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1/48 Accurate Miniatures SBD-3 Dauntless (FINISHED)...

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  • Member since
    March 2012
  • From: Corpus Christi, Tx
Posted by mustang1989 on Monday, June 30, 2014 11:05 PM

Hang in there Joe bud.

                   

 Forum | Modelers Social Club Forum (proboards.com) 

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Monday, June 30, 2014 11:41 PM

Dude, that sucks.

  • Member since
    February 2012
  • From: Olmsted Township, Ohio
Posted by lawdog114 on Monday, June 30, 2014 11:56 PM

I just fired an email to Model Rectifier Corporation (aka Academy) in the hopes they sent me the part.  I'll advise on how their Customer Service is...

Joe

 "Can you fly this plane and land it?...Surely you can't be serious....I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    November 2008
  • From: Central Florida
Posted by plasticjunkie on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 6:42 AM

Dog

I hope that you have better luck than me with Academy. I called their Edison NJ office several times and spoke to a gal named Ronny who though very polite, gave me the run around about my replacement part, a warped tank barrel. After months of waiting I finally gave up and fixed the part by carefully applying heat to counter the warp. Can't you slice off a section of the part to make things fit and maybe re scribe lines if needed?

 GIFMaker.org_jy_Ayj_O

 

 

Too many models to build, not enough time in a lifetime!!

  • Member since
    February 2012
  • From: Olmsted Township, Ohio
Posted by lawdog114 on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 7:33 AM

PJ....not encouraging. I'm hoping that by email I will have better results.  Yes I might do surgery, but I would rather try to get the part first.  

Joe  

 "Can you fly this plane and land it?...Surely you can't be serious....I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    November 2008
  • From: Central Florida
Posted by plasticjunkie on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 9:46 AM

I hope your email gets to the right person. Please let us know what happens and good luck. It sucks when you are on a roll and hit a brick wall like this.

 GIFMaker.org_jy_Ayj_O

 

 

Too many models to build, not enough time in a lifetime!!

  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Piscataway, NJ!
Posted by wing_nut on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 4:04 PM

That sucks the big ratatouille.  And I was getting all exited about watching this one come together.

Marc  

  • Member since
    June 2014
Posted by BrandonK on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 5:22 PM

  Ok, I have that exact kit. I just got it based on your current build here. So, WE gotta fix this. My kit was sealed and all the sprues were still in sealed bags for AM. I took these shots to give you reference to size based on what was in my "Midway SBD-2" to see if your kit is mixed up.

On the bench:

A lot !! And I mean A LOT!!

2024 Kits on deck / in process / completed   

                         14 / 5 / 2  

                              Tongue Tied

  • Member since
    June 2014
Posted by BrandonK on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 5:48 PM

 Here is the AM -2 sprue.

The two pieces DO appear to be different lengths.

And the AM -5 sprue.

On the bench:

A lot !! And I mean A LOT!!

2024 Kits on deck / in process / completed   

                         14 / 5 / 2  

                              Tongue Tied

cml
  • Member since
    March 2007
  • From: Brisbane, Australia
Posted by cml on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 5:57 PM

Ah Joe, that's a real PITA!!!

I've been enjoying watching this build, as i also have this kit in my stash.

Thank you for pointing out the error though, i'll have to make a note and put it in my kit so when the time comes, i'll know it's not my poor modelling skills leading to the error.

It's a shame there is so much detail on the gun deck, otherwise surgery might have been a viable option.

Hopefully you receive a decent response from Academy, if you do, they'll be receiving an email from me.

Chris

  • Member since
    February 2012
  • From: Olmsted Township, Ohio
Posted by lawdog114 on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 6:32 PM

Thanks guys for the condolences (LOL).  So far nothing from MRC.  Bvallot is going to bail me out and mold me a new one when his Dash 2 arrives.  It looks like I wont have to shelve this one afterall, just temporarily postpone it for a bit.  Perhaps I'll start work on the engine, flaps, landing gears and such in the meantime.  

Brandon, thanks for taking the time to investigate further.  From everything I read, Its this kit boxing (below), which is a special edition SBD-3 VB-3, version that has the issues.  Their SBD2 Midway offering should be fine.  Unfortunately the Dash 3 happens to be the one I'm building.  Apparently not all of them had issues either, so I guess I'm one of the lucky ones (sarcasm).  Somehow a gun deck for the Dash 5, which as you showed was longer, had ended up in the kit. 

Chris, I agree, there is just too much nice detail on the deck to start chopping it up.  I'd rather replace it.

Joe 

 "Can you fly this plane and land it?...Surely you can't be serious....I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    November 2003
  • From: Nashville, TN area
Posted by bobbaily on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 7:20 PM

Joe-this may shed some light on your issue

www.internetmodeler.com/.../am_sbd3dauntless.php

I purchased my -3 Midway before AM went out of business and they sent me the correct parts-hopefully Academy will do the same.

I will be following your build-excellent build in progress

Bob

 

  • Member since
    February 2012
  • From: Olmsted Township, Ohio
Posted by lawdog114 on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 7:26 PM

Thanks Bob...yep, thats one of the articles I read about it....and thank you for following..

Joe  

 "Can you fly this plane and land it?...Surely you can't be serious....I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    May 2013
  • From: Indiana, USA
Posted by Greg on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 10:42 AM

Geez, and I was as excited watching this build as you were building it, Joe.

Hope it gets sorted out. And you're still the king of the cockpit IMO.

BTW, your step by step on using 'The Detailer' washes showed me a step I was missing, thanks Joe!!!

  • Member since
    February 2011
  • From: Bent River, IA
Posted by Reasoned on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 10:57 AM

Uh-oh, sorry to hear your problems Joe but I have the AM SBD-3.  I'd better check the sprue and see if it has the problem.

Science is the pursiut of knowledge, faith is the pursuit of wisdom.  Peace be with you.

On the Tarmac: 1/48 Revell P-38

In the Hanger: A bunch of kits

  • Member since
    February 2003
Posted by Jim Barton on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 3:01 PM

Beautiful work on the cockpit; the next time I build a plane, I'll have to try the flat black pre-shading technique. Too bad the goof-up put the kibosh on the whole project!Sad We do have the Fourth of July coming; perhaps you could blow it up--or would that be a waste of a perfectly good firecracker?Smile

"Whaddya mean 'Who's flying the plane?!' Nobody's flying the plane!"

  • Member since
    February 2012
  • From: Olmsted Township, Ohio
Posted by lawdog114 on Sunday, July 6, 2014 3:39 AM

Your very welcome and thanks for the kind words all.  I decided not to give up on this one and I shall forge ahead.  I suppose I should call this one the "Tutorial Dauntless", because here I go again with a bright idea.  Today I'm going to take you step-by step through improving the Accurate Miniatures example of the Wright Cyclone powerplant.   The other night I sat there staring at the Cyclone dryfitted together and it just looked funny to me.  Then I realized the piece that represents the pushrod and ignition harness was the problem.  Although it was a valiant effort by AM to recreate this area, it's was just way over scale and the wires looked like snakes on the engine.  Unfortunately the wires are molded on top of the rods which complicated things.  I decided I just had to hack the "wires and rods" off and replace them with styrene rod and fine wire.  Here we go.....  

There was a little "nub" and I hacked them just above it (See photo)...

Here we are with them all hacked.

I then added the "ring" to the cylinder piece.  The rods I hacked off made this piece sit properly on the cylinder heads, so now we had to build the new push rods.  I used .10 styrene rod and sliced it to the proper lengths.  Tweezers and Tenax took care of the rest.  This takes no tme at all because Tenax is like super glue when attaching bare styrene to bare styrene and it grabs immediately.   (Note: To avoid confusion, I keep my Tenax in the Tamiya bottle because I love their applicator).

Here's how it turned out.  Much better than the kit version yeah? (I did leave the bottom wire detail because I liked how it looked). 

Its now time to start painting, so I primed that turkey with Alclad Grey.

I then sprayed everything Alclad Duraluminum.  For some reason thats my initial go-to shade for everything.  No particular reason really.  As you can see, I left the reduction box housing in grey primer.  It will stay that color since these were gray.  I'm all about efficiency.   

It was time to start the brush painting.  I broke out the XF-1 Flat Black and 91% Isoprophyl then painted the push rods black. 

Then it was time for the fun part.....adding the ignition wires.  All you need is fine wire, superglue and tweezers.  I use copper wire ripped from an old stereo cord so I dont have to paint it.  Most pictures I've seen show these as being a copper colored...short cut?..laziness?..you decide.  Its then a matter of cutting them the right length and manipulating it with your fingers and the tweezers.  I keep super glue on a jar lid and dip the wire into it (both ends).  Its then attached by one end to the ignition point and the other to the cylinder.  It then stars to go pretty quick  as you work your way around.   

This took about an hour or so.  The Cyclone is easy because there is only one row of cylinders to wire up.  Here you can see where I painted the bottom wires (that I decided not to hack off) Copper. I then sealed everything with with Testor's gloss to prepare for the wash. 

My old standard.   The Detailer wash (Black/Brown mix).........wonderful stuff.  I just let it work its magic...

Once I remove the excess and I'm happy with the appearance, I gets a Testor's Dull Coat which I cut with Lacquer thinner.

I could stop here, but I don't.  I hit the face of the engine with a blast of Tamiya Smoke X-19 to give it that used dirty look.  Done......

 

Next I'll build the landing gears an such.  The Eduard canopy masks came the other day so perhaps I'll knock those out as well.

..............and still nothing from MRC.  I'm not impressed..... 

Joe   

 

 "Can you fly this plane and land it?...Surely you can't be serious....I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"

 

 

 

 

cml
  • Member since
    March 2007
  • From: Brisbane, Australia
Posted by cml on Sunday, July 6, 2014 4:37 AM

IndifferentWow

That is some great scratching! I can't wait for the next update.

Keep it coming LD!

Chris

  • Member since
    June 2013
Posted by bvallot on Sunday, July 6, 2014 10:41 AM

This is funny. =] I had planned on doing the same thing here.  When I looked ahead to the parts review I peaked specifically at the engine and dive flaps.  I thought about replacing both, but when looking at that engine a little longer I figured I could just tweak it and cut off the rods and wiring setup.  Your's are looking great!!  I have to admit...I never really question myself about what I can and can't do as it applies to scratching and whatnot, but recently I've found my patience tested as I've upscaled the level of detailing for the P-40 I've got working.  I'm at the point where I'm sticking so much sh!t on this engine block that some parts are breaking off as they are precariously "in the way."  It was actually only now as I'm typing this that it occurred to me to make some kind of jig to prop it up so that I'll have two hands to maneuver around the build.  I guess I'm just a hard-headed man and slow to change.  =]

Would you have any other suggestions when it comes scratchbuilding paraphernalia?  If you've ever noticed in my photos, I'm pretty unrefined in terms of a "setup" or lazy susan, etc.  I've settled for simple and what works, but I recognize that I could improve my work-area.

On the bench:  

Tamiya F4U-1  Kenneth Walsh

 

  • Member since
    February 2011
  • From: Bent River, IA
Posted by Reasoned on Monday, July 7, 2014 10:09 PM

An engine even a mechanic could love.

Science is the pursiut of knowledge, faith is the pursuit of wisdom.  Peace be with you.

On the Tarmac: 1/48 Revell P-38

In the Hanger: A bunch of kits

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
Posted by Fly-n-hi on Monday, July 7, 2014 11:09 PM

Fantastic engine!  I'm definitely going to try to replicate your techniques on whatever my WWII build ends up being.

  • Member since
    March 2004
  • From: Kincheloe Michigan
Posted by Mikeym_us on Tuesday, July 8, 2014 4:15 PM
Joe is it possible that the -5 sprue accidentally got switched with the -3 sprue. Basically someone not paying attention in the packaging line.

On the workbench: Dragon 1/350 scale Ticonderoga class USS BunkerHill 1/720 scale Italeri USS Harry S. Truman 1/72 scale Encore Yak-6

The 71st Tactical Fighter Squadron the only Squadron to get an Air to Air kill and an Air to Ground kill in the same week with only a F-15   http://photobucket.com/albums/v332/Mikeym_us/

  • Member since
    May 2013
  • From: Indiana, USA
Posted by Greg on Tuesday, July 8, 2014 5:01 PM

Wow, I'm loving this....

Great work. You always make it look so easy, Joe.

  • Member since
    March 2012
  • From: Corpus Christi, Tx
Posted by mustang1989 on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 3:22 AM

Reasoned

An engine even a mechanic could love.

As a matter of fact I do! lol

                   

 Forum | Modelers Social Club Forum (proboards.com) 

  • Member since
    November 2008
  • From: Central Florida
Posted by plasticjunkie on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 6:45 PM

dog

Looks much better than the molded details, just a superb surgery job on the engine. I also use Tenax  but in a Touch n Flow applicator that gives me superior accuracy with the gluing. Plast I Weld works the same too.

I also save parts and wiring from discarded electronic components for detail work. You never know when that stuff will come in handy.

 GIFMaker.org_jy_Ayj_O

 

 

Too many models to build, not enough time in a lifetime!!

  • Member since
    February 2012
  • From: Olmsted Township, Ohio
Posted by lawdog114 on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 8:11 PM

Mikeym_us
Joe is it possible that the -5 sprue accidentally got switched with the -3 sprue. Basically someone not paying attention in the packaging line.

Thank you all for the kind comments.

I originally thought the same, but the lower part of the fuselage that this deck piece sits on is the correct length (see 1/8th inch gap earlier in the thread).  These all came on the same sprue (see Brandon's pic's) so its throws out that theory.  It's sort of a head scratcher.  From what I read, it was quality a control screw up. Who knows...

I did finally hear back from MRC via email.   Their Customer Service wants the Bar code number.  To me this is pointless, since I'll likely receive the same wrong piece.  I was also told it would take 2-3 months before I receive the part from Accurate Miniatures.  What?  I thought they closed up?  Did they just join forces with Academy or suddenly go back in business?  I'm confused.  Any thoughts?  How about they just give me the part from their reboxed Dash-2 so I could get on with this build.  Too easy I guess..Bang Head

I decided I'm going shelve this guy and switch to my Stuka B-2 for Bish's Stuka Group build. 

Joe

 "Can you fly this plane and land it?...Surely you can't be serious....I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    March 2004
  • From: Kincheloe Michigan
Posted by Mikeym_us on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 10:18 PM
I believe it is possible that Accurate miniatures is supplying Academy with the kits to rebox under their label like what Italeri is doing with the TBM Avenger kits. Remember the molds were not sold so Accurate Miniatures is still in control of them. In fact all of Academy's 1/48 B-25's are accurate miniatures kits.
lawdog114

Mikeym_us
Joe is it possible that the -5 sprue accidentally got switched with the -3 sprue. Basically someone not paying attention in the packaging line.

Thank you all for the kind comments.

I originally thought the same, but the lower part of the fuselage that this deck piece sits on is the correct length (see 1/8th inch gap earlier in the thread).  These all came on the same sprue (see Brandon's pic's) so its throws out that theory.  It's sort of a head scratcher.  From what I read, it was quality a control screw up. Who knows...

I did finally hear back from MRC via email.   Their Customer Service wants the Bar code number.  To me this is pointless, since I'll likely receive the same wrong piece.  I was also told it would take 2-3 months before I receive the part from Accurate Miniatures.  What?  I thought they closed up?  Did they just join forces with Academy or suddenly go back in business?  I'm confused.  Any thoughts?  How about they just give me the part from their reboxed Dash-2 so I could get on with this build.  Too easy I guess..Bang Head

I decided I'm going shelve this guy and switch to my Stuka B-2 for Bish's Stuka Group build. 

Joe

On the workbench: Dragon 1/350 scale Ticonderoga class USS BunkerHill 1/720 scale Italeri USS Harry S. Truman 1/72 scale Encore Yak-6

The 71st Tactical Fighter Squadron the only Squadron to get an Air to Air kill and an Air to Ground kill in the same week with only a F-15   http://photobucket.com/albums/v332/Mikeym_us/

  • Member since
    February 2012
  • From: Olmsted Township, Ohio
Posted by lawdog114 on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 10:25 PM

Thanks Mike.  That would certainly explain alot.  Perhaps Accurate Miniatures will come back on their own someday......sounds like there is hope.  

Joe

 "Can you fly this plane and land it?...Surely you can't be serious....I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    June 2013
Posted by bvallot on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 11:21 PM

Hang in there Joe! =]

On the bench:  

Tamiya F4U-1  Kenneth Walsh

 

  • Member since
    February 2011
  • From: Bent River, IA
Posted by Reasoned on Thursday, July 10, 2014 3:42 PM
Hey Joe, did your kit have anything like this in it? image

Science is the pursiut of knowledge, faith is the pursuit of wisdom.  Peace be with you.

On the Tarmac: 1/48 Revell P-38

In the Hanger: A bunch of kits

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