trying to do them up by hand some way.

Coming along nicely, Scott.  Are the 20mm's also multiple part assemblies?  I can see how that could be pretty fiddly.

checkmateking02

To my knowledge, no one makes decals for painted bow waves, and I think it might be a little trying to do them up by hand some way.

Coming along nicely, Scott.  Are the 20mm's also multiple part assemblies?  I can see how that could be pretty fiddly.

 

Yup, two part assemblies, and the barrell assembly seemed too wide to fit into the platform, so each one had to be trimmed, test fitted, trimmed some more, and glued.    

50 cals?

I know Enterprise had a mix of .50's, 1.1's and 20's for awhile before the .50's and 1.1's were replaced by more 20's and 40's after Midway and other refit/repair time during the Solomons.

Would stand to reason that Lady Lex would have pretty much the same fit.  And her 8 inchers were gone by then (removed in March at pearl).  According to Wiki, she mounted 12 5", 12 quad 1.1's, 22 20's, and at least 24 .50's at Coral Sea.

Thats right. Here's mine:

20's at the top, 5" at the bottom, 1.1's at the right and 50's across the middle.

At 1/350. Those things would kill me at 1/700.

I assume that the receivers and barrels on the smaller caliber stuff would be black, and the pedestals would be ship color. The 5"'s would be overall ship color.

This part of the ship is 5-O, with 20-B deck. Which color were the gun mounts?

You could make the argument that vertical surfaces would be 5-0 and horizontal surfaces would be 20-B in the tubs other than the 5's. The mounts for the 20's and 1.1's would probably be 5-0. The 5's were in the sponsons, so would assume they would be 5-0 overall.  Just a guess on my part on all of the above.

Generall agreement there.

OOPs I just realized something. Colors listed are for CV-8, not CV-2. I'm building both at once, my mistake.

For CV-2 it's blue on blue.

I swear, I'll end up gluing the deck of one on the other...

GMorrison

Generall agreement there.

 

OOPs I just realized something. Colors listed are for CV-8, not CV-2. I'm building both at once, my mistake.

For CV-2 it's blue on blue.

I swear, I'll end up gluing the deck of one on the other...

 

Doh!

Don't forget to swap islands if you do.....